I came at the Discovery Sport via a 2013 Discovery which I'd bought used in 2016 and a Freelander bought new in 2012.

I had no intention of changing my Discovery but wife, who had a 10 reg. Freelander needed to change it and so we went to 'our' dealer.

She bought a 2015 Discovery Sport HSE Luxury and, after about a month, I began to see the sense of my down-sizing.

I intended to buy a mid range SE TECH model. I got the HSE Luxury because a) a cancelled order car was available at a very good price and b) I wanted what my wife had.

I have not regretted buying this car for a second and still enjoy driving it.

How Landrover have succeeded in producing a chassis which can go pretty-much anywhere yet ride like some of the best cars I've ever been in really impresses me.

Around town the ride is quiet but, just a little jiggly on the pot-holed roads around where I live but having never liked a Citronesque wallowing ride I have no complaints. At the cruise from 40 to 70 mph and, (probably) beyond it is just a nice place to be. The steering is perfectly weighted, staying on course in strong crosswinds is no problem.

The gearbox changes up and down seamlessly in D and only slightly less so when pressing on in S mode.

For a car of its size the handling is fine, it's no Mazda MX5 but rapid enough progress over country lanes can be achieved with a feeling of security. The brakes are progressive, efficient and fade free whilst I've never pushed it into over steer or under steer. On a wet roundabout tackled with a little to much enthusiasm a slight sensation of over steer shows itself but in a split second the electronics sort it without drama.

The cabin is light and airy or snug and warm, depending on where you set the blind for full length glass roof. With the two rearmost seats taking up space, the place that you'd normally find under the floor for storing items not needed on a regular basis is restricted. There also seems to be far less useable cubby holes about the car. This may be a consequence of the very roomy interior using every inch of elbow and leg room.

The seats are now comfy. I say 'now' because, for the first month or so, whilst I was able to get a perfect driving position in my wife's car, in mine I was constantly fidgetting. I put this down to the seat being very firm and not broken in. I was right, it's now fine.

Heating, ventilation and climate control is all good. both the heating and air-con are unobtrusive but very efficient. I've had heated seats before but the cooling seats in this thing are the best thing ever!

Overall fuel economy has been about what I expect, I run in ECO mode most of the time where the performance is adequate and, at the moment doing mostly short runs, I'm averaging 33 mpg.

About the only issue I have worthy of a separate note is the hesitancy for the car to gather up its skirts and run when pulling onto a roundabout or out of a junction. The effect can be very disconcerting. It isn't just in ECO mode, even in S mode you bury your foot and wait as the HGV bears down on you, praying for the torque to kick in. Bot sure whether it's gearbox latency or turbo lag but it does mean missed opportunities at busy roundabouts.

So, overall, as I said at the start, I just love this car and am happy to put up with a couple of issues on the basis that the perfect car for everyone hasn't yet been made and this is as near perfect asI've ever owned.