Test drive Land Rover Freelander 2003 - 2007 SUV
Certificate of maturity
Why change your face? Get rid of creditors, hide from enemies, find a second youth ... After plastic surgery, you can celebrate the next birthday - it was a good reason for a new meeting with Land Rover Freelander. Russian journalists who participated in the tested Land Rover Freelander test have the impression that restyling work was ordered by ours. Because the British, as ordered, corrected everything that annoyed compatriots who looked at the Baby-Lendrover. Despite the fact that the Land Rover brand is one of the image and the acquisition of a British SUV - an almost always conscious choice, and not an accidental combination of circumstances, the fans had claims. Mostly to the appearance and the emphasized simplicity of the interior.
I am an adult! The owner of any Land Rover always secretly dreams of Range Rover. Alas, this car, although it is the leader of the family, is far from all fans of the brand. And not only here: in Europe and Great Britain, the youngest Freelander is found on the road more often than others and is a sales leader in its class - but Rover thinks of us. The company made a strategic decision: from now on and forever, all the landlords will look like Ranji outwardly. The first swallow is the new Freelander, the body of which was designed again taking into account the new concept of the company.
The similarity with the top model is achieved not only due to the new headlights, repeating the original form of the Range Rover head optics, and they are the same in Discovery, but Frelander still looks more solid. Basically, such an effect arises due to a more massive, in comparison with the body, bumper, as well as a new, less off -road facing of the radiator. New optics - not only tribute to family forms: the brightness of the head light increased by 70 percent. The rear fog lights are also now moved significantly higher, but this is not only an image move. Yes, such a car looks more solid and rich, but the overall lights have become more noticeable, and the likelihood of their pollution on off -road trips decreased.
In the arena. The internal content should correspond to the appearance, therefore, the interior of Frelander underwent more thorough restyling than the exterior. The previous version was scolded even by fans of the brand: everything was too utilitarian, if not primitively. The designers and designers of the last version were even too lazy to hide the obvious symmetry of the front console: everything was sharpened to incur minimum expenses in the manufacture of left- and right-handed versions.
If the Range Rover salon is customary to compare with the yacht salon, then the new Freelander easily pulls on the boat. The first thing that catches the eye is the new instrument shield, which houses four round clear dials with textured silver rims. These rims also evoke thoughts of water and the sea: stamping resemble compass rumbers. By the way, in such a manner, the latch of the leather cover of the automatic transmission selector is also executed.
With silver frames, the finish of the central console and the visor of the instrument panel, which are also executed for metal, is in perfect harmony. In fact, this is high quality plastic. These strokes are enough to give the salon more charm in comparison with the ascetic design of the old version. But it seemed to the most remarkable to us that the salon became more harmonious and whole, because symmetry disappeared in the location of large details.
Of the novelties, it is worth noting a new ergonomic gearbox handle and a windows control unit moving on the door.
Own sandbox. The former Freelander could be scolded for anything except his off -road qualities - among classmates this is a leader. And not only in patency, but also in the reliability of some key details and nodes. The fact that the new Land Rover inherited the best features of the old one, we were convinced on two off -road routes - in the forest and on an impromptu site for the city jeep -grip on the territory of the Manchester Museum.
The forest route was not that very difficult, but rather cruel to the car: on the eve of powerful rains. Frelander glided along the cracked paths, like on ice, and at one fine moment we were quite very striking on a tree. By ear - the headlight is broken, and the wing to replace. To check - even dried dirt from the body did not fly. The wings on Frelander are made of plastic, and if desired, you can peel with a fist - there are no traces. And in the evening at the presentation, the representative of Land Rover enthusiastically trampled this part. Well, it is unlikely that no one is safe to break your hands and legs about a car in ordinary life, but no one is safe from a meeting with a tree.
The second episode that strengthened our faith in the reliability of this car is the descent along the rocky slope. Despite the fact that the clearance of the new Freelander rose to an inaccessible height of 180 mm for competitors, the stones were pounded on the bottom quite noticeably. But instead of oil, we left behind the wreckage of those very stones - the engine and the box are protected by powerful aluminum protection, like the rest of the vital nodes, such as a gas tank.
The next day, we got to the site with all kinds of city obstacles: torn pavement, cobblestones, imitation of the construction site, and so on. From numerous obstacles, Freelander jumped, joyfully knocking about them with the levers of the rear suspension. At the end of the route, we could not stand it and climbed under the bottom - to evaluate the degree of damage. Seeing the levers with a thick hand with a thickness, we realized: with such iron you can elementarily break border stones.
DYNAMO MACHINE. And on the last day of the test drive, I overslept and late to the distribution of keys - at the rack lonely lay only two sets. Ignoring the engine, I grabbed the one that approached the color of the photo shoot. While we went out of town, while we found a suitable place for a calm and leisurely shooting, about a hundred kilometers wound up on a speedometer, sorry, miles. And only looking at the instrument shield through the viewfinder, I saw a large inscription on the fuel level sensor - Diesel. Blimey! Okay, you can not hear the characteristic sound of the motor - the radio worked loudly, but the dynamics! On superficial sensations there is almost no difference between V6 gasoline and 4TD diesel. Especially if gasoline and diesel with an automatic box.
But it is not only in the sensations. And in life, the difference is that the version with a 2-liter diesel engine in our market is not presented, despite regular requests from Moscow. The main British argument: poor quality of the Russian diesel fuel. Not very strong, I must say, the argument - Land Rover Discovery with the 5TD engine perfectly digested domestic fuel. Rather, the fact is that diesel cars are not enough in the European market and our number in this line is the sixteenth. Alas...
Text and photo Nikolay Kachurin
Model/Modification Land Rover Freelander V6
Manufacturer/country Land Rover Ltd. /Great Britain
Carrying element of the body with an integrated subframe
ENGINE
Type/number/location of gasoline cylinders/6/V-shaped
Working volume (cubic cub) 2497
Power (kW (L.S.) at rpm) 130 (177) at 6250
Moment (nm at rpm) 240 at 4000
TRANSMISSION
The permanent drive is full with the central viscose
Automatic gearbox 5-speed, sectral type
Transfer numbers (increased/lowered) 1/1.46
Brakes, safety
Front/rear disk, ventilated/drum
ABS, assisting 4-channel, electronic
electronic systems of the ETC Antibux system, Assistance to HDC descent, EBD brake distribution system
Frontal airbags for the driver and front passenger
Dimensions/mass
Length/width/height (mm) 4437/1809/1708
Wheel base/clearance (mm) 2557/220
Tires 215/65 R16
The mass is equipped/complete (kg) 1562/2060
The volume of the fuel tank (L) 64
Maximum speed (km/h) 182
Acceleration to 100 km/h (sec.) 10.1
Fuel consumption (city/highway, l/100 km) 17.2/9.7
The price in Moscow has not yet been determined
Source: "Autopilot"
