Land Rover Defender vs Land Rover Discovery

Over seven decades in the car business, Land Rover has shifted from making utilitarian vehicles prized by farmers, explorers, and soldiers to making luxury vehicles prized by wealthy suburbanites. The 2022 Land Rover Defender aims to bridge the gap between Land Rover’s past and present.

As other Land Rover models got more luxurious, the original Defender carried on as a rugged, basic off-roader. While Land Rover stopped selling the old school Defender in the United States during the 1990s, it remained in production for other markets until 2016. By that time, Land Rover was already planning a clean-sheet redesign that brought the Defender back to the U.S. for the 2020 model year.

The new Land Rover Defender contrasts the automaker’s other models, like the Discovery and Range Rover, with an emphasis on ruggedness. It’s still bigger and cushier than the original Defender, but less fancy than its sibling models. And like the original Defender, the new model is available in two-door 90 and four-door 110 body styles. A three-row, eight-seat Defender 130 body style is also on the way for the 2023 model year.

Meanwhile, changes for the 2022 model year include a new optional 11.4-inch touchscreen, standard wireless phone charging, and an expansion of trim levels. The Defender 90 gets new X-Dynamic SE and X-Dynamic HSE trims, and a new V8 powertrain option debuts for both the 90 and Defender 110 in both standard and high-end Carpathian Edition models. Shared with other Jaguar Land Rover products, the supercharged 5.0-liter V8 provides a serious boost in performance. We sampled it in a Defender 90 for this review.

The Discovery is one of Land Rover’s most iconic nameplates, right up there with the Range Rover and Defender. When it launched in 1989, the Discovery accelerated Land Rover’s transition (started by the Range Rover) from a purveyor of Spartan work vehicles to the luxury brand it is today. The Discovery has evolved with the Land Rover brand, getting more luxurious and more tech-savvy over the years.

Representing the nameplate’s fifth generation, the 2021 Land Rover Discovery is the family SUV of the Land Rover lineup. Not to be confused with the smaller Land Rover Discovery Sport, the seven-seat Discovery competes against luxury family haulers like the Audi Q7, BMW X5, Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class, and Volvo XC90. Unlike its Continental European competition, though, the Discovery also boasts serious off-road capability.

The current-generation Discovery dates back to the 2017 model year, but it gets a few notable updates for the 2021, including new engines, refreshed exterior styling, redesigned second-row seats, and a new infotainment system. Land Rover offers the 2021 Discovery in base S, R-Dynamic S, and R-Dynamic HSE trim levels; we tested out a mid-level R-Dynamic S for this review.