Fresh Freelander

By: CAR magazine

The image of the Land Rover Freelander may have been tarnished by last year’s 6 000-unit recall due to a potentially hazardous technical fault, but a new update to the range – the first significant revisions since 2000 – could improve the SUV’s fortunes.

The image of the Land Rover Freelander may have been tarnished by last year’s 6 000-unit recall due to a potentially hazardous technical fault, but a new update to the range – the first significant revisions since 2000 – could improve the SUV’s fortunes.

The Freelander has proved popular since its launch in 1997, but a recall was ordered last year because on some models the handbrake disengaged when the driver’s door was slammed. CARtoday.com reported in November that Freelanders built between August 2000 and March 2001 were affected by this problem.

Now that most of the technical gremlins have apparently been sorted out, Land Rover this week announced (mainly cosmetic) revisions to its Freelander.

New Freelanders feature black, instead of grey, exterior mouldings. This includes front and rear bumpers, wheel arches, sill finishers, tail door cladding and fuel filler cap. Rear indicator lamp lenses located in the rear bumper change to a clear/smoke effect appearance. In addition, two new colours are introduced for 2002 – Vienna Green and Zambezi Silver replacing Kent Green and Blenheim Silver, the company said.

An option of black trim also becomes available. According to a Land Rover spokesman, “black can be combined with pale beige Alpaca for a contemporary, high-contrast, prestige interior”. Black seat trim will be available in cloth, leather and Alcantara and leather. The centre console and instrument binnacle have been coloured black to key in with the new black interior.

To differentiate between the three and five-door models the current Teal accents on the air vents, heater control surrounds, and speaker surrounds are replaced by gunmetal on three-door and black on five-door models. Centre panels on leather seats on the three-door will be in gunmetal.

The black and Alpaca trim will be available on top-of-the-range models. Alpaca is used on the door casings and door pulls and is combined with black on the leather-trimmed steering wheel. A beige carpet is fitted with this trim colour.

A front-loading CD player has added to the range and is fitted as standard to the 1,8-litre and Td4 models. The V6 retains its six-disc autochanger CD player as standard.

A new instrumentation package features new-style white graphics on a black background. “The instrument unit features a new microprocessor that provides the driver with the ability to monitor vehicle functions easily as well as acting as a ‘gateway’ for information flowing between vehicle systems,” the company said.

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