BACK IN THE LAND OF THE FREELANDER It’s great to see that Land Rover has resisted the pressure, much of it political and inspired by questionable judgment, to soften up the Freelander, which has just entered its second generation. In fact the car, first launched almost 10 years ago, has if anything gone the other way with its adoption of the terrain response system from the bigger Range Rover and Discovery models. While it lacks the low range transfer box of some competitor Suzuki Grand Vitara models, there is little you can throw at the baby Landie that will overcome it. Perhaps baby is the wrong word here – Freelander 2 is bigger than the original car and comes only as a five door. The old three door is dead but it’s rumoured there’s a new, smaller model on the way if a case can be made for it financially. I’m sure younger drivers would climb over each other to get into one and there would be huge demand. I don’t want to seem too controversial and politically incorrect here, but I think 4x4s have a great role to play in modern society. Certainly, my time in the Freelander allowed me out onto the wilds of Salisbury Plain to indulge in a spot of bird watching and I bet I saw more wildlife than all those enthusiastic walkers you see around the place. Cars make a great hide – walkers make the wildlife run, or fly, and hide. Far more sensible to sit in one place, hide your outline in a car, and let the wildlife come to you. It works a treat and the Freelander provides a good way to do it in out of the way places. I will agree that some people abuse their 4x4s, or more importantly the countryside they plough up recklessly, but it’s a question of educating them into being more sensible not trying to ban every 4x4, either through punitive taxes or social exclusion. I bet the antis had a field day when good old Gordon announced his £400 excise duty band, which many commentators immediately and gleefully labelled a tax on 4x4s. Truth is, though, that it’s also a tax on many petrol powered family cars, even some of quite humble size. Anyway, back to the Freelander, where the diesel model with its new Peugeot-sourced 2.2 litre four cylinder turbo engine slips well under Band G. This is a great family car, my only regret being that prices start where opponents leave off. Land Rover has upped the pricing on the car considerably and my HSE test car listed at £30,935. It gets worse, because the HSE with the new in-line six 3.2 litre petrol engine from Volvo comes out at £33,990 but that does include the £1,370 six speed automatic gearbox. Few people will buy that car, though, so to all intents and purposes the TD4 HSE is the top model in the UK. It exudes class and I can see why Land Rover has jacked up the price. It’s a pleasure to drive, with a good shift action from the six speed box, simple switching between 4x4 modes, and even decent economy with an average of 33 mpg after plenty of off-road crawling. And the handling is super for this class of car. However, I noticed one glaring error as far as off-road drivers are concerned – the company has done away with the body sills and instead lowered the bottom line of the doors. I remember talking to Roger Crathorne, Land Rover’s off-road guru, several years ago on a Scottish mountainside and he was explaining to me that Freelanders taken off road suffered damage to their sills rather than anything else. This, he assured me, was cheaply repaired – maybe he was trying to make me feel better as I had just stuffed the sill of a brand new Freelander. But now owners face repairing much more expensive doors. Such is progress… Maurice Hardy Annette's View Land Rover’s new Freelander is a great step forward as a family estate car, although it doesn’t, of course, come with seven seats. Affordability may be an issue for some potential owners but wait a year or two and used ones will be much better value. All the new mechanical bits will also have had the chance to bed in and throw up any recurrent problems. There are some details on the Freelander I don’t like – seals on the rear doors, for instance, that allow dirt to settle on the surfaces of the wheel arches so that your clothes drag across it as you get in and out. The same problem occurred on the four door versions of the original Range Rover, so you would hope Land Rover had learned a trick or two by now. The car gets a full size spare under the boot floor but the boot is still a generous size, especially with the seats folded when it holds 1,670 litres. Folding the seats is not as simple as it used to be and the front seats need to be forward of their most rearward position to achieve this. There’s also a proper tailgate rather than side hinged door with electric drop glass that used to freeze in the winter so you couldn’t get to the load area. Now that is progress… Car: Land Rover Freelander TD4 HSE Does it fit your ego?... 0-62 mph: 11.7 secs Top speed: 112 mph Bhp: 158 @ 4000 rpm Torque: 295 lb ft @ 2000 rpm ...and your wallet?... Price: £30,935 Urban: 30.6 mpg Extra urban: 45.5 mpg Combined: 37.7 mpg CO2 emissions: 194g/km Insurance Group: 13 Best bits: vastly improved; off-road ability; on-road practicality. End