On the face of it, there doesn’t seem to have been much change for the Discovery Sport as Land Rover designers and engineers preformed a mid-life nip-and-tuck. But, as we all know, looks can be deceptive and that’s especially so in this case. In fact, as ‘refreshes’ go, this is about as extensive as one can get – new Disco Sport really is very new and very refreshed.

At the heart of the upgrade is the fact that this version of the Sport is based on LR’s Premium Transverse Architecture (PTA), which was first used to develop the second-gen Range Rover Evoque. The upshot of this platform change is that the Sport features mild-hybrid EV powertrains from launch and later this year a plug-in hybrid derivative will also be offered.

The PTA underpinnings also allow for a stiffer body – by 13% – better versatility and far greater refinement, the latter coming partly from rigidly mounted subframes that reduce noise and vibration into the cabin.

Having spent two full days with the new Disco Sport in and around the gorgeous, scene-setting Yorkshire Dales region of England, it’s easy to see what impact these engineering changes have had on Land Rover’s best-seller. As compact SUVs go, it’s dynamic, capable and responsive – probably the industry benchmark now, in fact. Our Sport was the D180 AWD SE, which has an Ingenium 2.0 diesel under the bonnet, pushing exactly the power one needs – 180ps at 4,000rpm and 430Nm torque from 1,500rpm to 3,000rpm. Making things all the smoother is an updated 9-speed ZF transmission that also brings in a further 2% fuel economy improvement.

And while diesel has been unjustly demonized by some governments, pressure groups and consumers of late, JLR’s Ingenium family is up there with the very best of them – four-pots from BMW, VW Group, Daimler and Volvo. Not only is it capable in a performance sense, it’s quiet and refined. During our Yorkshire Dales lark, we easily averaged mid-late 30s-mpg. Emissions are rated at 150g/km CO₂.

But as impressive as new Disco Sport is on-road, off-road it takes things to a whole new level. Let there be no doubt that in this class, Sport is the benchmark when it comes to taking on challenging terrain, deep waters and unnatural angles, slopes and climbs for a thing with four wheels. This new-found capability comes from the fact that Disco Sport is all-wheel drive and, just as importantly, it gets Land Rover’s Terrain Response 2 technology with four hugely impressive modes – comfort, sand, grass-gravel-snow, and mud and ruts. There’s also Hill Descent Control, All-Terrain Progress Control and ClearSight Ground View, which effectively provides a virtual 180° view beneath the front wheels when tackling uneven terrain.

Another impressive result of these huge mid-life engineering changes to New Discovery Sport is that it’s one of the first Land Rovers to offer a Real Driving Emissions Stage 2 certified engine, ahead of the legislation becoming mandatory later this year.

And all that advanced engineering comes with a state-of-the-art interior and premium cabin that incorporates a practical 5+2 seating layout.

Designed, developed and engineered in Europe – a project that started off at Kia’s development center in Frankfurt, Germany, and ends at its manufacturing plant in Zilina, Slovakia – the ProCeed is a lovely-looking tourer that takes the form of a five-door shooting brake bodystyle.

This might be a niche direction for Kia, but it’s an important one. The mainstream Ceed Sportwagon champions practically, but ProCeed, which is 5mm longer but around 5mm lower, is its cooler, hipper younger brother, honing in on couples and young families that want wagon versatility with stylish design. And as has been already mentioned right at the start of the piece, ProCeed has fetching proportions and is a fine-looking thing on the road so that’s the design box ticked. It also boasts 594 liters of luggage capacity, so there’s the functionality needs met too.

Created on the same K2 platform as other Ceed models, ProCeed actually only shares the bonnet and front wings with the Ceed five-door hatchback. The GT version was engineered under the direction of developed guru Albert Biermann, Hyundai-Kia’s R&D head, and in fact six months of additional testing was worked into the program further enhance the car’s cornering agility and yaw behavior. And those 24 weeks paid off: the ProCeed GT is a really nice drive, responsive and agile for a shooting brake, making the most of the stiffer front and rear spring and increased body control to improve steering inputs. Softer front and rear anti-roll bars help keep its wheels gripping the road, even during ‘harsher’ cornering.

The ProCeed line-up features three engines: a new 1.4 Kappa T-GDi and a 1.6 CRDi. But it was the 1.6 T-GDi engine in the ProCeed GT that ETi sampled and charmed editor in chief Dean Slavnich. With lovely, almost subtle pops and bangs, the four-cylinder 1,591cc does its shooting brake job really well, adding to the ride qualities of the GT and serving 203ps at 6,000rpm and 265Nm torque from 1,500rpm to 4,500rpm. ProCeed GT also benefits of the introduction of Kia’s first 7-speed DCT, another string to a fine shooting brake bow.

The problem when you create something so good in the automotive world is that one day – four, five perhaps even six years down the line – you’ll need to replace that good thing with something even better. It’s the engineering challenge that comes with setting the benchmark. And this was exactly the headache Ford engineers faced as the previous-generation Fiesta ST’s product cycle was ending and an all-new hot hatch was needed to fight off the competition.

As the new ST rolled into ETi Towers parking lot, the entire team couldn’t help but get excited at the prospect of sitting behind the wheel of Ford’s newest racer. Who doesn’t love the ST200 from the previous family? Would the third-gen ST even come close to this? And what if – a big if, granted – Ford has messed this up?

It takes all of 20 minutes, or so, and an open road for such concerns to vanish, because the new ST is a little firecracker that serves up total hot hatch realness. It might be more sophisticated than the previous ST – there’s an optional Quaife LSD to be had, and perhaps more grown-up too, but it hasn’t lost any of its underlining blistering character.

It might have lost a cylinder between generations, but the new ST’s 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine is core to everything that’s good about this hot hatch. Providing 200ps at 6,000rpm and 290Nm of torque from 1,600 to 4,000rpm means there’s plenty of performance to be had, but perhaps just as importantly, even more grinning from behind the wheel as the tires grip a tight corner and the exhaust pops and then pops again. This car makes you giggle like the teenage kid you once were.

A bit on the EcoBoost engine: it’s really, really good. Along with BMW’s 1.5 IC base, it’s possibly the best example yet of a performance three-cylinder development. Much of that comes down to the fact that Ford chucked a load of advanced technologies at the powertrain, including a new turbocharger that uses an optimized turbine design to build boost pressure faster and minimize lag for a more responsive driving experience; high-pressure fuel injection (a combination of port fuel and direct fuel injection); and twin-independent variable cam timing.

And you know earlier when we said the new ST lost a cylinder? Well in certain circumstances it has lost two, because the 1.5 engine features cylinder deactivation technology to make sure fuel efficiency isn’t sacrificed among all this hooting performance.

Mission accomplished by the clever Ford engineers then, because the new Fiesta ST is the must-have hot hatch in this class, just like the outgoing one was for so long.

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