Land Rover Freelander.

Land Rover Freelander - sounds like Highlander? Land Rover has announced that its much delayed small four wheel drive will be named the Freelander. It will come with options of Rover's 1.8 litre engine, a 2.5 litre V6 or a 2 litre diesel.

The transmission includes full-time four wheel drive but does not have a low ratio. In this regard the Freelander resembles the Toyota RAV4.

Land Rover has also abandoned the traditional four wheel drive's ladder chassis and gone for monocoque construction. Suspension is independent at both ends by Macpherson struts and coil springs.

There are five door and three door Freelanders. The five door (left) looks very conventional but the three door (below left) has a curious arrangement where the rear section (only) of the roof is a soft-top and can be rolled up.

Prices will start at "under 35,000" (Aus) and go up to "about 45,000". For comparison, the basic Land Rover Discovery, the Discovery S, costs 40K.

Land Rover may have been stung into releasing details after many spy-camera pictures were taken, such as those in Autocar 1 Jan 1997. Full details of the Freelander range were announced at the Frankfurt Motor Show, September 1997, also at Sydney '97, and the Freelander is scheduled to go on sale in early 1998.
- 4wd.sofcom.com/4WD.html - 1997

Land Rover Freelander - L.R. press photo via Tony Luckwill, LROEC

• 4-door station wagon or 2-door roll-top
• Engines:
  • 1.8L, petrol, 4-cyl, 4 valve/cyl or
  • 2L 4-cyl turbo-diesel
• Transmission: front wheel drive with viscous coupling to rear wheels. (No low-ratio)
• Suspension: indep'/indep' by MacPherson struts
• On sale in Australia: early 1998

• Go to the Freelander and Land Rover pages
• The competition: Honda CRV, Subaru Forester, Toyota RAV4