MOST of us have high aspirations when it comes to buying a new car but the deciding factor nearly always comes down to price.

Sometimes if you're canny, however, you can get the type of vehicle you want at a price you can afford by cutting back on luxuries or power.

The Land Rover Discovery Sport is a good example. Be satisfied with the lowest powered version at 150bhp and you can buy one for £31,575 compared to the highest spec, 240bhp model at more than £46,000.

Okay so you're getting front rather than all-wheel-drive, five rather than seven seats and a manual rather than automatic gearbox but when it comes to image you are still driving one of the sharpest looking Land Rovers around.

And the bonus is this version is the most fuel efficient Discovery Sport model with average economy of more than 46 miles per gallon and CO2 emissions of just 140g/km making it ideal for both business private buyer.

The model driven here - the 150bhp Discovery Sport S - is one step up from the entry level Standard model but is still only just over £34,000.

The Discovery Sport was given a makeover late last year with the addition of features like new signature LED headlamps and LED rear lamps as well as an updated grille and more stylish bumpers for a sharper look.

Inside there are more comfortable leather seats - electrically adjustable - which are both heated and cooled to give you the best of all worlds in winter and summer - and there's also the added luxury of a heated steering wheel.

And one other nice feature on the Discovery Sport is the option to show the view from the rear camera in the interior mirror when you have three passengers on the back seat blocking the mirror's normal view. Clever stuff.

The same camera projects a rear view image onto the dashboard touch screen for reversing.

What you see is what you get with the Discovery Sport. It looks like a tough, macho go-anywhere family vehicle and it is.

Get behind the wheel and there is a real feeling of solidity to it in the nicest possible way. At the same time it's quiet, refined and comfortable with generous leg room for all on board with rear seat legroom definitely putting the company‘s Evoque in the shade.

And while on paper the 0-62 miles per hour acceleration time of 11.1 seconds might sound a bit lacklustre in reality it's certainly not a car that ever feels sluggish thanks to its abundance of torque.

And the power is delivered in such a refined manner that it's a car which is very easy to warm to.

The manual gearbox is super smooth and from inside the cabin there's a calm serenity thanks to excellent sound proofing.

There's plenty of feedback from the steering and even though this spec doesn't have four-wheel-drive there is still plenty of road grip with very little body roll despite the vehicle's height and high ground clearance.

And like all Discovery Sport models there's generous luggage space with 1,574 litres available with the rear seatbacks folded down.