One thing the new Freelander must have is a more effective Aircon/Climate Control system than the present version which I always found pretty feeble.

Hi Tim,

The earlier Freelanders had even worse HVAC system. They beefed it up/mod'd it for the 01MY amendments.

My only worry was with the VC and TC. I found that in some severe systems the TC kicking in used to reduce the effectiveness of the VC driving the rears.

Basically on non ETC, fronts spon, the speed differential between the front and rear is much greater, so the VC gets much hotter and locks for longer as it takes longer to disipate the heat to a level wherte it 'unlocks'. So if you're in a sticky situation it will stay locked and help drive you for much longer.

But with TC if there is some slip for the front the ETC can arrest this and so the speed differential through the VC is less, so less heat is generated and consequently it takes a lot less time for the heat to be disipated, copoling the VC to a state where it unlocks. As such you might start slipping again as you loose the rear drive. The fronts spin slightly and get arrested by the TC, kicking the rears in for a short time, etc. etc.

As a personal issue I have been considering some form of heating to try and force a lock of the VC. Electronics are always great, butare reactive. I can see the terrain ahead, so would like to engage lockup prior to getting stuck :-0

My preference for a Freelander has always been no ETC and a Torsen type rear diff. If they go over to the Haldex clutch arrangement. hwoever, we can only do the best with what LR give us!

Cheers H

I didn't have any major issues with our 2003 V6 ES other than the fuel consumption, which on a good day was only ever marginally better than a V8 petrol FFRR

The TD4 -- based the few occasions I had one as a loner -- made much more sense. Much better low down torque which made it feel faster and more responsive than the V6.

Road noise and wind roar could have been better for a car in its class and I hope this is improved in the 2007 model.

Somewhat surprised that a car costing £27k didn't come with fully adjustable seats but at the end of the day it wasn't an issue as the seats fitted me quite well.

OK, boot space isn't great, but it's a small SUV and if you wanted more interior space that's what Disco 2 was there for at the time. Now that Disco 3 has become bigger and more expensive I suspect FL2 is going the same way to move into the market segment previously occupied by Disco 2. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but I suspect LR will loose customers who want a small, not-too-expensive pseudo-luxury SUV, but on the other hand will probably entice back some of the ex-Disco 2 customers who went elsewhere when they saw the size and price of the D3

I really hope they do something about the interior. The 2004 facelifted interior is one of the biggest messes I have ever seen in the inside of a motor vehicle. I liked the austere simplicity of the 2003 and earlier models. At least, to my mind, it was something simple done well, rather than the half-assed cheap and nasty bling interior of the 2004 models.

For example: why, when you have a semi-circular viewport for the instrumentation (looking through the top half of the steering wheel), would anyone think of putting the two larger dials on the outside of the viewport where for most people parts of the dials will be obscured by the steering wheel? The layout in the 2003 and earlier models was much more sensible -- tacho and speedo in the middle, smaller gauges to either side. The whole thing was ill thought out -- an ergonomic and functional mess.

Off road it did well, but I agree entirely with Harvey's post above. The simplistic, reactive nature of FL1's off-road widgets is less than ideal -- e.g. you have to loose traction before anything kicks in and this is far from ideal. Much better to avoid loosing traction in the first place -- this is addresed to some extent in the terrain response systems in the D3, RRS and 2007 FFRR and of course in all traditional Land Rovers since the Series One albeit by entirely manual means

Looking forward to giving FL2 a test drive but quite frankly, if it increases in cost by proportionally as much as the D3 did over the D2, I'll probably be looking elsewhere. The most likely candidates at the moment being a late 2003/early 2004 FFRR or possibly a new RRS SE depending on what deals are available in October/November. Bill

'97 Land Rover 300Tdi Defender 90 "Big Red" - Never Clean
'78 Triumph Spitfire 2500 - Much Modified
'76 Triumph 2000TC Saloon - Forever Original
ex V6 Freelander owner not interested in another shiny Land Rover at the moment

I read somewhere that the diesel version is going to have a different front grill to the petrol model and that looks as if its going to be the case when I noticed the latest pictures at carspyshots show two different front grills. SHAME the two rung grill looks smart.

HAGGI wrote:

I read somewhere that the diesel version is going to have a different front grill to the petrol model

Ah -- that explains why I've seen one-bar and two-bar front grills. Agree that the two-bar grill looks better than the one-bar grille (although the two-bar grill still looks a bit clumsy in my opinion).

Looks like we've just unearthed the first after-market accessory folks will be adding to thier new diesel Freelander 2s [/list] Bill

'97 Land Rover 300Tdi Defender 90 "Big Red" - Never Clean
'78 Triumph Spitfire 2500 - Much Modified
'76 Triumph 2000TC Saloon - Forever Original
ex V6 Freelander owner not interested in another shiny Land Rover at the moment

on the yatch at the london motor show they had both petrol and diesel cars both with the two bar grille I don't think they are using the one bar maybe it was an early test grille

I would like to see the same discount as the outgoing model ,but a little patience might see 5% in the spring

wont need to wait till spring discount already at uk car discount and autobytel that was quick.

More headroom or a height adjustable seat!

- A reverse camera for people having SatNav monitor and not only "peeep peeeep" sound
- full iPOD controls and show on SatNav screen. Alpine usually works great with iPOD and this feature doesn't cost as 2 iPODS

Only just remembered this one today.... the pay and display ticket "clips" inside the windscreen that the Discovery3 has. Must cost about 10p to include in production, so don't know why they didn't carry them through to the FL2.

uhmmm an aluminum foot rest would be nice  Do Not Follow Me...You Can't Go Where I Go!!!

.....up in the tree!!!

I would like to see weighted steering when you reach motoway speed.

Guess I'm just not used to it yet (only done 45 miles)

Homelink system for gates/garage doors.

Radio stations/cd tracks to appear inside tach screen!

The rear seats that the single seat that drops down in on the passanger side,

so you have more load space with the twin seat down, with the baby seat in on the single,

you wouldn't then have to stand in the road strapping your baby into the seat with the door wide open

Last edited by npinks on 19th Aug 2007 9:42 pm. Edited 1 time in total