By Brian Byrne

Although made quite visible at the National Ploughing Championships, where it excited a lot of interest, it is only recently that copies of the new Land Rover Freelander have been appearing in showrooms across the country. The key to a really successful sales launch for this car will be getting potential customers into them.

The original Freelander, though the best-selling model in the brand, had rather been left behind by developments further up the manufacturer’s models range, Discover 3 and Range Rover Sport.

Not any more, it isn’t. The new one is set to leapfrog its way into becoming a benchmark in its own right in the compact SUV segment.

Austin Powers would find a lot to like about the newest member of the Land Rover family. It is a Mini Me model that looks like a Range Rover left for too long in the tumble drier.

Yet the all-new Freelander II is moving on up for 2007, from its styling to a focus on on-road performance and even a cockpit that is far more like a luxury car than a workhorse Land Rover. It is bigger in every direction — longer, wider, taller — and the pay-off is a cabin that is much more roomy as well as providing more luggage space.

According to Planet 4×4 magazine, the Land Rover Discovery 3, Range Rover and Range Rover Sport are the best performing off-roaders. The Range Rover TDV8, Discovery 3 TDV6 and Range Rover Sport Supercharged claimed all three top spots respectively while taking the top prize in six of the 14 categories. These included Best Off-Roader for the TDV8 Range Rover, Large Off-Roader for the TDV6 Discovery 3, Large SUV for the Range Rover Sport Supercharged and Manufacturer Of 2006.

Land Rover is enjoying success in the new car market as well, with sales figures for November showing that the Discovery 3’s sales are up nearly 5% on November 2005, and that sales of the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport in the first 11 months of the year were 12% and 66% ahead of the same period last year.

Range Rover has raised the luxury stakes another notch with the introduction of its Range Rover TDV8, so badged because it introduces a brand-new, diesel V8 that makes this model the most powerful diesel Range Rover yet.

The engine displaces a modest, by modern standards, 3.6-litres but it generates 200kW (54 percent more than the previous TD6) and a huge 640Nm of torque – 400Nm of it at a little over idle – and that gives this big wagon a pulverising amount of off-road performance and tractability.

The new engine is a beauty that burbles more like a petrol V8 and drives through a new six-speed ZF auto gearbox with manual/sequential sport mode.