Compare the2024 Land Rover Discovery SportVS 2024 Porsche Cayenne

Both the Discovery Sport and Cayenne have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The Discovery Sport has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The Cayenne’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.

The Discovery Sport’s driver alert monitor detects an inattentive driver then sounds a warning and suggests a break. According to the NHTSA, drivers who fall asleep cause about 100,000 crashes and 1500 deaths a year. The Cayenne doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.

Both the Discovery Sport and the Cayenne have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras and rear cross-path warning.

On the EPA test cycle the Discovery Sport gets better mileage than the Cayenne running its gasoline engine:

A nine-speed automatic is standard on the Land Rover Discovery Sport, for better acceleration and lower engine speed on the highway. Only an eight-speed automatic is available for the Cayenne.

In an emergency stopping situation, many drivers don’t press the brakes with enough force to stop the vehicle in the shortest distance. The Discovery Sport has a standard Emergency Brake Assist to detect emergency braking situations (by how hard and how quickly the brake pedal is pressed) and then automatically apply maximum braking immediately in order to help prevent a collision. The Cayenne doesn’t offer a brake assist feature.

The Discovery Sport has a standard full size spare (not available on 7-Passenger) so a flat doesn’t interrupt your trip. A full size spare isn’t available on the Cayenne; it requires you to depend on a temporary spare, which has mileage and speed limitations, or roadside assistance and a tow-truck.

For better maneuverability, the Discovery Sport’s turning circle is 1 foot tighter than the Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid’s (38.7 feet vs. 39.7 feet). The Discovery Sport’s turning circle is 1.3 feet tighter than the Cayenne’s (38.7 feet vs. 40 feet).

For greater off-road capability the Discovery Sport has a greater minimum ground clearance than the Cayenne E-Hybrid (8.3 vs. 8.1 inches), allowing the Discovery Sport to travel over rougher terrain without being stopped or damaged.

The Land Rover Discovery Sport may be more efficient, handle and accelerate better because it weighs about 550 to 1400 pounds less than the Porsche Cayenne.

The Discovery Sport is 1 foot, 1 inches shorter than the Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid, making the Discovery Sport easier to handle, maneuver and park in tight spaces.

The Discovery Sport offers optional seating for 7 passengers; the Cayenne can only carry 5.

The Discovery Sport’s cargo area is larger than the Cayenne’s in almost every dimension:

A control in the cargo area automatically lowers the Discovery Sport with 5+2 Seating’s second row seats, to make changing between passengers and cargo easier. The Cayenne doesn’t offer automatic folding seats.

The Discovery Sport has a higher standard payload capacity than the Cayenne (1515 vs. 1424 lbs.).

The Discovery Sport has a higher maximum payload capacity than the Cayenne (1670 vs. 1601 lbs.).

The Discovery Sport has a standard remote vehicle starting system, so the vehicle can be started from inside the driver's house. This allows the driver to comfortably warm up the engine before going out to the vehicle. The climate system will also automatically heat or cool the interior. The Cayenne doesn’t offer a remote starting system.

To improve rear visibility by keeping the rear window clear, the Discovery Sport has a standard rear fixed intermittent wiper with a full on position. The rear wiper standard on the Cayenne only has an intermittent setting, so in a hard rain visibility isn’t as good.

The Discovery Sport has a standard heated steering wheel to take the chill out of steering on extremely cold winter days before the vehicle heater warms up. A heated steering wheel costs extra on the Cayenne.

Insurance will cost less for the Discovery Sport owner. The Complete Car Cost Guide estimates that insurance for the Discovery Sport will cost $2530 to $13330 less than the Cayenne over a five-year period.

IntelliChoice estimates that five-year ownership costs (depreciation, financing, insurance, fuel, fees, repairs and maintenance) for the Land Rover Discovery Sport will be $20180 to $98599 less than for the Porsche Cayenne.