Land Rover has given the Freelander a final makeover before it's replaced next year by the all-new Discovery Sport. A new range-topping Metropolis version will cost £35,995 and is billed as the most luxurious Freelander to date.
The Metropolis’s price and spec also point to the direction Land Rover will take the Discovery Sport, making it a plusher, more premium offering than the Freelander.
The spec of the Metropolis builds on that of the previous HSE Lux flagship and includes Windsor leather seats, a panoramic roof, 19-inch alloy wheels, a Meridian sound system, touchscreen sat-nav, luxury carpets, a reversing camera, metallic paint and gloss black interior trim.
The Metropolis is only available with the 188bhp 2.2-litre SD4 turbodiesel engine. The slimmed-down Freelander range also includes SE and SE Tech models, the former being powered by a 148bhp 2.2 SD4 and the latter by the same SD4 as the Metropolis.
The revised Freelander will go on sale in June, priced from £27,765 for the base SE TD4 in manual form.
The Discovery Sport is due to be revealed before the end of this year and will go on sale early next year. The Sport, which will be the first model in the new, larger Discovery range, has been spotted testing in numerous guises ahead of its launch.
Power is due to come from Jaguar Land Rover's new range of four-cylinder engines, dubbed 'Ingenium', with both five and seven-seat versions planned. The look of the new Discovery family was previewed with the Discovery Vision Concept at the recent New York motor show.
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Offroad and A34
£36K?
Wait
The new Discovery Sport is an enormous leap from the Freelander, a bigger leap in fact than the leap from Discovery 2 to 3 in 2004. The interior will not only be a huge improvement in quality for Land Rover, but a huge leap for the class. The picture currently being tipped as the new Discovery interior in many internet sites is not actually the final interior - the door casings are as per production, but nothing else is, bar the infotainment screen. I have absolutely no doubt that when the new car hoes on sale, it will leap to the top of the class. With the introduction of the new engine range, the Evoque will receive a brand new centre console in 12-18 months time. This will again see a huge lift in quality taking some of the buttons from RRS.
Prices for the new Discovery Sport will start at around £28k, with the previous Freelander S- trim being canned - nobody bought it!
My advice if you want to buy Landie - wait 10 months or thereabouts and get the Disco Sport as you will get so much more for your money - and a far far better car.