The Land Rover Freelander is a series of four-wheel-drive vehicles, some versions front-wheel drive, built and marketed by Land Rover from 1997 to 2015. The second generation was sold in North America and the Middle East as the LR2 and in Europe as the Freelander 2. The name combines freedom and lander.
Land Rover Freelander at a glance
| Production | 1997–2015 |
|---|---|
| First generation | L314, 1997–2006 |
| Second generation | 2007–2015 |
| Construction | monocoque, the brand’s first |
| Bodies, first generation | three-door softback, hardback, commercial and five-door estate |
| Bodies, second generation | five-door only |
| Two-wheel drive | offered from 2010, the brand’s first after 62 years |
| Project code | CB40, after Canley Building 40 |
| First-generation sales | over 540,000 |
| Replaced by | Range Rover Evoque (three-door) and Discovery Sport (five-door) |
based on one source (English Wikipedia)
History of the Land Rover Freelander
After half a century of body-on-frame four-wheel drives, the Freelander was Land Rover’s first monocoque model. It came as a three-door and a five-door, including a semi soft-top. The second generation of 2007 dropped the two-door options and offered only a five-door estate-like body, and from 2010 it became the brand’s first model in 62 years to offer two-wheel drive.
In 1988 British Aerospace bought the Rover Group for £150 million, which allowed resources across the Rover brands and Land Rover to be pooled differently and made a smaller Land Rover more attainable. When the board approved the Pathfinder project it was codenamed CB40 after Canley Building 40, where the concept was first developed. The compact new Land Rover ended up almost as long as the original Range Rover, which had been phased out the year before, and had an inch longer wheelbase. It kept a substantial subframe with welded box-section rails for strength.
The plan had been to contract manufacture the car and an agreement with Valmet in Finland was already made, but BMW, on acquiring Rover Group, terminated it and funded production at Solihull in the Rover SD1 assembly hall, idle since the early 1980s. In 2002 Land Rover SA won export contracts for 1,000 left-hand drive Defenders to Angola and more than 3,000 right-hand drive Freelanders and Defenders to Australia, with Freelanders assembled in Silverton, Pretoria.
The Mark I was an instant hit and became Europe’s biggest-selling four-wheel-drive model, with over 540,000 sold in nine years and five consecutive years as Europe’s best seller after 1997; in 2016 Land Rover named it its eighth Heritage vehicle. Bodies covered five-door estate and three-door softback, hardback and commercial versions, and a revised Mark I with a new face and rear arrived in 2004. In North America, where it was launched for 2002, only the 2.5-litre Rover KV6 with a five-speed Jatco automatic was offered; early cars suffered engine liner, cooling and transmission problems and owners won a class-action settlement.
Design and features
- Monocoque construction: a first for Land Rover after fifty years of separate chassis.
- Three-door softback: a semi-convertible body unique in the range.
- Two-wheel drive option: added in 2010 on the second generation.
- Commercial version: a van-like three-door for business users.
Land Rover Freelander versions
- Freelander three-door (1997): softback, hardback and commercial bodies.
- Freelander five-door (1997): estate body with trims from E to Sport Premium.
- Revised Mark I (2004): new interior, face and rear.
- Freelander 2 / LR2 (2007): second generation, five-door only.
- Two-wheel-drive Freelander 2 (2010): the brand’s first two-wheel-drive model since 1948.
The Freelander was replaced by the Range Rover Evoque and the Discovery Sport, and sat below the Discovery. More cars are in the Land Rover collection.
Sources
- Land Rover Freelander, English Wikipedia: development, generations, sales
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