Land Rover Freelander 2 2011 review

THE accidental environmentalist has taken a bit of a fall, says Land Rover, as new SUV buyers start putting their families first. That, says Jaguar Land Rover Asia-Pacific managing director David Blackhall, plays right into his company’s hands.

In launching the new baby Land Rover - the Freelander - today, Blackhall says it’s a greener world “but in the luxury SUV sector, we are scrambling for product’’.

“We could have sold several hundred more Range Rovers last year,’’ he laments.

All this augers well to a push to re-establish the forgotten Land Rover, the Freelander 2. The chiseled four-door wagon, built on a similar platform to the Volvo XC60, has been almost invisible on the Australian market.

A lot of that is to do with the more noisier competitors and the Freelander’s seemingly expensive price. It never really rated in terms of performance - though the Volvo-sourced 3.2-litre in-line petrol six is keen - with its diesels appearing too weak to satisfy power hungry, leisure-oriented buyers.

This week, part of that changed. The good news is the expansion of the Freelander model line-up to seven from five, more powerful diesels and pricing from $44,990 (TD4).

Value

Not cheap though the Freelander range now falls into line with Volvo and BMW X3, with it not meeting the value-for-money offerings of the Koreans and some Japanese.

The entry level $44,990 TD4 is a manual-gearbox 110kW diesel (the smaller of two oiler engines) with a high level of safety but with a simple exterior and some high-end convenience fittings missing from the cabin.

However, better value is in the TD4 (110kW diesel) at $55,310 that gets heaps of cabin features, big alloy wheels, top-class leather and a six-speed sequential automatic transmission.

The 140kW diesel is available in two trim levels but will cost $1500 for the extra 30kW (the two engines share 420Nm of torque) and - basically - isn’t worth it.

Land Rover says its petrol versions are $49,990 for the XS and $55,310 for the SE. There’s also a heavyweight “premium luxury package” that takes the diesel’s price to a heady $72,740 and adds 19-inch alloys, sunroofs, better leather and a factory integrated sat-nav that - remarkably - isn’t as effective as the Garmin unit that is installed in lesser models by local importers.

The Garmin also allows some Bluetooth connectivity - the only way to get the hands-free system to work in Freelander - because it’s not standard.

Design

The same shape that has been around for yonks continues. There is, however, some new features - grille, bumpers, headlights and tail lights - but it’s hard to spot the new model.

In saying that, it’s an excellent design and escapes the general mid-size SUV trend of creating a bulbous - and heavy - body atop the platform.

The Freelander looks lithe and purposeful and works exactly like that. There’s a lot of typical Land (and Range) Rover cues such as the bold dash switchgear, imposing door inserts that create an elbow-magnet ledge, bold door handles and chunky seats.

It’s not a big cabin but will seat four adults in plenty of comfort. The boot is reasonable - through the hatch opening is a tad narrow - and there’s a full-size spare wheel under the cargo floor.

Driving

This was subjected to a day on and off the road and is considered a brief test. However, the glimpse showed the Freelander to be a very good thing.

The trick for potential buyers who enjoy driving is to keep it simple. I drove the diesel range and was more impressed with the TD (base) model with the less-powerful 110kW engine and the automatic box than the $65,854 SD4 HSE.

The cheaper model was more nimble, shared the HSE’s constant 4WD but felt lighter through the corners and so felt more confident, was very comfortable and - at cruising - very quiet and always responsive.

It was, however, noisy at idle. I also rate the steering highly and wile this is not the ideal vehicle to hurry through the Southern Highlands in NSW, it was actually enjoyable.

It also handled the rough fire trails that wound through the hills and the relatively low 210mm ground clearance was never tested.