Land Rover took a gamble by introducing the Freelander a few years ago. But that gamble is paying off as a steady fleet of Freelanders keep leaving showroom floors and ending up at excited buyers’ garages. One could say the Freelander is the most complete car in its class. Landy has just updated it and made it even better.
The biggest news emanates from under the bonnet where major changes have taken place. A new turbo diesel motor was installed and shows promise of delivering on both economy and performance, as our drive in KwaZulu Natal hinted. A major trait of the new engine was its refinement, both on smooth roads and on rougher surfaces.
It is a 2.2-litre 4-cylinder common-rail turbo diesel with two different power output levels. The cheaper TD4 version is a direct injection motor that produces 110kW and maximum torque of 420Nm, which is significantly higher than its rivals. The higher-power SD4 features the same engine but puts out 140kW. Peak torque is the same. A new updated 6-speed manual gearbox developed with Getrag is fitted to the TD4. I drove the 6-speed automatic as experienced by the SD4. It works alongside a stop/start system which is said to help improve fuel consumption by about 10.1%. Claimed average figures are 6.6 litres per 100km and 7 litres per 100km on both TD4 and SD4 models respectively.
While the performance figures look good on paper, on the road one needs to know where the sweet spots are in order to harness them, as these cars are primarily made to haul and save fuel at the same time, not for dicing robot-to-robot against hot hatches.
Landy’s renowned Terrain Response system is of course standard with the new Freelander. That’s part of the reason I said this is the most complete car in its class. Terrain Response allows the driver to select a specific driving mode to suit a particular surface or road condition. So if you are traveling through mud you just twist the knob and select the right programme. No need to know how AWD or low-range gears work.
In terms of looks, the Freelander has a new exterior courtesy of a different front grille and front bumper. The car is now more in line with recent changes to the Discovery 4. New alloy wheels and colour options are also available, including three called Kosrae Green, Baltic Blue and Fuji White.
The interior has also been running with the brush of newness, receiving new instrumentation, seat styles and new fascia finishing which puts it up higher in the premium segment and increases interior comfort.
SUVs are clearly a big segment in the market and the smaller versions are beginning to show signs of good sales growth too. One reason is that SUV prices are just too high and so customers are essentially buying down from bigger siblings to the smaller, cheaper models of the same brands.
Land Rover knows this and is putting a lot of resources into making the Freelander work even better. These changes and improvements should really help.
Updated 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 Pricing
110kW TD4 (R384 995)
140kW SD4 (R489 995)
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