Whilst waiting for 25 minutes for someone to unlock the showroom model i was interested in (Velar), Had a swan about in the new Disco. sat in the back seat and was appalled!! It was like sitting on a gym bench at school. NO way would I entertain putting a family member in there for a long journey!! Interestingly even the sport was better!

And it appears that our lord JC (Mr Clarkson to you other mere mortals !) agrees - see his review in today's Sunday times Driving section. (oh, and why don't they have readers' letters in there any more? There are some interesting points made in the past!) Rant over!

I read that article earlier too.

I remember his original review on the D3 when it first came out and he was very complimentary about it at the time, even if he wasn’t up to being to being able to fold the rear seats at the time. He also referred to “waiting patiently”, while the Land Rover technician explained why it had a unibody and a chassis and still not understanding why they’d done it that way; him not understanding, I can believe - him giving the techie a fair chance to explain it, I can’t.

As a keen Disco 4 owner I was so sad to see the hash that was made of the ‘5 and JC’s made a lot of valid points about it. I saw a grey one in a car park yesterday and while the side and rear were still stunningly ugly, I was surprised to see it suddenly looking very dated too. I strongly believe that fashion shouldn’t be relevant to good design, particularly when it’s a Land Rover, but this was neither good design, nor recognisably a Land Rover. It’s dated phenomenally quickly, in just the same way that any Korean SUV might; it is in dire need of an early, ground up, replacement.