We own a 2019 Discovery 5, approved used (because you would be utterly mental not to have a warranty). It's the HSE SD6 with the 3.0l Diesel. It had 54,000 miles on it when we bought it last year and it's now just ticked over 62000 miles, which is a combination of short-ish distance miles and long distance trips around the country. I had them service everything on the car before I agreed to buy it and refused to trust the service history even though it had a decent recorded history - I wanted as much peace of mind as I could. I really wanted the new version of the D5 but had nowhere near the budget and I refuse to pay that sort of money on a car, so we had to compromise.
It's been back at JLR once since we've had it for minor 'niggles' to be resolved - a couple of cabin rattles that were driving me nuts and a knocking noise from what sounded like underneath the car - it was actually some trim in the boot that had broken clips. There was also an issue with a slightly mis-aligned tailgate causing some trim to rub (common issue this one). All sorted with no quibbles. It's booked in again to be sorted under warranty in a few weeks time as our bonnet won't open unless you get someone to apply pressure on the left-hand side of it. Another common issue, the bonnet release cable on this generation can stretch or deteriorate over time.
Things we generally like about it:
- We live in rural Wales and it gets some occasional offroad use, its definitely the most capable off-roader we've ever had. It is a true 'go anywhere' car. Except tight parking spaces of course.
- Tons of space. For long family trips it's great. With 5 seats in place the boot is massive. Lots of cubby spaces to store things. It's a really good family car as well as a workhorse car.
- Chews up motorway miles like they're nothing. The most comfortable car that I've had to cover long distance.
- The driving position. Not much rivals it if you like a high-up view of the road.
- The engine gives solid enough performance for something that weighs 2 tons.
- Dual pano roof brightens the cabin.
- Blind spot assist is really useful and works well. Worth having on something like this.
- Auto park function is useful and actually works. Not ashamed to admit I've used it to parallel park the thing into a fairly tight space once or twice. And to get it back out again.
Thing we don't like about it:
- Fuel economy. Even on an easy motorway journey you won't break 40mpg, and that's with the diesel. The petrol is going to be worse.
- The infotainment system. It is absolutely terrible. Ours has Carplay which is the only saving grace, but you will absolutely get infotainment gremlins. Things like it very occasionally just not displaying anything when you start the car (needs you to turn the car off, get out, double lock it, wait a few minutes, get back in, magically all comes back to life). The digital drivers display always works though, and isn't affected. You'll also get issues like Carplay audio sounding terrible - needs the audio source flicking to radio and back to Carplay again. All of this is with the very latest software version of every module in the car installed. It's easily the most frustrating part of the car. The infotainment in the new model (Pivi Pro) is a world better.
- Lack of 360 cameras. You need the HSE Lux for this on this generation of D5. We don't have it and it would definitely come in handy occasionally. The rear view camera is alright, that's when the infotainment screen is working of course.
- Gesture tailgate function is crap, and you'll find that your tailgate will decide to open itself if you walk closely to the car in a way that it doesn't like (and never open with the gesture when you want it to). I'm considering pulling the fuse out for it.
So, overall, despite it's quirks, I do like the car. I wouldn't own one without a warranty, and will be buying the extended warranty when this one is up. Insurance for us hasn't been too bad, added to a multi-car policy for a few hundred quid. We'll see what it costs come renewal time. The infotainment is the thing that winds me up the most about it, you can live with it but I guarantee it will annoy you.
Would I buy another one? Yes, probably, but only the newer version with the Pivi Pro infotainment system and the new hybrid engines which so far are proving to be less problematic than previous generations (and they are more economical, I had the new version D5 while ours was in getting the niggles sorted under warranty and its both more refined as well as more economical).
Should you buy one? I'd say that if you can't stretch to the new version with the new engines and infotainment, then no. You might be better off with something like an XC90 - which I'd have bought instead (the T8 plug-in hybrid), but Volvo screwed us by lying about the condition of one we went across the country to collect and my wife refused to ever walk into a Volvo dealership again after that. If you don't need the 7 seats, strongly consider an estate instead. The Skoda Superb 4x4 280 estate would be my choice, but I'm sure your wife won't want that (neither did mine).
