For the past 30 years, we’ve been inundated with waves of retro cars big and small. From the Airflow-aping Chrysler PT Cruiser to ’60s-throwback Mustangs and Camaros, money’s been made, and heart rates have been raised by trying to bring back the past. In a way, the Freelander 8 is the latest retro-inspired car to enter existence, although it’s subtly doing something that, as far as I can tell, hasn’t been done before.
What’s a Freelander 8? Well, it’s not entirely a Land Rover, although it is the fruit of a joint venture with Chinese automaker Chery. What we have here is an enormous 6,570-pound three-row SUV running on an 800-volt architecture. With battery-electric, range-extender hybrid, and plug-in hybrid variants planned, it’s going on sale in China soon, with sales in other markets to follow. It’s an interesting move, but perhaps the most interesting part about it is its styling.
Right off the rip, the Freelander 8 draws inspiration from the original Land Rover Freelander, pulling the triangular quarter-window straight off of Solihull’s compact three-door soft-roader of the Y2K era. Look deeper, however, and you’ll see details not pulled from just any Freelander, but the 2004 model-year facelift of the original Freelander.
You can see it best in the dropped-down inner headlamp elements, although the contrasting elements in the front bumper and the chamfered elements in the rear valence. Even the tall rectangular surface the grilles sprout from is closer to the 2004 Freelander than any Land Rover in recent history, and even though that seems minor, every visual element on a modern car is intentional.
Mind you, I’m not just seeing a 2004 Freelander in the Freelander 8. In profile, there’s a huge whiff of LR3/Discovery 3 to the cladding, even if this electrified model’s strong belt line seems to draw more from the Defender than from anything else. Still, the 2000s ingredients come across strong, and that says something about where we might be headed.
In some ways, it makes a great deal of sense for the stylings of the 2000s to make a comeback. First off, there’s the general rule of 20-year cultural trend cycles. The 2000s brought with it a crop of new bands inspired by New Wave and TV shows with ’80s flashbacks or settings, but car design didn’t really adjust until later. That makes a great deal of sense given how the median new car buyer is much older than the 20-something trendsetters frequently trading on borrowed nostalgia, so it’s understandable that the ’80s throwbacks came later. While the Hyundai Ioniq 5’s folded paper-inspired design might be the most obvious sign, Ferrari now has a sort of throwback to the Testarossa, and Lamborghini produced a retro-look Aventador-based Countach several years ago.
Was ’90s nostalgia in car design a thing? Actually, sort of, yeah. The current Nissan Z and Nissan Leaf offer tail lamp treatments inspired by the 300ZX of the 1990s, the modern Ruf SCR is a reinterpretation of 964-based Ruf models, and how could we forget about the reborn Renault Twingo E-Tech? That thing’s post-Cold War optimism captured in a rose-tinted bottle.
Now it seems like we’re starting to move on to the Y2K and early 2000s era rather quickly. From another wave of electroclash headlined by acts like Fcukers and Snow Strippers to the ’04 Rich subculture decking out their heavily depreciated rides to period-correct “MTV Cribs” spec, noughties nostalgia has been bubbling under the surface for a while, waiting to erupt. Has anything leaned into it already? The GMC Hummer EV is very 2000s as a concept, but its styling isn’t a throwback. The current Rolls-Royce Phantom definitely looks a fair bit like the old one, but it’s part of a lineage and a clear evolution. As far as from-scratch early-2000s throwbacks, the new Freelander 8 is the first I’ve seen. It won’t be the last.
Nissan is working on a new XTerra, and it has a strong reintepretation of the hood surfacing on the marque’s Y2K off-roader. Motor1 Spain sat down with VW technical development boss Kai Grünitz to talk about the incoming Mk9 Volkswagen Golf, who revealed that not only is the design basically locked in, “It’s reminiscent of the Golf Mk4, which was a big step forward.”
While there’s still lots unknown about the Freelander 8, its Y2K-ish styling elements are undeniable and suggest that the next phase of retro visual tributes might be coming from a more recent past than you might expect. At a time when The Dare is trying to sound like LCD Soundsystem, which tried to sound like David Byrne, maybe this all makes perfect sense.
Top graphic image: Freelander
It’s “borrowed nostalgia from the unremembered 80s,” I’ll have you know.
PS – Losing My Edge came out 24 years ago. We are all old now.
Wake me up when we have a new Retro Isuzu VehiCross
Can we start a petition to require CDLs to drive these Canyoneros? I LOVE the idea of distracted by door-to-door screens morons in 7000lb trucks that are WAY faster than they have any need of being sharing the road with me in my 1900lb Spitfire.
As for the retro styling – sure, why not? It’s better than what designers are coming up with as “original” today. The new Twingo is really brilliant.
How about somebody make me a retro wagon? Not jacked up, no cladding, no screens inside. Smooth styling with no hack and slash or billy big mouth bass grill. A nice n/a four or inline six with a stick. THAT would be retro.
Saving the planet, one 7,000 lb SUV at a time.
These are environmental paperweights. They hold the planet together since everything is falling apart.
Or is it the new microwave that Jack and the writers created on 30 Rock?
Other signs of ’00s Nostalgia:
Shadow in Sonic 2 Movie.
iPod prices exploding.
The Sch….wait…
…where the heck is my Stingray Chopper Repop, Schwinn?!
Why are you talking about something from the 90s as though it’s 30 years old?
2026 – 30 = 1996? Respectfully
Just today the original commenter realized they were old.
I clearly failed to make my comedic intent clear.
More of the 90s is 30+ years ago than not
Brave of them to harken back to an infamous piece of shit.
I’m waiting for the Renault Avantime Redux.
I would immediately buy one.
(If it remains a 2/3 door car)
There is nowhere near enough matte-black plastic cladding on that concept for it to be a proper 2000s throwback!
They are waiting for the 2040s and all the black plastic cladding crap will be on the 2020s looking throwbacks.
I’m extremely curious about what they put in this thing that makes it weigh just under 3000kg! From the MIIT application, it’s using NMC battery, not the heavier LFP, so it either has an extremely huge capacity (200kWh+) or something else is going on. They said it has 350kW peak DCFC for 6C charging (10-80% in 1/6 hours aka 10 minutes, or 30-80% if they’re feeling deceptive) which doesn’t suggest a super huge battery. Assuming no charging curve, it’d be up to ~83kWh/~450kg if 10-80% or 116kWh/~600kg if 30-80%, in a market where 80kWh is becoming the norm for PHEV/EREVs!
Will the last UK car manufacturer shut the door on the way out? Same as it ever was.
We’re only making plans for Nigel, he has his future in a British steel.
Then Nigel can have sweet dreams, unless he has a blue Monday, when she says I don’t like Mondays, love will tear us apart and boys don’t cry so please don’t turn into a psycho killer.
This would be sick if it was the size of the original Freelander and a 2-door. Bring back the soft-top option while we’re dreaming.
I’d be happy with a 4cyl-hybrid and it can be my “tool around town” car.
The Freelander was stupid as hell, but the LR2 was nice looking. IF they could make a GOOD LR2, they would really have something.
It looks pretty good, if a bit plain. I wonder what a gloss finish would do to the design. A lot of these concepts/reveals are shown with matte paint and I think it makes them look sharper and more modern than they end up looking on the road.
It’s interesting they’re launching the Freelander brand with a huge 3 row when the Freelander was the smallest model.
Curious how this goes overall, but I like the wide choice of powertrain options.
I refuse to feel old, but holy shit, the Freelander is retro now? I remember the OG Freelander coming out, and feeling like it was a very bold and modern design – even if not exactly pretty. But I have no problem admitting that the design aged quite well in my opinion. Subsequent facelifts and generations don’t cut it for me, and I do not care for this reinterpretation either, but at least I can see the design cues – wish I could say the same of a certain new EV from a certain french automaker whose name may or may not be in my profile pic and handle.
I can’t be the only one who saw a bloated Hyundai Santa Fe in the picture. I know Hyundai borrows liberally and openly from Land Rover’s design language but you think LR would counter by designing something a little more distinct, not something that looks like a derivation of a derivative.
That’s called a second derivative. I don’t like that either.
That third derivative’s a real jerk.
My favorite thing I learned in calculus. Jerk was a phenomenon I intuitively understood before I knew there was a name for it and a way to derive it.
On the Hyundai front, it actually reminds me of the Nexo.
More than any other car I can bring to mind other than a concept car, this is the most “this car has no bumpers at all” front or rear. not the slightest one inch of projecting bulge to take a hit whatsoever. Pay for it, pick it up, and just drive it to the body shop.
So model the new one after one of the most crap cars of all time? Sounds like a plan to me, next up: We are totally going to revamp the Jag using the same format.
X-Type as a brand?
When I first glanced at the top shot I thought it was a reboot of the Aztek. Less fugly and reliable from LR.
We had the original Freelander, then we had the Freelander 2
Did I miss Freelanders 3 through 7 ?
I think they just skipped to the lucky number. JLR needs all the help it can get.
It looks very Chinese.. But I guess some of their styling cues are rip offs of 2000s vehicle. So many Chinese cars sort of knockoff land rover and Mercedes of the past. Ironic to have a land rover partner to make a sort of Chinese knockoff looking vehicle.
…am I the only one seeing Gen 2 Ford Escape?
I’m seeing it too. Front is Escape and the rear is Freelander
Well, Ford reintroduced styling cues from the 1965 Mustang after less than a decade
Sometimes it isn’t about trying to recall a past era of design, so much as it is trying to make a new model instantly recognizable as the successor to the earlier one
Is JLR so desperate to be
relevantoperational these days that they’re willing to produce bad Chinese rip offs of themselves?Yes.
No, worse, they’ve outsourced to Chery to make it for them.
So it can actually get built, and then drive for a few minutes without something breaking.
Worse for JLR’s image, but better for customers.
My thoughts exactly. Thanks 🙂