Land Rover Landie: the lowdown
Land Rover flashed up this tantalising glimpse of the Landie at the Frankfurt Motor Show today, confirming the long-rumoured lower-priced SUV to slot beneath the Freelander. Cynics might accuse the company of distracting show-goers from the fact that there was nothing especially new on its stand. It seems that Land Rover – currently up for sale alongside sister firm Jag with a sale expected this autumn – is repeating its strategy with the Range Stormer concept. Execs flashed up a silhouetted image of that car at an autumn motor show before revealing the real concept car at the Detroit show. So we’ll have to wait a few more months yet to see the real concept car. However, we do know the Landie concept is designed to slot sub-Freelander. There is ample room beneath Freelander, as that car has grown substantially in its latest iteration, leaving space for a cheaper, sub-£20k off-roader that’s stripped out of the priciest content but that’s still true to Land Rover’s 4×4 heritage. Managing director Phil Popham also confirmed that Land Rover would launch its first stop-start systems in 2009. They will appear on manual TD4 versions of the Freelander, slicing emissions by 7 percent from 194g/km to 179g/km. Great news, but you can’t help wondering why it’s taking so long to bring this technology to market when Mini – another British brand building around 200,000 cars a year – has just fitted it across its entire range.