Land Rover Freelander LR2 test drive since 2009 SUV
He and she
He is a typical young escape from the shores of foggy Albion. She is an American with Asian roots. He is moderately fundamental, decently dressed and not devoid of secular gloss. She is clearly not alien to the classes of fitness and eastern martial arts, she prefers the sports style of clothing and, perhaps, frivolous and even windy. He is Land Rover Freelander. She is Mazda CX-7. Time sign: automakers, reducing the number of platforms to a minimum, unifying them, at the same time offer cars of more and more, sometimes related classes, trying to embrace the immense as possible to satisfy the border requests of potential buyers. And some more than a dozen years ago, such a variety has not
toyota Rav4 was observed, and in this sense, the Toyota Rav4 was a real breakthrough, and since then such a cocktail from a passenger suspension, a full -wheel drive and pseudo -road appearance, has become extremely popular, and the word crossover has firmly entered our vocabulary. A huge amount of medium -sized SUV has appeared, the competition in this segment is very tough, and in many ways it contributes to diversity within its framework. Our today's heroes are a good example of how different classmates can be. In general, choosing a couple of car for a comparative test is not such an obvious and simple task as it might seem. In many ways, the choice depends on which criterion to conduct a comparison, according to which. Why not on the floor? If cars are traditionally divided into male and female (and we also did not pass by this topic. S. xx-xx), then why shouldn't they share their ourselves into men and women? In any case, it was precisely such reasoning that the comparative test brought
Mazda CX-7 became the next bestseller of the company. Following the three -year -old and six, slender multi -month queues of buyers lined up. And it’s clear why. The main reasons for two are the main reasons. The first is a catchy, provoking appearance. Mazda is unambiguously perceived as a girl - pretty and slender, in a dress of Aurora Blue color and with beautiful almond -shaped eyes. The second reason is a low price with such an engine power. In most representatives of the segment of medium -sized SUVs, the engine power does not have up to 200 liters. with. The same few who have this indicator exceeds the above mark, significantly more than CX-7. 
Freelander, without a doubt, male. The Land Rover lineup has a real man (Defender) and a serious businessman in a suit (Range Rover). And Freelander is a sort of novice Yappy, young, but with far -reaching plans. What is not a couple of our mischievous girl? The British say: Extreme Meet opposites converge. And this is just that case. Mazda, like a runner at the start, pressed to the ground and fixed forward. Land Rover is higher, and its shape is far from grace, it stretches up, straightening the wide shoulders of the body. In this, he tries to resemble a higher level of Range Rover. Do their hearts are fighting in unison? Probably not. The acceleration characteristics to 100 km/h are almost the same 8.3 seconds in CX-7 versus 8.9 for Frelander. But the pulse is different. Mazda loves revolutions higher than turbo is a turbo, you can’t get anywhere. The three -liter in -line Land Rover six, borrowed from the relatives from Volvo, is also content with low speeds, exactly pulls from the bottom. 
The character and temperament of crossovers is very affected by the gearbox. Both subjects have 6 step machines. In the case of CX-7, the manual mode is almost not needed by switching and are so fast, although they are accompanied by intense acceleration with tangible shocks (I remember that during the test of completely new machines during the Russian presentation in Yaroslavl, this was not observed). Freelander is absolutely calm, a little fire appears only if you start changing the gears yourself. And to do this is pleasant to the lever, it is minimal, you feel pleasant elasticity. And the Englishman’s gait is to match the suspension very comfortably smoothes road flaws. Only small potholes with sharp edges make the car shudder sometimes with the whole body. 
Possessing a slightly cut, compared to Land Rover Discovery, Terran Response (there is no air suspension), Frelander does not shy off outright off-road. Despite the conventionality of all -wheel drive (as usual, 95% of the torque is transmitted to the front axle), it is not averse to going fishing, hunting or just hobbing through the mud in the time of the usual driving on asphalt. And it is here to the court that will come to the yard, the accelerator drive, not the most informative steering wheel, low window sill and high landing. There is no need for a girl with her slender legs in heels in the form of a front suspension from Mazda3 such things. She has something else on her mind to rush and rush forward so that the men barely manage to turn after. On a flat road, the CX-7 shows excellent results. Mazda
Great Styer. Behind her steering wheel without much tension and fatigue, you can brush a thousand kilometers per day. The suspension, tougher than that of Frelander, allows you to feel almost like a conventional sedan. For this you have to pay vibrations and shocks at low speeds, but on the Mazda highway it goes like rails, not noticing even serious bumps and potholes. Our beauty is not averse to waging your hips, to leave for the discharge of gas into a skid, but the American rules of good tone are strict, and such liberties are quickly suppressed by the non -closed ESP. This couple also varies strongly in their internal content. As befits a solid man, Land Rover distinguishes the severity of forms and style. He is clearly wealthy, having such a luxury as
leather salon, parking sensors, xenon, climate dual -zone system, rain sensor and seats electroregulation. In the HSE configuration, this is a very demanding guy. Mazda (in the Touring version) is much easier. It is content with ordinary textile seats (which are very convenient, despite the presence of only two adjustments) and simple decoration materials, luxury is sacrificed to a low price. But she everywhere has an exemplary order of ergonomics at a height, a convenient three-spoke steering wheel is clearly made with an eye on the MX-5 Roadster. The interior of Frelander looks, of course, richer, but the CX-7 and without this, and without this, the salon is very comfortable and seems spacious due to the light upholstery of the seats and the larger area of \u200b\u200bglazing. 
Well, we can state that, despite the universal unification and the desire to build as many cars as possible on the same chassis and with the same motors, everything is not so bad. So far, we can with a relative ease to differentiate a car of a brand in the stream. So far, designers have not folded their weapons. It is hoped that it will continue to be so that each car will continue to have its own face and even gender Opinion of sparring partner
A comparative test is always carried out by the forces of two or more people, and their opinion about the tested cars in something turns out to be similar, and in some ways, it happens very radically diverges.
Boris Muradov:
In general, I am inclined to agree with Dmitry Krotov in his estimates based on the test results. And after him I do not see a clear winner of different machines with all their class unity. However, if his personal sympathies, it seems, is on the side of Mazda, then I still like Land Rover more. This is all the more surprising, since I am not an amateur of SUVs, I prefer purely road and sports cars in the urban environment, but the CX-7 is much closer to those than Freelander, more like a classic SUV. It's all about eclectic. In my opinion, Freelander is a more organic and honest car than confidence, while the CX-7 is excessively eclectic in his effort to please, you like yours and our sort of pretense. Yes, perhaps she is characterized by some female features
Is it attractive in appearance? Well, perhaps, everything in it is okay and separately even spectacular, but for some reason, in general, it does not make an adhesive impression on me, in my subjective opinion. For me, her appearance is quite fresh, if not ordinary. Not Cindy Crawford. Be, maybe a rich inner world? If you mean the interior by such, then my colleague has already said everything on this subject. If the character is, then Mazda is definitely not a brainless doll-dough rides fun and controls perfectly. However, why then all this props in the form of a large off -road body? I will then prefer a beautiful new six, or, if you have to get hoter, its charged version of MPS, even if the previous model. At least it is not so shaking in them. Yes, and dictatorial manners of the stabilization systems are somehow not tuned in a lyrical way. Ah, yes, safe sex and all that 
Freelander, although it was clearly not sculpting it, they cut it off with an ax from a monolithic block, without really excerning, looks much more organic and spectacular. The real off-road for him is the same ambush as for the CX-7, but he does not pretend to be the athlete’s title, although the muscular and hardy is quite enough. And, by the way, when we, for the sake of a spectacular picture, tried to let it down by turning off the stabilization system, on a snowy platform in sliding, it glided obediently and very elegant, without losing his composure, while Mazda stubbornly rested on all its four wheels, Desperately not wanting to move the famous place just some kind of dynamist! (If someone does not know the meaning of this word, then consider that we are talking about a dynamic machine.) 
I’m not even saying about the Land Rover salon: you feel in it, as in a well -sewn good tailor, stuffed with all the necessary gentlemen from a handkerchief to modern means of communication. And what a soft move! Well, the fact that the steering wheel is empty and in reactions to the operation of the accelerator the car shows some thoughtfulness, so it is not a sedan and a sports car, it does not require it if someone like this type of transport, sorry for the expression , facilities. But I agree with Dmitry, again, in his conclusions: it is good that they are so different. There is something to choose from. Although it’s good that in life you usually do not have to make a choice between strong male friendship and relationships with female individuals, but to rejoice both one and the other
Dmitry Krotov
A source: Motor magazine [March 2008]
