Forgotten Cars: Land Rover Freelander/LR2

"LJ909" (lj909) 10/29/2019 at 11:37 • Filed to: SUV, Land Rover, Land Rover Freelander, Land Rover LR2, Land Rover Freelander 2

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Remember when Land Rover used to have a compact offering for people that wanted something more “upscale” and with some offroad chops that wasn’t a CR-V or RAV-4? Not many people do as time goes on. But that’s pretty much what the old Land Rover Freelander(later LR2) was.

The first gen Freelander eventually came to market in 1997. It was the result of research done by Land Rovers previous owners, the Rover Group to see if the automaker could compete with a vehicle in this size class.

Early Freelander design studies. Top right shows original Pathfinder on the left and the Rover Oden on the right

There were originally supposed to be 2 versions. Land Rovers version was originally called the Pathfinder, and the Rover version called the Oden. But the Oden never went forward as it was an oddball at that time: it was the first irritation of a crossover. No one then wanted a fwd vehicle pretending to be an SUV. So it was scrapped.

Testing for what would become the Freelander was done from ‘94-’96 using Austin Maestro vans as test mules. These test vehicles were powered by a 2.0 liter Perkins Prima turbo diesel. This engine was originally slated for introduction into the production version of the vehicle, but that was changed at the last minute

With them being the small company like they were though, development money was tight. So they sought out a partner they had worked with for years before: Honda.

A little background: Honda and Rover had history developing vehicles together with their short lived luxury brand Sterling in the 80’s. But the falling out between the 2 came as a result of sort of an industry betrayal. Honda had had a controlling stake in Rover for years, and it had been rumored that Honda was going to go all in and buy Rover outright. (had they done so Rover might still be around today as BMW didn’t do good by them in the long run). But Honda simply didn’t have enough cash to buy a controlling stake in the company. BMW, who had been eyeing the company, simply had more money to buy it right then and there and that’s what they did. This is where the falling out happened: Honda owned 20% of Rover while Rover owned 20% of Honda’s Britirsh manufacturing arm. The other 80% of the company was owned by Britirsh Aerospace who apparently went behind Honda’s back and sold that 80% stake to BMW for $1.2 billion. BMW had hoped Honda would stay on with their stake, but the betrayal really hit them, and they calmly informed BMW they would be ending their partnership with them.

This is where the development of the Freelander jointly (internally named CB40) would cease. It was being jointly developed as a vehicle both Rover and Honda would get. But when Honda backed out of their partnership, Honda continued development of their own version of the CB40. This went on to become the first gen CR-V.

With BMW being the new majority owner in the company, development on the vehicle pushed forward with the Freelander debuting in October of ‘97. The final design was spearheaded by Gerry McGovern, who later would go on to become head designer of Land Rover in ‘07.

The Freelander was initially offered in a variety of different versions with different engine options. Initially there was the standard 5 door, 3 door softback convertible (which seemed to be popular at the time with small SUV’s in the mid to late ‘90’s), a hard top 3 door hatch and commercial versions that could be compared to panel delivery vans. Here in the US we got the 5 door and softtop versions.

Initially engine options included:

1.8 I4 which wore the 1.8, Xi and XEi badges

2.0 I4 diesel with Di, XDi or XEDi badges

2.0 I4 diesel with the Td4 badge

2.5 V6 which simply had a “V6” badge

It should be noted that the 1.8, 2.0 XDI and the V6 were all Rover engines, while the 2.0 Td4 was a BMW designed diesel engine. In proper fashion manuals were available with all engines. But the V6 and Td4 models could be had with an auto that was similar to VW/Porsche’s Tiptronic.

With it being a Land Rover, off road prowess was a selling point. With its initial debut it competed in the Camel Trophy, an off road event that was known for having Land Rover compete to show how good they were over rough terrain.

The Freelander was also a test bed of a number of patented off road features that are pretty much standard on many off road vehicles today including vicious coupling, hill descent control and something called IRD which stood for Intermediate Reduction Drive. It was a fancy name for what amounted to be a front diff and a fixed ratio transfer case. While the Freelander was very good off road for what it was, especially compared to other vehicles in its class, its lack of low range and a locking diff meant that it still wasn’t as good off road as the rest of the Land Rover lineup, but good enough to where it could say it had off-road chops, something the CR-V, RAV-4 and Geo Tracker didn’t. The first gen Freelander was produced from ‘97-’06.

The 2nd gen came around under the time of Ford ownership, when Land Rover was apart of Fords useless empire building PAG (Premier Automotive Group). It rode on Fords EUCD platform, which itself was a variation of Ford’s C1 platform. This platform underpinned other Euro Ford vehicles such as the Mondeo, S-Max and Galaxy, but the bulk of the platform was used by Volvo (S60,S60 Cross Country V60,V70, V70 Cross Country,S80. The XC90 was supposed to use this platform as well but it was cancelled during its development phase) and is still in use there.

The 2nd gen debuted at the British Motor Show in 2006. In Europe it stayed with the Freelander name while here in North America its name was changed to LR2 to follow the recently introduced alphanumeric naming scheme Land Rover had recently debuted with the Discovery becoming the LR3.

The LR2 came with a number of upd ates to make it more luxurious and modern. The interior was heavily redesigned and revised from the mostly spartan and almost work like interior the first gen had.

It had big changes tech wise too, gaining xenon headlights, upmarket audio systems, heated seats and washer fluid and a touch screen nav system among other things. The bigger changes though were under hood. The new LR2 came with 2 engine choices. There was a 2.2 liter diesel that was co-developed with Peugeot Citroen and a Volvo sourced 3.2 I6 (which made its debut on the S80 at the time). The diesel came in 2 versions with 3 different power ratings. 150 horses or 160 were standard on Td4 versions while Sd4 versions came with 190 horses. The 3.2 I6 had 230 horses.

2013 LR2

Towards the end of its life in 2014 the the LR2 dropped the I6 in favor of a version of Ford’s 2.0 Ecoboost I4. This engine was shared with the Evoque. This new engine helped the LR2 shead 88 lbs and helped fuel economy, but only gave the LR2 a 10 horse advantage over the old 6 cylinder.

The LR2 also gained a variant in 2010 called the TD4_e that had a start/stop system as well as a heavy duty alternator which worked in conjunction with the regenerative braking system as well. The LR2 was sold from 2006-2014. It was replaced the following year with the problematic and Explore-esque Discovery Sport. While its hard to find sales pre 2009, from 2009-2015, 310,619 Freelander/LR2’s were sold around the world. And while the vehicle was constantly popular in Europe, it was never a hot seller in the US. In 2004 for instance, just 5,430 were sold and in 2006, just 13 were sold the first few months of the year.

If you’re looking for one used, they can be had for cheap, as depreciation was not kind to these things. I checked online, and for some reason there are only 2 first gen Freelanders for sale in the entire state of California. I couldn’ t explain that. But it looks like low mileage versions (and you can find them with under 100k miles) can be anywhere from $2500-$5k. A few examples close in on $10, but don’t come close and you wont find any that crest $10k either.

LR2s are more expensive and can be found for $10-17k depending on miles and year, with ‘14s and ‘15s being the more expensive. Thats if you want to buy one though. I cant bring myself to think of one good reason why anyone would buy one of these things used when Range Rovers and LR3s of the same vintage go for similar money.

HammerheadFistpunch > LJ909 10/29/2019 at 12:36

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“The final design was spearheaded by Gerry McGovern”

Ah, that explains it.

I was actually considering a 1st gen freelander as a replacement for my gen 1 rav4 at a time. Glad I didn’t. I really love the shape of the LR2 though, I think it’ s fantastic like the gen 1 GLK is.

I think they could have really had something with the freelander, had they not made them so...what’ s the word, terribly.

HammerheadFistpunch > LJ909 10/29/2019 at 12:38

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“but good enough to where it could say it had off-road chops, something the CR-V, RAV-4 and Geo Tracker didn’t.”

Man, I would put my gen 1 rav4 against a freelander any day of the week.  It had an actual locking center differential and a Torsen rear diff.  Big 70 series tires and exceptional angle.  It was probably the better off-roader to be honest.  

LJ909 > HammerheadFistpunch 10/29/2019 at 12:44

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Yea had it not been so crappy (the Rover showed through, in a bad way) it might still be around today.

LJ909 > HammerheadFistpunch 10/29/2019 at 12:46

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A few of the small SUV’s from around that time had decent offroad prowess. I think the first gen Geo Tracker/Suzuki whatever could hold its own.

HammerheadFistpunch > LJ909 10/29/2019 at 12:48

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It still kinda is around in the Discovery sport.  

HammerheadFistpunch > LJ909 10/29/2019 at 12:49

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I took my rav4 places it shouldn’t have gone and it did alright.  That locking center for true 4x4 plus the torsen really gave it all the traction you needed (plus it didn’t have a rear sway bar so it flexed okay).  The main letdown was power.  There was just too little of it anywhere.  

ranwhenparked > LJ909 10/29/2019 at 13:00

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Re the whole backstabbing thing - Honda had/has a well established policy of not making major overseas acquisitions, but they informed BAE that they were willing to up their stake in Rover from 20% to 40%, if BAE would agree not to sell the other 60 to another automaker. BAE wanted rid of Rover entirely (they had been coerced into buying it off the British government in the first place, as a major defence contractor, they couldn’t afford to reject the UK government’s sale proposal), and BMW were the only ones offering to buy the whole thing. But, BAE never informed Honda that BMW was even in the picture, after so long of an alliance, it was really not a classy move. They had just finalized joint development on the new Rover 400/Honda Domani and 600/Accord models, too, with BMW becoming a reluctant licensee of Honda's IP as a result. 

LJ909 > HammerheadFistpunch 10/29/2019 at 13:12

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Kinda sorta. But the design sucks, and from what I’ve read, they arent that reliable. 

HammerheadFistpunch > LJ909 10/29/2019 at 13:14

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shocked face.

LJ909 > ranwhenparked 10/29/2019 at 13:15

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Damn thanks for that. Looks like it was a mess from the get go, with Rover pretty much being passed around and not wanted by anyone, and BAE desperate enough to pull a move like that on purpose because they probably knew Honda wouldn’ t approve or go for it, especially with vehicles in the pipeline.

ranwhenparked > LJ909 10/29/2019 at 13:23

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The sad thing is BAE only wound up with them because Ford wanted the company in the late ‘80s, and there was a lot of political pressure to keep it British owned, so Ford bought publicly traded Jaguar instead (after earlier considering bidding for BMW).

One of the interesting things Rover was toying with in the early/mid 90s was this Metro Scout proto crossover concept.

shop-teacher > LJ909 10/29/2019 at 13:27

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Nobody remembers the Freelander, because they were garbage and they’ve all been in the junkyard for years.  I bet the number of them still on the road in the US is in the hundreds.

dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford > LJ909 10/29/2019 at 13:51

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A girl I went on a couple dates with had an LR2. To me, the Ford roots were obvious. It really seemed like an Escape playing dress up and definitely didn’t deserve the LR badge.

LJ909 > ranwhenparked 10/29/2019 at 13:58

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I don’t know why Ford didn’t try and her both at the time since that’s what they ended up doing anyway.

That Metro Scout looks similar to the old Civc wagons from the late 80s/early 90s. 

LJ909 > shop-teacher 10/29/2019 at 14:00

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I wish I could’ve found more numbers on how many were sold in the US. There’s probably a reason why they you can’t find them. Because they didn’t sale many.

LJ909 > dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford 10/29/2019 at 14:07

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I actually used to believe that it was Land Rovers version of the Escape.   

dogisbadob > LJ909 10/29/2019 at 14:13

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I like the first-gen Freelander more than I should. I love the yellow convertible version

shop-teacher > LJ909 10/29/2019 at 15:20

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I grew up in a wealthy area.  W hen these were new, I saw plenty of them.  They are all long gone, whereas first gen Lexus RX3xx’s still roam the streets in big numbers.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > LJ909 10/29/2019 at 16:11

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Worked on a bunch of freeloaders (yes, freeloader) when I worked at a Rover shop years back. There were a lot of them at the time. The reason they aren’t around anymore is because they’re garbage. The engines are garbage. The transmissions are garbage. Well, US at least. We only got auto V6's. Interior doesn’t live up to it’s class, it’s more fitting of a 90's Pontiac. Wheel bearings, window regulators, you name it.

It’s a timing belt engine that requires a stupid amount of special tools and a ton of labor to replace. Timing belt service is so expensive we never even bothered getting the tools because no one wanted to pay for it. Maybe only saw one break though. Probably because most develop big issues long before a timing belt would break.

Thermostat was in a plastic housing connected to plastic pipes, all situated in the valley. Requiring intake manifold removal to replace. But when they go, they often go catastrophically, eje cting all coolant instantly and overheating the engine. While not as sensitive to overheating as the infamous Rover V8, they still very much don’t like overheating.

Transmissions aren’t great, but the biggest thing I remember about them is that there’s a plug on the bottom that looks like an oil drain. But it isn’t. If you remove said plug you effectively remove the reverse band. And that’s easier to fix by replacing the whole thing than rebuilding it. Jiffy lube was fond of those plugs.

LJ909 > shop-teacher 10/29/2019 at 16:58

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Probably all gotten rid of because they broke or slowly broke over time.

shop-teacher > LJ909 10/29/2019 at 18:19

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Exactly.

LJ909 > AMGtech - now with more recalls! 10/29/2019 at 20:53

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Sounds like they were unnecessarily complex/were engineering by people who dont like mechanics. I wouldnt touch one after reading this.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > LJ909 10/29/2019 at 21:53

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They weren't complex. Just shit, poor design.