A Touch of Class.

I had a Freeloader 2 for a week and was disappointed in it... I would hope the 3 is better with better interior too, not all plastic.

My problem with the Evoque is I can't have a heated windscreen without spending the best part of £2k on a tech pack, I don't want sat nav and I don't need it. Fl2 £255 or something and I can have cold climate pack. Heated steering wheel on the Evoque £180 FL2 £175.

The Fl2 is now out dated, but when it was first launched in 2006 it was the baby Range Rover as it was a million times better than its predecessor.

From my recollections of the Halewood factory visit, where the Evoque and Freelander are built side by side.

The Freelander is made from steel and is welded together, whereas the Evoque is Aluminium and is rivited and glued together.

Cannot comment on strength and rigidity, but the Evoque will have some weight savings.

I don't dislike the Freelander, just love my Evoque.

I've just gone onto the LR site to check the price and build of the most recent (October) FL2, and for the sake of some neat DRLs and an analogue clock, it's a few thousand more than the superseded model. It's now at Evoque Prestige and Dynamic prices (w/o AD). Certainly not worth getting a SD4 rather than TD4. So for me, it's either worth sticking with my Evoque and 2010 FL2, or moving up to a 8 speed RRS or current 2012 FFRR. My concern about the FFRR is the width. Very few UK sized parking spaces can accommodate that size.

speary, good post.

I now have the analogue clock set as a screen saver.

how long have you had the car. Is that the first you knew about?

IKM, the L322 FFRR is actually narrower than a Freelander2 - for a long time F2 was the "fat boy" of the range being as wide as a disco3. RRS was the narrower than both! Defender is the slimmest of all which is why I am loathe to reduce to a single car that will be as competent off road (the Disco3 or 4 would be great if they went on a massive diet). Freel2 is still not far short of the the fattest car - the new L405 is a tad wider at 2225mm compared to F2's 2195mm with the mirrors out, according to LR's info.

(03-11-2012 05:59pm)J77 Wrote:   how long have you had the car. Is that the first you knew about?

I knew it was there from day one, but for some reason couldn't remember how it was displayed, so a quick read of the manual did the trick, it is however only viewed in screensaver mode and that is probably why it never got looked at, too busy displaying other modes on the screen.

(03-11-2012 06:06pm)XFullFatTim Wrote:  IKM, the L322 FFRR is actually narrower than a Freelander2 - for a long time F2 was the "fat boy" of the range being as wide as a disco3. RRS was the narrower than both! Defender is the slimmest of all which is why I am loathe to reduce to a single car that will be as competent off road (the Disco3 or 4 would be great if they went on a massive diet). Freel2 is still not far short of the the fattest car - the new L405 is a tad wider at 2225mm compared to F2's 2195mm with the mirrors out, according to LR's info.

Tim, I could be misreading the brochure for the outgoing FFRR, which appears to state 2034mm mirrors folded and 2216mm mirrors out, and the FL2 is 2005mm mirrors folded and 2195 mirrors out. I'm comfortable in parking the FL2 in carparks (just). But not much in it, and an exciting exciting prospect to consider given the fall in prices for 2012 MY FFRR. I do know that my nearest neighbour couldn't buy a FL2 because his garage entrance was too narrow, and ended up buying a Chevy SUV .... ghastly!

One reason for changing from my FFRR to the Evoque was to have a car that would fit into my garage............. unfortunately when it came the car has only 2cm clearance each side of the door uprights which is too close for my liking, and why my Evoque lives outside (also that having owned SUV's too large to go into it for 16 years, my garage is full of junk)