Freelander end of life?

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Originally Posted by Phideaux

The Evoque is 'mostly Freelander' underneath
(The car to be 'seen in' instead of 'see out of')
The new 'Discovery Sport' starts with the same engines (more & different to come) and I think the front suspension is the same; the rear suspension has had some serious design magic applied.
Effectively they're still building new with a significant percentage of the old parts bin.

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I've seen several Evoques on the road... what with "privacy glass" and tiny windows... damned if I can see anybody inside!

I am somewhat interested in the so-called Discovery Sport... it's had reasonable write-ups in the European press...then again I might just do the usual but this time look for a well cared for used petrol D3 or D4... the price gap to the diesel variant and the added cost of a probable transmission rebuild buys a lot of petrol at 3-4L/100km consumption difference! Besides, people now designing the latest "curvaceous" models obviously do not live with them them every day or use them for practical purposes... long live the slab sided box!

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Originally Posted by Hoges

I've seen several Evoques on the road... what with "privacy glass" and tiny windows... damned if I can see anybody inside!

I am somewhat interested in the so-called Discovery Sport... it's had reasonable write-ups in the European press...then again I might just do the usual but this time look for a well cared for used petrol D3 or D4... the price gap to the diesel variant and the added cost of a probable transmission rebuild buys a lot of petrol at 3-4L/100km consumption difference! Besides, people now designing the latest "curvaceous" models obviously do not live with them them every day or use them for practical purposes... long live the slab sided box!

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Could not agree more Hoges!

Also agree.

My almost 2 decade old car needed to be replaced. It was from the less rounded period as well.

One of the reasons for buying a Freelander, but further down the list of priorities was the squarer shape.

Discovery Sport does look good on paper/youtube. It has all the 'good' things from Freelander2 plus 2 more seats & cunning rear suspension, and a few more evolutionary improvements.

(I'm not aware of diesel = transmission problems in D3, D4, but): Sis and Bro-in-law got a D4(or late D3) 2.7L diesel (replaced old TD5) and utterly love it.

I keep hearing about the D3 V8 "it's not so much that it's thirsty, but that you actually want!! to put your foot down!" (then they wince at the pumps).

Doesn't the Evoque have a lower torque engine than the FL2? It seems to me that a lot of manufactures limit the torque output of their diesels in order to use a lower rated (cheaper) transmission. Far as I'm concerned any mid sized four cylinder SUV with under 400nm is off the shopping list.

A family member has an Evoque SD4 2.2 litre agricultural engine 140 kW 420 Mn. I have the Si4 2.0 litre city engine 177 kW 340 Nm in my Freelander. Nothing wrong with either. My preference was petrol and I feel the 340 Nm performance is more than adequate. The good thing with the either engine is they have a broad band of power and torque.

Some manufactures might have numbers that look good on paper. But the rpm and torque is in such a narrow band the engines are as useless as a one legged man in an ar-- kicking competition.

One of the manufactures has an engine that falls short by 600 rpm. So can't reach the kWs published as the engine is already at the red line.

Torque drop-off is a bit noticeable on overtakes in my FL2 TD4 (110kw/420Nm) - above 3000 rpm. I find I use the 'sport' function on the auto to choose a higher gear (eg, 4th instead of 3rd) to get back into the torque-band and swifter response. It bothers me that the new 'Ingenium' motors are less torquey (but wonderfully economical & clean); and this when it's not hard to find a chip-conversion that will take the current ('Peugeot?') motor to 170kw/500nm.