THE LANDIE OF OPPORTUNITY

It's now 25 years since the Freelander arrived, setting up Land Rover for a more prosperous future. Simon Hucknall considers its legacy

- Simon Hucknall

Anniversaries are all well and good. In the car world, they give us the chance to look back, see how far a certain product has evolved from launch and then be reminded about the relative lack of safety/ performance/efficiency versus its modern equivalent. We then swiftly move on, safe in the knowledge that cars today are – objectively, at least – just plain better. But sometimes, reviewing a car’s birth does so much more than give us a convenient yardstick by which to measure its successors’ progress.

When Land Rover launched the Freelander 25 years ago, it played a pivotal role in the company’s future. It tapped into a market sector that was set for supersonic growth (and one that still holds sway today) and upturned people’s perception of the nearly 50-year-old brand name that appeared on its clamshell bonnet. Technologically, commercially and strategically, the Freelander made a permanent footprint on Land Rover, the effects of which can still be felt in 2022.

That’s why we’re gathered today at Gaydon (albeit outside the British Motor Museum, rather than next door at Jaguar Land Rover’s base) to sample the original Freelander’s legacy. Okay, you could say that the Discovery Sport, as it sits next to its Freelander forebears, is an imposter, but to all intents and purposes, it’s Freelander 3 by another name. That’s because JLR is now keen to group its products as either Defender, Discovery or Range Rover. Just as it did in the late 1980s, in fact – although back then, each model line represented essentially one vehicle, not an entire range.

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