Land rover spent 50 years trying to perfect the Freelander. The original series 1 tratter was the first prototype. Later on the tickford station wagon and the series 2. Things were getting betterer but still not good enough. Then came the next prototype the range rover with a vcu at the heart of it's transmission. Also comfier seats and a heater that wurks. Then later more prototypes with the series 3, 90, 110 and 127.
All vehicles so far were a mix of prototype eggsperiments but still not as good as they wanted. They had a few more designs attemps like the forward control and contaur but they weren't what they were really looking for. The disco 1 came next. Less said about that the better.
Luckily they continued to upgrade the range rover over the years with more prototype ideas like traction control and air conditioning. They pulled together the best bits of all prototypes so far and improved on them, and finally launched the Freelander 1.
The Freelander 1 set the standard for all land rovers after that. Independent suspension on a unibody build with no seperate rusty chassis. Heaters that work and an elegant particle robust go anywhere unstoppable design everyone wanted. Sales instantly took oft and land rover knew all those years of development and testimg had paid oft.
Later on they added a few more ideas to improve on things. They then launched the newly designed Freelander 2 as a replacement.
Freelander 2 sales were also an instant success and land rover knew there could never be a betterer vehicle made. They stopped production of this in 2014 and kept quiet about it. No surprise really as the new tratter is a lesser copy of it.
I'm just glad the new tratter kept most of the features of the Freelander brand like the unibody build, independent suspension, traction control, comfy seats and a heater that works, as well as many other Freelander design benefits. The cloth roof will make sure it leeks like a tratter to hide the fact it's all Freelander underneath.