LR2 / Freelander 2 Facelift Spied

The disguised Land Rover Freelander 2

We have spy shots of a Land Rover Freelander 2 sporting a disguise which points to a facelift coming soon to Land Rover’s current baby.

We know it as the Land Rover Freelander 2. Elsewhere – or the US, anyway –  it is known as the Land Rover LR2. But it’s one and the same – pretty much. And it’s been with us since the British Motor Show in 2006 (British Motor Show. What’s that?) so it’s time for a tweak and a trim to keep the baby Land Rover fresh for the last two years of its life.

WCF have managed to snap a facelifted Freelander 2 floating round in  disguise on a set of trade plates. Which doesn’t show us what the changes are – otherwise there wouldn’t be much point in the disguise – but Land Rover have made it easy for us to see where the tweaks will come because that’s where the bit of old tarpaulin with holes cut in has been glued on. No fancy black and white animal prints covering something as practical as a Freelander 2. Just plain, old-fashioned hidden. That’ll do.

So the Freelander 2 is going to get a new nose by the look of it; perhaps some trendy LED running lights and a bit of a re-shape to the front bumper. Sounds a bit like the 2010 updates on the Discovery, Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. There’s a shock.

Out back there’s probably a tweak or three to the lighting and a bit of bumper reshaping. It’s a fair guess. The alloys on the car in the photo appear to be taped up so we can but assume there’s some new alloys coming.

There is a possibility of an oily tweak or two. For Europe the Freelander now comes with just the Ford-derived 2.2 litre diesel. It’s a decent-enough lump – which probably explains its ubiquity – but it would be nice to see it offered in a tweaked form as an option now that Land Rover have quietly – and as far as we can see, unofficially – dropped the petrol V6 from the range.

We reckon a push to a Freelander 2 ‘S’ option with 195bhp shouldn’t be too difficult.