Land Rover get serious with new Freelander

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.

They say they’ve retained many styling cues from the older version. Maybe they have, but it is the new cues that come direct from the ethos of the two larger siblings that really set this one off in style terms.

The grille, rear lights, the whole stance of Freelander 2 shouts out loud that it is today’s and - for some time to come - tomorrow’s car.

It looks a lot bigger, but isn’t much so in length, a mere 50cms. The body-coloured bumpers ease off from any sense of intimidation, but, at the same time, it is all the way a purposeful-looking beast.
At the back, where there are clear elements of Range Rover Sport, the moving of the spare wheel from the back door has also made it a nicer vehicle. That also allowed the designers to switch from a side-hung door to a hatch.

Inside, anyone familiar with the Discovery 3 interior will feel right at home. Almost all Land Rover dashboards now have a commonality of design and usability (the Defender will get the treatment in March, rounding off the full range). The style is strong, the materials and finish to high quality standards. If I have a crib, it is that - in all the cars - the figures on the speedometer are too small. This is more than a complaint of ageing eyes, the graphics actually are out of proportion with the rest of the dashboard design.
It’s a small thing. So too is an improvement, but the small things make for big improvements; a tall person no longer has to worry about bashing his head off the A pillar on climbing into the car.

The driving position is also better: the old car’s seat was too high, and for said tall person the eyes were too close to the top edge of the screen.
A new familiar is the Terrain Response knob, smaller than that in the Discovery and Range Rovers, and without a ‘Rocks’ position, because Freelander 2 doesn’t come with a liftable suspension.
Small crib here, too: the graphics and their lighting around the control are a little small and dim; but the positioning is repeated on the instruments panel, so you should quickly get used to it.

All occupants of Freelander 2 get much more space than before, noticeable especially in the back seats. And luggage space for their bits and bobs has increased by more than a third.
The powertrains are all new. From a marketing point of view, the absence of 2.0-litre or less petrol unit may present its own difficulty in Ireland, but that is part of the new position of Freelander 2. Entry to the range is now with a 160hp 2.2-litre diesel, originated in the extraordinarily successful Ford-PSA partnership, and the first application of it. If you want petrol, you get an all-new 233hp 3.2-litre straight six, which is quite one of the sweetest engines I’ve driven this year.

In truth, petrol sales of this new Freelander will likely be quite small here. No matter, the diesel is top of current technology, and a real smooth and powerful performer.
None of these larger engines mean a sacrifice in economy. The diesel runs a 7.5 L/100km average on road, a really respectable economy, and with an amazing 400 Nm of torque, it motors the car along in a very easy manner. Indeed, I should mention how even the power band works, with no untoward surges evident. The petrol engine, though much larger than the old BMW 2.6-litre V6 it replaces (very few of those were sold here either) is ten per cent more frugal.

Lacking a low-ratio set of gears for off-road, the new Freelander isn’t designed for extreme conditions, but that doesn’t stop it going to places that are still very much off-road. It was always a nameplate the punched a bit above its weight in these terms, but the new one will likely go where no Freelander has gone before.
The Terrain Response helps. So also does the Hill Descent system that was pioneered on the predecessor car. I drove Freelander 2 on rocky and gravelly tracks, through some nasty water, and in to mud that it easily took me out of. Colleagues who have driven it on beach sand are also impressed.
I also drove the diesel version on a couple of long trips, and it proved to be a really fine touring machine. ‘Son of Range Rover Sport’ would be very much an apt suggestion. Ride and overall handling is to the level of a luxury estate than a typical offroader.
In several respects, Freelander has been taken out of its traditional competitor leagues. If it was originally aimed at the excellent RAV4 brigade, now it is clearly targeted towards the BMW X3 customer.

Whether this will mean closing out some of the model’s traditional customers is yet to be seen. Certainly there should be no overall drop in sales, because what might be lost at one end will certainly be compensated for in gains at the other.
The fact that, like the RAV4 also, there will be no three-door version of the new model, is a tacit acknowledgment that the future is with the more serious users of SUVs. The ones who want a true workhorse instead of a ride-about-town machine.

And there’s also the fact that, like the Freelander itself, its former faithful will have grown up too. Now they have something worth their new social and demographic status.
Whatever, it is odds-on that Land Rover have yet another pedigree winner in their stable.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 1:35 pm and is filed under Land Rover. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.