6. Land Rover Freelander
The Freelander was, and still is a compact sport utility vehicle produced by Land Rover from 1997 to 2014.
The first generation started its production, after a market research made by the Rover Group suggested that Land Rover could enter the compact SUV market segment.
And that’s exactly what they did, and not with one, but with a variety of models, based around five-door estate and three-door softback, hardback, and commercial versions.
The vehicle representing the first generation, was used in the 1998 Camel Trophy and participated in Land Rover’s G4 Challenge, and was the first Land Rover to feature Hill Descent Control system.
And even though the manual gearboxes were preferred on the early models, the automatic Tiptronic-style gearboxes became increasingly popular and were standard on the V6 models.
