Land Rover Freelander 2004 review: snapshot

Sadly, it continued to concentrate on its role as basic transport for a few decades afterwards, and in doing so it opened the door to a tidal wave of Japanese copycats.

It learnt quickly after that. First there was the 1970 Range Rover; more recently there's the mini-me off-roader called Freelander.

Now in its third generation, the Freelander has changed marketing tack by arriving with only one engine – a turbocharged diesel made by BMW – and two body styles.

That the power comes from BMW isn't weird considering the German was one of the former owners of Land Rover (it's now owned by Ford). But the use of a diesel in a soft-roader – a vehicle that doesn't have the off-road acumen of its bigger Land Rover siblings – in the Australian market is an unusual move.

What will sway buyers is the fact that this is a damn good diesel.

It's quiet, revvy, economical and pulls strongly from anything above idle. With that power plant mated to the five-speed auto, the rather portly Freelander SE gets up and dances.

Dressed with a new body faced off by a tough-looking grille, the Freelander presents as a very likeable package with excellent street appeal and just about the perfect size for a young family or a couple on the move.

It shares some features with the Discovery, notably the pocket headlights and the profile showing a raised roof line founded on the need to lift the rear seat to create a better vista for its occupants.

The tailgate is a swing-away style, though the rear glass is electrically operated to serve as a portal for shopping and similar small items.

The model tested was an automatic five-door SE which, despite the rather squat dimensions, easily accommodated four adults on leather-faced seats.

From the driving seat the dashboard is simple and neat, with many storage nooks for personal gear. Partly because the seats are comfortable and the ride compliant, this is a machine that quickly endears itself to the driver with on-road confidence at highway speeds and nimble manners through bends.

Forget the fact that this is a diesel. Aside from some muted grumbles at idle, the performance is excellent and the engine noise disappears at speed.

Point it into the dirt and there are some limitations. The suspension travel is modest and a few times in the Hills near Mundaring the rear wheel spun uselessly in air. But the ground clearance appeared better than expected with no bangs and crashes from below.

The engine is practically unstoppable and it's this – plus the option of using the gearbox manually – that makes the Freelander more confident in the bush than initially expected.

Take it to the sand, however, and the low-profile tyres give little scope for deflating.

The lack of a low-range transfer case is another bugbear, though the first-gear ratio is quite low – so much so that the vehicle generally accelerates from rest in second gear.

I am aware that previous Freelanders had some awful quality problems and some petrol-engined versions succumbed expensively to the Australian heat. This diesel should be a lot better.