Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4_e 2009 Review

Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4_e

Road Test

Price Guide (recommended price before statutory and delivery charges): $45,490
Options fitted to test car (not included in above price): Style pack $2990 (19-inch wheels, tailgate spoiler, facia finishes in cabin)
Crash rating: Five-star (Euro NCAP)
Fuel: Diesel
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 6.7
CO2 emissions (g/km): 179
Also consider: Nissan X-TRAIL, Suzuki Grand Vitara

Overall rating: 3.5/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 4.5/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 3.5/5.0
Safety: 4.0/5.0
Behind the wheel: 4.0/5.0
X-factor: 3.5/5.0

About our ratings

Built at Jaguar Land Rover's most modern and awarded plant, the Freelander 2 is a pleasant surprise to drivers not exposed to the iconic British brand's recent offerings.

The once cast-iron Land Rover image has been hurt by quality and reliability issues over the last decade or so. More recently widely-reported changes in ownership have not played well with some consumers. But, and it's an important but, the Freelander 2 – the baby of the range – is an impressive offer. And no kid brother or token effort when it comes to features or capability...

For starters, the cabin's a class act in the often ‘ho-hum' softroader world. The front seats are the best in the business -- long on under-thigh support, utterly superb for lumbar and kidney support, high and wide enough across the shoulders and pleasantly firm for extended periods behind the wheel. Indeed, they are firm enough to match the vehicle's excellent on-road handling, and also soft enough to absorb those rare thumps and bumps that the suspension can't.

The cabin is well-appointed and is not "handed" -- apart from the steering and instruments, the cabin is symmetrical. There's identical illuminated mirrors above each sun-visor, and a grab-rail above all four passenger doors. The glovebox is huge and has a neat holder for some CDs, and the front door pockets are generous, unlike the ones in the back doors which hold a small bottle and not much else.

Besides the height-adjustable and washable HID lamps there are fog-lamps, auto wipers, a front tilt-and-slide electric sunroof and a fixed rear moon-roof; both have retractable fabric covers. These might be fine in Blighty, where the sun occasionally scuttles above the horizon for a few paltry minutes a day -- but here in Australia the covers are pitifully thin and do little to lessen the noon-day brightness.

If anything, only the steering wheel lets the Freelander down -- it's made of a thin and unpleasantly hard plasticky rubberised material that's not nice to grip and it transmits vibration to the fingers. A couple of hours, especially on less than marble-smooth surfaces, and the drivers' hands will be achingly weary. A layer of 1.5 or 2mm leather would probably make all the difference.

Bigger than it looks, the littlest Land Rover pretends to be RAV-4, X-TRAIL or CRV-sized, but like Dr Who's Tardis, seems bigger on the inside -- there's ample room for the big and the tall and their luggage too. With the back seats folded down, a bicycle fits without removing the front wheel.

While we're looking in the rear door, the floor of the luggage area seems improbably high – and that's because Land Rover, being a serious off-road vehicle manufacturer, recognises that Australia is not a suburb of Birmingham and fits a full-sized spare wheel, on a full-sized fifth alloy wheel. If the luggage floor is quite high as a result, we'll happily live with it.

Those tyres are 235/55 Continental Cross Contacts, on the handsome 19-inch alloy rims which are part of the $2990 extra-cost Style Pack. Don't be fooled by their low-profile looks -- while their on-road grip is tenacious, their off-road performance is no less impressive.

Perhaps less praiseworthy is the way the Freelander fouls its rear window in either rain or dust, fast or slow. If that's the fault of the Style Pack's add-on tailgate spoiler, it's a shame. Other vehicles, the Lexus LX570 for example, keep their rear windows pristine by comparison.

It's a bit of a surprise that the Freelander 2 TD4_e has a relatively small 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel engine, albeit one which makes 118kW and a hefty 400Nm (there's also a 3.2-litre straight six petrol version). But thanks to a well-matched six-speed manual gearbox, there are no gaps in the acceleration curve and the SUV can be hustled along at sporting-sedan pace with little effort and just a modicum of attention and skill.

Sixth gear is pretty much an overdrive and to help cut fuel consumption - and therefore also emissions - Land Rover have given the Freelander an economy-biassed shift indicator (appropriately a green arrow) that lights up when it thinks the driver should change up.

In keeping with its 'e' moniker, the Freelander 2 also incorporates auto stop-start. To our knowledge the first non-hybrid to offer the feature locally [Ed: BMW recently introduced stop-start in the new 120d, but the Land Rover's been on sale since August]. Dubbed Eco-Stop, when the vehicle's stopped for more than a few seconds, the engine cuts out to avoid unnecessary idling – and restarts as soon as the clutch pedal is touched.

According to Land Rover, the engine will not cut out if the: ambient temperature is under 4 deg C or over 35; the engine is not yet up to operating temperature; the driver's door is not closed; the driver's seat belt is not fastened; the driver's foot is on either clutch or throttle pedal; climate control system demands are too high; hill descent control (HDC) or an off-road program are selected; or if the battery's charge is too low. Similarly, when the engine is stopped it will restart if:  air-con demands increase; vehicle reaches 3 km/h; HDC or off-road program is selected; battery is discharged or if the brake vacuum drops.

Factory expectation of consumption is 8.5L/100km urban, 5.7 extra-urban and combined 6.7. Our real-life routine driving, which includes some freeway, dirt roads, winding rural asphalt and light traffic commuting, returned 8.5L/100km -- not bad given the Freelander's constant invitation to be driven quickly.

Lightly facelifted since we first drove it Down Under in June 2007, the latest Freelander 2 has plenty of safety features built into its electronics: stability control, roll mitigation, and traction and hill descent features. High feature antilock brakes with electronic distribution and assistance are standard.

While the Freelander lacks a traditional transfer case to offer low-range gearing, it does feature a version of Land Rover's trademark Terrain Response all-wheel drive system. Though it uses a Haldex style coupling rather than true four-wheel drive it is arguably the best of the softroader crowd.

Featuring four terrain modes -- General for ordinary driving conditions; the self-explanatory Grass-Gravel-Snow (more torque, less spin, and short shifts); Mud and Ruts (controlled slip); and Sand (max revs, max throttle response and locked four-wheel-drive) -- selected via a console-mounted dial, the Freelander's TR program remain active for six hours after the ignition is turned off. So you don't have to re-select Sand after your beach barbeque.

Freelander 2 does not have active suspension ride height control, so the modes mainly affect the engines' power delivery and all-wheel drive. Note too, with the TD4_e being a manual, means the system is also unable to alter transmission shift points.

That said, we had to check that there wasn't a suspension and perhaps even a steering difference too. It felt as if the car was less taut, more supple and more flexible to driver inputs when driven on gravel roads, but in the absence of direct electronic involvement, we have to put it down to the Continental tyres being adaptable to unsealed roads, and the blunting of throttle response alone.

Nevertheless, there is a tangible difference to the feel of the car's response when shifted out of General. The car feels more sluggish, less lively, more forgiving -- and it also feels as if the stability control's thresholds and parameters are changed. This is by no means a criticism -- the damping of previously sharp responses felt entirely appropriate and Land Rover's long heritage of building vehicles for use in rugged terrain has been well applied.

If we have a criticism its that the stability control system isn't up to the standard of the rest of the car or its electronics. It's tardy in waking up at times and coarse in operation; if a slide was initiated on a gravel road, nothing would happen quickly and often the driver would react before the electronics, which would then clamp on various brakes in a belated attempt to correct the original lateral motion – thereby upsetting any corrective action taken by the driver.

When parking, the Freelander, designed for skinny Euro-laneways and supermarket parking-lots intended for Austin A30s, obligingly folds its exterior mirrors in; they are not colour-coded, nor do they carry indicator repeaters. Two-zone reverse parking sensors -- and even a beep when engaging reverse -- make putting the Freelander away much easier.

The Freelander has a docking ignition key -- it's a conventionally big thing and needs to go into a slot, awkwardly placed to the left of the reach and rake-adjustable steering; what's the point? If you're going to get all electronic, what's wrong with a thinner, lighter proximity key? Why go to the effort of having an extra engine start/stop button above a key which still needs to go into a slot.

When taken away from the suburbs and off the tracks, Freelander gives a good account of itself; with an approach angle of 31 degrees, departure of 34, a breakover of 23 and a wading depth of 500mm. Of perhaps more relevance in the suburban environment is a kerb-to-kerb turning circle of 11.3 from the 2.66m wheelbase.

The vehicle weighs a portly 1775kg but carries 68 litres of fuel, which the on-board trip computer said would give a range of around 700km; this is bound to be more when cruising. Freelander will tow 2000kg braked: a pony or a tinnie. For two shire-horses or the SS Greg Norman, Land Rover has the Discovery.

Land Rover's tough and rugged reputation, forged over 50 years of taming tough terrain all over the world, has taken a severe battering at the hands of owners who railed against a recent loss of reliability. Hopefully that's all in the past, as vehicles as delightful to drive as the Freelander deserve to be much more widely appreciated. For the money, it's a bargain.

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