Five-door Freelander

1:46pm Friday 8th August 2008

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LAND Rover rivals keep on coming but still nothing can touch the Gaydon company in terms of brand culture and customer loyalty.

Land Rover vehicles are Britain’s best with the motoring icon celebrating 60 years of production and continuing to deliver what the customer wants.

It offers a great drive, with the long-travel independent suspension and stiff body structure not only giving excellent ride comfort but managing to deliver agile handling.

Roy Lewis

The new five-door Freelander, for instance, leads the new breed of compact 4x4s designed to be as good to drive on-road as they are off.

And it is years ahead of some rivals with its car-like monocoque body and all independent suspension with full-time intelligent 4x4 system helping to optimise traction and fuel economy. The Freelander is a big seller in Britain and abroad with 95% of its sales being diesel.

Prices are not cheap, ranging from £21,205 to £35,520, but the Freelander has had a major revamp. It gets more handsome and chiselled lines which make for a sporty stance, better build quality, and up-to-the-minute refinement and sophistication.

It’s bigger with more interior space and a superior dash and other features, borrowed from its bigger brother, the Discovery, to give the Freelander a classy and more upmarket look.

It offers a great drive, with the long-travel independent suspension and stiff body structure not only giving excellent ride comfort but managing to deliver agile handling.

The choice of engines is limited to a Volvo-sourced 3.2-litre straight six unit with a whopping 230bhp and 233lb ft of torque and refined 2.2 litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel unit developing 158bhp which seems ideally suited for the vehicle.

A six-speed manual gearbox is fitted as standard while a six-speed automatic transmission is available and also used on the petrol version. It’s a very smooth automatic with well-spaced changes.

With fuel prices continuing to soar, the diesel should continue to be the choice of most buyers. It has plenty of power and driven sensibly easily returns 40mpg during everyday use.

The Freelander now benefits from Land Rover’s acclaimed driving control system first fitted to the Discovery. While some manufacturers install a low-ratio gearbox to aid off-road traction, Land Rover has created its own terrain response system for easier off-road driving. It can be used across a range of different surfaces through the electronic management systems and tractions aids.

It’s operated simply by turning a rotary control next to the gear lever to select the choice of drive for mud, grass, gravel, snow or sand, and it’s like having an off-road expert sitting besides you.

With today’s road congestion many buyers are attracted to the compactness of the Freelander. The cabin is roomy with ample if not generous space in the rear. The boot is noticeably bigger than that of the old model and is versatile with a 60:40 split rear seat and a reversible load floor.

The high and comfortable seating gives everyone a commanding view with the driver enjoying a seat with a six-way adjustment, plus optional electric control and seat memory. Safety standards are top notch, too, with seven airbags, a stability control system, electronic brake force distribution and corner brake control to help maintain real-end stability.

The vehicle also excels in adult passenger safety, having been awarded the top five-star rating in Euro NCAP crash tests.

The Freelander is packed with new technology to improve on-road and off-road performance and many features are new to the class, including a keyless starting button, bi-xenon headlamps, adaptive front lighting, rain-sensing wipers and parking distance control front and rear.

You’ll like the two-part panoramic sunroof as it increases the cabin’s airiness while air-conditioning comes as standard on all models.