• Not particularly economical
• Diesel best suited to motorways
• Up-front servicing plans available

What are the running costs?

This is a large, heavy and powerful SUV and isn’t particularly economical. Officially on the WLTP fuel consumption score, the D350 will do 33.5-33.8mpg, and we reckon that those figures are nearly achievable with gentle driving, although in real-life it’s probably more like 31-32mpg.

Servicing and warranty

Land Rover offers a number of service plans, which are designed for cost-effective maintenance of new and approved-used vehicles up to 10 years old with fixed up-front payments. You can make a one-off payment or spread the cost with monthly payments. Service plans are transferable between owners as long as the schedule is adhered to via Land Rover dealers.

The Defender comes with Land Rover’s standard three-year/60,000-mile warranty. This is the same as the Audi Q7, while the BMW X7 comes with an unlimited mileage warranty.

Reliability

• Discovery reliability is not a strong point
• Owners complain about tech
• Feels well screwed together though

The Land Rover Discovery’s reliability doesn’t have a stellar reputation. Land Rover’s build quality has improved in recent years, but it lags behind the best Japanese opposition, and is on a par with the more complex Germans.

The company has some way to go in customer satisfaction surveys and it didn’t trouble our most reliable cars list. The car has been subject to several recalls and while our owners’ reviews are mainly positive, several people complain about the reliability of the technology.