The Land Rover Freelander, first introduced in South Africa in 1998, has been given the “once over” with a fresh front and rear styling and a heavily-revised interior.
The Land Rover Freelander, first introduced in South Africa in 1998, has been given the “once over” with a fresh front and rear styling and a heavily-revised interior.
The front features a new grille, “twin-pocket” headlamps offering improved light dispersion, and a mix of body colour and black bumper sections.
The taillight clusters have also been given a revamp but the majority of the 700 changes are to be found inside.
New instrumentation features a chronograph style bevelling that is repeated around the gearshift.
Colour coding enhances the ambience while sections of metallic coated surfaces add a sporty touch.
Switchgear quality has been improved and the electric window switches have been shifted (on the five door models, at least) to the door armrests.
Leather seat trim is now standard, but the seats are mounted rather high with no height adjustment available.
An up-market Harman-Kardon sound system has been fitted incorporating a front-loading six CD setup.
Mechanicals remain unchanged with a choice of 1,8-litre petrol, two-litre turbo-diesel or 2,5-litre V6 petrol engines. The most popular seller is the TD4 but when winding our way up the mountainside, through some high-lying vineyards of Stellenbosch dodging bunches of soon-to-be-harvested grapes, it was imperative to keep the revs above 1 700 r/min to ensure that the turbo was providing sufficient boost.
If the revs dropped below that figure torque dropped off substantially. Prices have been increased by approximately two per cent, but included in the new price is a three-year/100 000km maintenance package.
Prices:
1,8 SE 3dr M R272 500
1,8 HSE 5dr M R279 000
2,0 SE Td4 3dr M R294 000
2,0 SE Td4 3dr A R315 500
2,0 HSE Td4 5dr M R303 500
2,0 HSE Td4 5dr A R324 000
2,5 SE KV6 3dr A R308 000
2,5 HSE KV6 5dr A R319 500