IT HAS long looked like an apartment block on wheels, but designers of the Land Rover Discovery have for its fifth-generation taken to its once-proudly boxy design like a wrecking ball to a tower.

A plethora of premium large SUV models have hit the market not only since the Discovery nameplate appeared three decades ago, but even since the Discovery 3 launched in 2004 and the evolutionary Discovery 4 followed by 2009. The Discovery 5 has now joined rivals with softer styling expected to appease buyers who would never accept the ‘three box’ older models.

A square design delivered benchmark interior space and practicality with the last large Land Rover and, with a price topping out beneath $100,000 before on-roads, happened to be more affordable than this new model. The flagship Discovery 5 TD6 First Edition tested here tops out at over $130,000 plus on-road costs, and that was before further options were fitted.

So the question is, does a more rounded-looking Land Rover Discovery 5 in fact make for a better all-round premium large SUV? Or has it instead lost its uniquely practical and pragmatic flavour?