I know it is common for manufacturers to change model names from market to market. Sometimes a name in one language can be offensive or stupid in another.

What is the reasoning behind Land-Rover's decision to call the Freelander 2 the LR2 in North America? They dropped the Discovery name too.

Is it a legal/territory/copyright thing? Something to do with Ford?

I prefer cars to have numbers rather than names, but in the case of Land-Rover, Freelander and Discovery are pretty decent and pretty wel known names. LR2 and LR3 sound more like development codes than names for up-market 4x4s.

Possibly because the FL1 had such bad reliability record it was felt that a clean break would be best for new sales.
Especially as the FL2 bears little in common in parts. looks, reliabilty, with the first of the FL1s.

For what it's worth I think the later FL1 diesels were as reliable as the Fl2. But then again no one in the States would buy a 2litre manual diesel. Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

... Land Rover were also playing with the idea of using Alpha-Numeric naming for their vehicles like their competitors (eg. X3, X5, IS, ES, GLK, M Class). Since the average north American customer had no real knowledge of the traditional Land Rover product line. Land Rover (Officially) returned to Canada in 1994, late 80's (Range Rovers only) for the US after been out of the market since the early 70's, It was easier to use US & Canada as a test area for the new naming convention. They faced more opposition in their more mature markets where the names (Freelander, and Discovery) where liked and had better reputations. When you enter a large new market around the same time has Kia, its harder to build a serious base with funny sounding model names.

I prefer the Alpha-Numeric names. The Evoque (stupid name) should have been called the RRX, RRZ or RR2. The Range Sport would be the RRS. "LR2" is a more serious name than "Freelander".

Unfortunately, my wife's FL1 (2006) is proving significantly more reliable than my FL2 (2010) and it has done twice the mileage too ........... FL2 HSE Auto Galway Green
Evoque SD4 Auto Blue.
FL1 HSE TD4 Manual Black - Gone.
RR Classic V8 EFI - Gone

Because probably in America they would be getting their lawyers putting a claim in to Land Rover because they read they were getting a "Free" Lander and then were asked to pay for it.
That sort of thing can only happen in the US.

Bit like the old woman who put her dog in the microwave to dry it off and cooked it, then she sued the company because it didnt say in the manual you cant put a dog in it.

I wish they had used LR2 in Australia as well. The Freelander has a very poor reputation here and most people don't even recognise there are 2 models. If you mention them on forums you get warned not to touch them due to unreliability and expensive repairs. It's worse in the US because they mainly had the petrol models which were way worse than the td4's. Sales would be a lot higher here if they had gone with LR2 in my opinion.

Pedro wrote:

Unfortunately, my wife's FL1 (2006) is proving significantly more reliable than my FL2 (2010) and it has done twice the mileage too ...........

Mona Geeza wrote:

Because probably in America they would be getting their lawyers putting a claim in to Land Rover because they read they were getting a "Free" Lander and then were asked to pay for it.
That sort of thing can only happen in the US.

Bit like the old woman who put her dog in the microwave to dry it off and cooked it, then she sued the company because it didnt say in the manual you cant put a dog in it.

I think the disco was LR3 first in USA wasn't it? Would the disco have confused with a space shuttle or something?

Anything confuses the Americans, unfortunately pictures don't quite work as a name for a car

Yes LR3 was a disco model, maybe a little shortsighted on the part of LR, also I would imagine that the Americans have every single word in the dictionary under copyright or trademark in one way or another.

The real reason had nothing to do with numerical names like the competition, it was to remove the association with the original Discovery and Freelander problematic Lucas electrics, which all but ruined the LR name in America.

By changing the name, all links to the past are removed.

I did think they screwed up with LR2 for the Freelander 2 and LR3 for the Disco, and the LR4 for the Disco, as it didn't give anywhere for the new Freelander to be badged in the US.

But as the Freelander name is unlikely to be used on the next car it doesn't really matter. Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........