2016 Land Rover Discovery Sport HSE Lux - Checkup Time
Our Handsome Land Rover Brings a Handsome Service Bill
Our Corris Grey 2016 Land Rover Discovery Sport continues to rack up the miles - over 13,000 of them, to be exact - and continues to look good doing it. There may be more extravagantly styled small SUVs on the market, but the Discovery Sport's level-headed blend of form and function in its exterior design are commendable.
Creative director Darren Scott, a man with an eye for good design, went so far to call the Disco, "The best-looking SUV in Los Angeles. Its appearance of strength infects the owner and is lusted after by those on the sidewalk. Styling separates this vehicle on the street from all competitors."
Recently, we took the little Landie in for its first check-up at the dealer. On the schedule for the first regularly scheduled service visit were an oil, filter, and drain plug change, cabin pollen filter change, general fluid top-up, and inspection. We also had a few niggles that we asked the service department to look into while the Discovery was there. The LR's transmission has always behaved sluggishly, as has the navigation display screen, which also periodically crashes; a previous system update didn't cure all of the infotainment system's ills. Additionally, a small panel that hides the washer fluid reservoir near the right-side headlight had come loose and fallen off, so we had that remedied as well.
That last item was a simple enough affair, with the panel being ordered, color matched and installed all under warranty. So far, so good. But during the Disco's inspection, techs discovered that both left-side tires were wearing unevenly on their edges, calling for a $175 four-wheel alignment at the dealership's suggestion. Fair enough, we had recently subjected the Land Rover to some off-roading so it's entirely possible we threw the alignment out of spec.
Unfortunately, there were no answers for our long-standing display and transmission issues. The dealer suggested that a $195 fuel injection system cleaning would clear up our sluggish acceleration, but that sounded more like clever up-selling than a real solution to us. We passed on the cleaning and were also told that there were no updates to be found for the transmission logic. Ditto for our slow-acting (and oft-crashing) display screen. Bummer.
All said and done, our service visit dinged our AmEx card for $493.07 including the aforementioned alignment. We took it as a reminder that premium vehicles come with premium service costs. Of course, none of this has kept our staff out of the driver's seat. Shortly after the service was performed, the Disco was off on another road trip to Arizona. More on that in our next update.
