Land Rover Freelander 2 Sport (2010) launched

The 2010 Land Rover Freelander 2 Sport launches in January

Land Rover has launched a ‘Sport’ version of the Freelander – the Freelander 2 Sport – which goes on sale in January 2010 from £26,695.

The latest Freelander is a very good car. A million miles away from the first Freelander it is well built, comfortable, roomy and does a very good imitation of a decent estate car on road, but still has the ability to cope with the rough stuff much more convincingly than the vast majority of the competition.

But moving metal is about offering the buyer something extra. Which is why Land Rover are launching the Freelander 2 Sport, which gives a ‘Sporty’ feel to Land Rover’s baby SUV (‘baby’ at least until the Range Rover LRX comes along next year).

The Freelander 2 Sport will come in two versions – a standard model and a Sports Style version. Both will get the 2.2 litre TD4 diesel which offers 42mpg and Co2 of 179g/km, thanks in great part to the addition of stop-start on the manual versions.

Both versions of the Freelander 2 Sport come with 19″ Diamond-turned alloys, two-tone interior, rear spoiler and a colour-keyed exterior. The standard model comes in a choice of Black or Lago Grey paint with a two-tone cloth/leather interior in Ebony and Storm. The Sports Styled version only comes in Lago Grey and gets full leather. You get the required ‘Sport’ badging and contrast piping.

The Freelander Sport is available from January 2010 and starts at £26,695. It’s probably best to think of the Freelander as a baby Range Rover rather than LR’s entry-level model, so improved is it in the 2010 version. Which means I suppose you should think of the Freelander 2 Sport as a baby Range Rover Sport.

Sort of.