Test Drive Land Rover Discovery LR4 since 2009 SUV
Duel Sir LR Discovery IV and Herra VW Background Touareg
From the side it looks like a test of two of our favorite SUVs. However, it will be about janitor and merchants of weapons ... The battle of the giants of the SUV market so can be called this test. Giants are not in size, because there are SUVs much longer and bulky, but for passability, charisma and modern technologies. The fight of the British and Germans can be said historically natural, genetically programmed. And this is not the first fight of long-standing global antagonists on the pages of our magazine. One of the battles took place last year between Range Rover and Mercedes GL in the snow-covered groves near Moscow. Then the German soldier dismissed shamefully by the British artist. Almost all articles. What will happen today?
I immediately made a bet on the victory of Land Rover Discovery. Remembering how he dealt with Lexus GX in one of the recent comparative tests. I could not believe that after that he would give way to some semicrurch, the more German. So I got behind the Discovery steering wheel with a good mood and prepared to get pleasure from the trip. Meanwhile, VW Touareg saddled Ivan Evdokimov, and we decided to meet in a couple of days to compare the first impressions and start off-road tests.
Lack of pairs of strokes. Raise the screen to speedometer and pull up climate control
Climate, navigation and multimedia in LR Discovery enjoy harder and not so comfortable as in VW Touareg
Kill the janitor
For two days, nothing terrible happened to Discovery, except that I practically hated the English automotive industry. Because of the janitor. It cleaned all the windshield, except for one strip, mockeryly located opposite the eye of the driver. If you have never tried to drive with such a review at night at least in twilty kilometers, you will never understand me. By the way, I immediately took into account and decided this annoying story did not mention. But then changed his mind. Because when the test has already ended and passed several days, Ivan Evdokimov asked me: did you do anything with the janitor? I replied: Yes, everything is possible! Soap, warmed, ter, beat and twist !!! Ivan is not a simple journalist, he is a technical expert. He told me his story. Ivan removed the janitor, took home, completely defused and smeared the whole design. In vain. Then he rearranged the left and right wipers in places. Helped. With a sense of accomplishment, he lay down, and in the morning I saw the strip again before my eyes. Ivan surrendered.
Land Rover Discovery has rear seats like a burner in a good theater hall, and VW Touareg is just a convenient and spacious second row and the other is infallible
This greatly affects safety, maybe even more than bad handling, but let's get closer to the case, I began to have a permanent full drive, but the conversation turned completely to the other side, namely to climate, multimedia and navigation. I was also surprised at how impossible these options work in Discovery, but I decided: what's the difference, we test SUVs. In vain, Ivan returned me to reality. Touareg heats up quickly, do not even notice. Search for radio stations easier. Navigation is much more convenient. I again wanted to force our expert to talk about the work of the suspension, the course stability and brakes, but stopped. In the Discovery climate turns around with the masses of cold air with great difficulty, and the control of the options is limited, and therefore Touareg is safer, more comfortable, more convenient. If someone says that these are little things, let it make a couple of tens of kilometers hook past a goal in a cold cabin with frozen glasses and a hidden overview for screaming radio stations.
Discovery trunk is more convenient. It is larger in volume and above, and the loading height is lower. But it was achieved by the British not the best way to the center of gravity of the car raised, and the spare wheel was placed under the bottom
I put up
The off-road native element for both rivals. True, they have absolutely different designs. The Touareg carrying the body, and the four-wheel drive is implemented using a multi-disc clutch. Discovery frame SUV with constant full-wheel drive. Usually I always protect frame cars. I like how they behave at rough terrain. Nice, gently, without sudden jolts and vibrations on the body. And I traditionally praised a permanent four-wheel drive, because the capricious, unreliable and slow multidiscory clutches of modern crossovers are not suitable anywhere. But this time my ideas about a good SUV strongly shaken. The authors of Touareg worked so well over the smoothness of the course and the energy intensity that it was not scary to drive on Buaechi. The ill-fated coupling of the plug-in full drive also behaved exemplary. Even more she washed a traditional differential.
This time, none of the test participants gone. However, all the exercises Touareg performed much easier and with some kind of jewelry accuracy. In the passability of Discovery, no one doubted, but she was heavier to him hard and socially compared to Touareg. The same on the asphalt. The German was dynamically closed by the serpentine of the junction, the JURKO was rebuilt in the stream and easily went into the separation on a straight line. Elegantly slowed down in front of an unexpected obstacle. Elegantly parked. The Englishman in each maneuver inserted his me. Always let's understand that this is not just a turn, braking, acceleration does sir Discovery, do not forget! Touareg as a transparent glass of the right shape, and Discovery is like color stained glass, and even in the form of a cunning polyhedron. Touareg as a person in principle does not exist. Discovery bathes in its ego. If you love things with character, then take English SUV. German style for those who love the limit accuracy of the execution of orders, and no discard.
Caution, technical details
VW Touareg A contemporary car with high ground clearance, which can be manipulated in a rather wide range by changing the ratio of the stroke / pen-suspension ratio. Maximum clearance is impressive 300 mm. The articulation of the suspension is not as large, but with a more compensated by the electronic anti-slip system, as well as the locks of the inter-axis and rear intercole differentials. The suspension also has the adjustment of the stiffness of three degrees. In the sport position, you can safely play the Dakar on country roads the energy intensity of the suspension allows. Body carrying, but it has a huge stiffness for twist 24,800 nm /. As practice shows, no carrying body is able to painlessly endure long-term operation on off-road, but the cars of this class for regular hard work are usually not calculated.
Land Rover Discovery IV Frame SUV, equipped with an independent pneumatic suspension with a variable clearance constituting in the maximum position 310 mm. Transmission with electronically selectable Terrain Response modes is a very good thing, especially on the homeland of these machines. Hard locks could seriously increase the off-road potential of this heavy SUV, but the British were waited by Disco IV. What brings to the bad suspicions of traditional even for the first and second series of disco weaknesses that are not able to digest high torque. The suspension does not allow you to quickly ride uneven surfaces. Otherwise, the car demonstrates vertical splits and clips to the complete breakdown of the suspension. If you are able to move slowly, then you are guaranteed comfort. But by the volume of the Salon, the Englishman beats the German on all articles. And for the convenience of the cabin too.
As the razor said
Both vehicles are equipped with similar motors of three-liter diesel engines with almost the same power. However, Touareg accelerates to one hundred for two seconds faster. The eight-speed German box creates wonders. In addition, Discovery is too fat full of three hundred kilograms more. Boris Razor, or Boris Khrin Fake (a character from the film Big Kush), playing a heavy cannon, loved to peak: Weight is reliability. And he is right! People wishing to tow the yachts and jumping on ruts from the Urals, are unlikely to advise Touareg, but Discovery, although with some stretch, you can.
Author: Dmitry Leontyev, photos of Alexander Insurance Baranova
A source: 4x4 magazine [April / 2011]
