Automotive Reviews
Posts tagged serious 4×4
2004 Land Rover Freelander FE3
Sep 9th
Land Rover’s Freelander has been a best-seller in Europe since its introduction in 1997, but the British off-road specialist hasn’t chosen to import it until recently. As the smallest Land Rover ever sold in the U.S., the Freelander is playing to a new crowd. Unlike the premium-priced Range Rover, the Freelander is right in the thick of the compact and mid-size sport-ute market. Thanks to the off-road prowess implied by the Land Rover name, the Freelander’s natural enemy is the popular new Jeep Liberty. For 2004, Land Rover is even making overtures into Jeep Wrangler territory, with the three-door, open-top Freelander SE3.
For 2004 the Freelander gets more aggressive front and rear treatment, with body-colored sections on the grille and deeper-set headlamps. The high, smooth front bumper is raised to improve approach angles off-road, and that big, visible skid plate underneath protects the oil pan from rocks. It creates a cool bow wave if you drive through a deep puddle, too. The raised rear section and forward roof rails are reminiscent of the Land Rover Discovery, but apart from those details the high-waisted Freelander has its own identity. 16″ wheels and a full-size spare are standard. The five-door body style is proportioned to within an inch of the Jeep Liberty’s in all directions, except for the Freelander’s three-inch shorter wheelbase. Like the Liberty, the Freelander has a side-hinged rear door, and the rear window can be lowered. The SE3 is a three-door with twin sunroofs and a removable roof at the rear. Brush bars and skidplates are standard equipment on the sporty SE3, as well as a palette of bright colors. In ’04 Land Rover will also start production of a limited-edition Freelander; orange and yellow Freelander G4s commemorate Land Rover’s involvement in the G4 Challenge international adventure race. Only two hundred of each will be produced; special trim and unique cargo rails are part of the package.
The interior leaves little doubt as to the Freelander’s parentage. “Stadium” seating which places the rear seats higher than those in the front, ceiling-mounted cargo nets, and the instrument panel with its large hood are similar to larger Land Rovers. There’s a cool second glovebox under the driver’s knees, and storage cubbies are plentiful like on larger Land Rovers. Power windows and a single-disc CD player are standard equipment. A six-disc changer is optional.
Power is provided by a 2.5 liter, 24-valve V6 engine making 174 horsepower. The Jeep Liberty has a bigger V6 pumping out thirty-five more horses, but that truck’s weight makes it feel sluggish. That’s the curse of hard-core off-road vehicles, because the Freelander suffers the same malady. It’s not slow by a long shot, but the Freelander feels less spry than the 160-hp Honda CR-V and 200-hp Ford Escape. What’s not visible is Land Rover’s obsessive attentiveness to off-roading matters, which dictated a special design for the V6′s equal-length exhaust headers to protect them from off-road dangers. The Freelander comes with a selectable five-speed “Steptronic” automatic transmission. Like similar systems from Chrysler and others, the Steptronic can be shifted manually, or left to work the gears on its own. The transmission is also intelligent, and can recognize situations like trailer towing, steep hill climbing, and other inclement road obstacles. It then selects lower gears, to prevent hunting when more power is needed.
A four-wheel independent suspension is a break from Land Rover’s solid-axle tradition. MacPherson struts at each corner have a lot of wheel travel dialed in–seven inches up front and eight at the rear–to keep the wheels on the ground over rough terrain. Land Rover has tuned the suspension to improve on-road smoothness as well.
The Freelander features full-time four-wheel drive, and four-wheel traction control. Front disc/rear drum brakes have ABS as standard equipment. Other electronic helpers borrowed from larger Land Rovers include electronic brake distribution (EBD), and Hill Descent Control (HDC). HDC uses the anti-lock brakes to supplement the lowest gear ratios when heading down a steep, slippery hill. This offers control a step above the normal ultra-low “creeper” gears found in most off-road vehicles. HDC supplements the Freelander’s creeper gear and prevents the wheels from locking. EBD, traction control, and HDC are all standard equipment.
The Freelander is no less hard-core than any of its stablemates when it comes to off-roading. Although many of them will never leave pavement, the fuel tank and rear differential are nonetheless cradled in the rear subframe and protected by steel skidplates. A polypropylene skid plate protects the underside of the engine. Tow hooks are rated for three tons, to ensure their strength in sticky situations. Although it’s a unibody vehicle, lacking a separate frame, large box sections underneath the truck are similar to those of the ladder-framed Discovery, and increase the Freelander’s stiffness. Land Rover is happy to point out that Freelanders survived three thousand miles on the corporate torture-test track.
With all of this equipment and ability plus a starting price under $26,000, the Freelander and new SE3 are compelling challengers to Jeep’s dominance of the small-SUV market. If you’re looking for a little sport-ute with honest off-road credentials but a less familiar face, the Freelander is a good place to start.
Specifications:
All specs are for the 2004 Land Rover Freelander
Length: 175.0 in.
Width: 71.1 in.
Height: 69.2 in.
Wheelbase: 101.0 in.
Cargo space: 19.1 cu.ft (seats up); 46.6 cu.ft (seats folded)
Base price: $25,995
Engine: 2.5 liter 24-valve DOHC V6
Drivetrain: five-speed automatic, four-wheel drive
Horsepower: 174 @ 6250
Torque: 177 @ 4000
Fuel capacity: 15.6 gal.
Fuel economy: 17/21
2004 Volkswagen Touareg
Aug 21st
Volkswagen’s latest step in its steady march away from the bare-bones, low-budget cars that made its reputation forty years ago takes it into the realm of sport-utility vehicles. You might be surprised to find that the Volkswagen of SUVs is actually a luxury truck that competes more closely with BMW and Lincoln than with mass-market best-sellers like Ford and Chevy.
Then again, you might not. After all, the new-for-2003 Volkswagen Touareg (say “tour-egg” and you’ve got it about right) is directly related to another SUV newcomer; the Porsche Cayenne. It’s a latecomer to the extremely crowded and competitive sport-utility market, but the Touareg is bound to turn heads thanks to its powerful 4.2 liter V8, shared with Audi, and its combination of high luxury and serious off-road ability. It’s got an impressive mix of luxury and performance equipment that’s making it the envy of some much more expensive vehicles.
The Touareg’s face owes a lot to the Volkswagen AAC concept truck shown a few years ago. It’s a butched-up version of VW’s familiar square-but-round face, with a gently sloped nose and a gigantic VW logo riding front and center. At the back, the Touareg is rounded like a Super-sized Golf, with another big VW badge and elegant detailing around the tailpipes. It wasn’t particularly a standout in our eyes, but many onlookers disagreed, and we got questions at several fueling stops. Volkswagen’s good at doing details, like the frameless windshield wipers and rear doors whose cutlines go all the way to the rocker panels, helping smooth out the Touareg’s sides. Our test truck’s optional 19″ wheels necessitated a unique space-saver spare that is stored deflated, and inflated when needed with an on-board air compressor.
The luxurious interior shows that Volkswagen isn’t planning to compete head-on with mass-market mid-sizers like the Chevy TrailBlazer and Dodge Durango. The Touareg is undeniably an upmarket truck, with a big T-shaped console that can contain a navigation system. There’s seating for five, four-zone air conditioning, and enough soundproofing to ensure that the Touareg will seem calm even on the roughest of roads. The seats are comfortable front and rear, and the controls and gauges have a pleasant quality feel to them. Real wood trip is used. The Touareg doesn’t feel cheap in any way.
Two engines are available; a 3.2 liter V6 making 220 horsepower, and a 4.2 liter V8 that cranks out 310 horses. There is talk that Volkswagen will add a turbodiesel V10 to the lineup as well; that engine is already on sale in Europe. Our test truck was a V8, and we were happy with its freeway and around-town performance. A six-speed automatic transmission is standard, and has a hill-holding feature that prevents the Touareg from rolling downhill when starting on steep inclines. The transmission helps keep the engine calm and quiet on the freeway. Getting it to drop a gear can be a chore; it likes to keep the big V8 revving low as often as possible. A Tiptronic” manual gear selection feature is borrowed from Porsche, but we found it to be somewhat lazy about shifting as well. V8-powered Touaregs can tow over 7700 lb.
Volkswagen equips every Touareg with full-time 4XMOTION four-wheel drive. All suspensions are fully independent, with double wishbones at all corners enough ground clearance to tiptoe over large obstacles. Our test truck was equipped with the optional air suspension, which can be raised about three inches higher than the standard springs, or lowered for highway travel. The Touareg is happy on the freeway, but the low-riding “Sport” setting on the air suspension makes for harder impacts than buyers of $40,000 vehicles will be used to. On the normal setting, the Touareg is noticeably tippier than the competition from Lexus and Volvo at freeway speeds, but far from unstable.
Around town, the Touareg feels confident, but ponderous. Rather than disguising its girth, the big V8′s power makes the Touareg seem larger. Visibility is good in every direction except straight forward, where the sloped nose disappears somewhere in front and it’s hard to place the Touareg in a lane. We couldn’t tell if the truck felt wider than it was, or was wider than it felt, but parking maneuvers were often performed with less than optimal confidence.
For hard-core offroaders, a locking rear differential is also offered, allowing for maximum traction on slippery surfaces. Hill descent control uses the stability control and brakes to keep speed down when descending a grade steeper than 20%. If that’s not enough, waterproofed headlights and door seals allow the Touareg to drive through about eighteen inches of water without trouble. Four-wheel disc brakes are standard.
It’s definitely a departure for Volkswagen, but you wouldn’t know it. There’s more than enough luxury and quality to make the Touareg at home in the competitive luxury SUV market. The standard equipment list is long, and includes side-curtain airbags, a tire-pressure monitor and rain-sensing wipers. Pricing starts at $34,900 for the V6, and V8s go for $40,700 and up. Our test truck was a V8 and featured the optional air suspension, locking differential, navigation system and 19″ wheels which bumped the bottom line to $53,265. That’s a bit more than we’d consider paying for a Volkswagen (it’s almost three Jettas, after all), even one as nice as the Touareg, but buyers who are more conservative with the amenities will find themselves in a luxury SUV that’s easily the equal of BMW’s X5 or Mercedes’ M-Class.
Specifications:
All specs are for the 2004 Volkswagen Touareg V8, which we tested.
Length: 187.2 in.
Width: 75.9 in.
Height: 68.0 in.
Wheelbase: 112.4 in.
Curb weight: 5086 lb.
Cargo space: 31 cu.ft (seats up); 71 cu.ft (seats folded)
Towing capacity: 7716 lb.
Base price: $40,700
Price as tested: $53,265
Engine: 4.2 liter 40-valve V8
Drivetrain: six-speed automatic, four-wheel drive
Horsepower: 310 @ 6200
Torque: 302 @ 3000-4000
Fuel capacity: 26.4 gal.
Est. mileage: 14/18
2003 Toyota 4Runner
Jul 21st
The Toyota 4Runner is one of the original sport-utes. This off-road station wagon has been around since 1985, and old 4Runners are a common sight on the trails, sharing mud space with Jeep Cherokees and even older Toyota Land Cruisers. In the face of much-improved competition from all corners of the globe, the 4Runner has been redone from the ground up for 2003. It’s bigger, more powerful and more comfortable, for starters. Don’t worry, though, it hasn’t lost its off-roading spirit.
With the Camry-based Highlander available to woo buyers who never intend to take their sport-utes into the mud, Toyota was free to build a dirt-oriented 4Runner. The new truck bristles with hard-core off-road features that are disappearing from the street-oriented SUVs these days, including hill descent control for steep off-road grades and body-on-frame construction. It’s got a new engine, too: a larger and more powerful 4.7 liter V8 replaces last year’s 3.4 liter V6.
It’s also bigger. The new 4Runner has grown in length and width. It’s almost half a foot longer and three inches wider than last year’s model. The increased size is evident in the new design, which no longer bears any resemblance to the Tacoma pickup line. The 4Runner is more angular, with a hint of Sequoia DNA in its long, wagon-style body and high stance. Perhaps intentionally, it bears no resemblance whatsoever to its pavement-bred stablemate the Highlander. Aggressive plastic fender flares run the length of the body, and the distinctive forward-sloped C-pillar is a nod to classic 4Runners (if you want to think of a 17-year old truck as “classic,” anyway). Fog lights, hood scoops, and discreet spoilers come and go, depending on trim level. The 4Runner is available in three trim levels: SR5, Sport, and Limited. We think it looks best with the body-colored trim, in Limited models, but the gray-sided SR5 and Sport models look less like clones of other SUVs. Oh, and the rear window can still be lowered, a long-time 4Runner trademark.
The 4Runner’s increased size is welcome on the inside as well. Gone are the brutally uncomfortable seats and cramped interior of years past. Ditto the pickup truck-derived instrument panel. The 4Runner’s new interior duds seem to have come from a sporty sedan, with gauges separated into three chrome-ringed pods and a high-mounted LCD screen for navigation-system equipped trucks (GPS is available on all 4Runners). The climate control switches look like rotary dials but are actually buttons arranged into circles. that takes some getting used to. The large console can double as a desk. A neat cargo divider turns the 40-cubic foot cargo area into a two-tiered storage space and can hold up to 66 pounds. In 4Runners without the premium sound system, the rearmost speakers are replaced by a pair of convex mirrors that neatly show what’s directly behind the truck–a feature that’s equally handy off-road or in parking lots.
One of the biggest changes of all is under the hood. Toyota wasn’t going for “kinder and gentler” with this truck. The 4Runner is about muscling its way through hostile terrain, and toward that end it can now turn the wheels with eight cylinders instead of six. The 4.7 liter V8 is shared with other Toyota trucks, and cranks out 235 horsepower. More power is always welcome, and the 4Runner doesn’t disappoint on the freeway. An all-new 4.0 liter V6 will also be available. The V6 puts out 245 horsepower and is almost indistinguishable from the V8 on the road thanks to its higher power. The only difference is in towing capacity, where the V8′s greater torque capacity gives it an edge. V8-powered 4Runners are equipped with a five-speed automatic transmission that features Toyota’s intelligent shift control.
Of course, two- and four-wheel drive are available. The 4Runner uses a Torsen torque-sensing limited slip differential which splits torque front to rear depending on demand. Four-wheel drive is full-time in V8 4Runners, and shift-on-the-fly in the V6 model. Anti-lock brakes and Vehicle Skid Control (VSC) are standard equipment. Also along for the ride is a Downhill Assist Control (DAC) system. Previously unique to Land Rovers, DAC modulates the power during steep hill descents on or off-road, using the traction control and brakes to hold the truck to walking speed. This ensures a safe, straight descent in dangerous off-road situations. DAC must be engaged and isn’t likely to be used in normal driving situations, but on those occasions where it’s needed, off-roaders will find it invaluable.
This bigger, meatier 4Runner gets a bigger, meatier suspension, too. Despite its hard-core off-road leanings, the double wishbone-front, four-link rear suspension is still comfortable on the road. This is thanks in part to a long wheelbase and wide track, which keep the ride stable. A cross-linked shock absorber system is also available. Called X-REAS, this system links the compression chamber of each shock absorber to its diagonal mate–left front to right rear and right front to left rear, and all four are linked to a central control absorber. Small pitching motions front to rear and side to side are thus smoothed out, as the shocks can mechanically respond to impacts all over the truck. In action, X-REAS gives the off-road-friendly 4Runner an on-pavement ride that rivals many of its car-based competitors. It’s a far cry from the punishing ride that off-roaders may be familiar with. The suspension still has nine inches of ground clearance, and if there’s anything to complain about, it’s that the driver may be too comfortable. Nasty trails are dispatched with a lack of drama that may disappoint some thrill-seekers!
Pricing remains close to last year’s model. Even though it’s all new, the 4Runner sees a price increase of less than a thousand dollars. The V6 powered 4Runner starts at $27,205 for the baseline SR5 model. V8-powered versions are a bit more, starting at $28,005 for an SR5 two-wheel drive. The full-zoot 4Runner Limited that we tested starts at $36,480 and should satisfy any driver who wants all the comforts of home included with that off-road ability.
Specifications:
All specs are for the 2003 Toyota 4Runner Limited, which we tested.
Length: 189.0 in.
Width: 73.8 in.
Height: 71.6 in.
Wheelbase: 109.8 in.
Curb weight: 4420 lb.
Cargo space: 75.1 cu.ft. (all seats folded)
Towing capacity (if app.): 5000
Base price: $36,480
Engine: 4.7 liter 32-valve V8
Drivetrain: five-speed automatic, four-wheel drive
Horsepower: 235 @ 4800
Torque: 320 @ 3400
Fuel capacity: 23 gal.
Est. mileage: 15/19