Rover gave her a sense of freedom
She bought her 2004 Freelander convertible in the spring and drove it to Whistler with the top down. ‘That feeling of freedom was so exciting and special’
This year, Catherine Marshall and her ‘Little Red Rover’ mark 20 years together. They’ve climbed mountains, negotiated slippery slopes and cruised open roads. She and her beloved 2004 Land Rover Freelander convertible have been everywhere.
Marshall, a Toronto sustainability consultant in real estate, farming and infrastructure, explains how it began:
“I was getting divorced and after having practical, bare-bones cars that were chosen for me, being able to make my own decision about buying a car was very exciting.
I wanted something that expressed my personality and that made a west coast statement, as I was living in British Columbia.
I went to the auto show in Vancouver and there was the Freelander. It was a red, softtop convertible, and it was marketed as a west coast Land Rover. I went ‘Wow’! I wanted something distinctive, something outdoorsy, that I could still drive in the city. I used to own a place in Whistler and thought how great it would be to drive it there for skiing or mountain biking.
It’s an unusual convertible, in that you don’t press a button and the top retracts. You pop out the glass that goes across the driver and passenger seats, you manually retract the roof and it buttons down. The car has a built-in roll bar, so when you put the roof down, you’re still protected. I’d always been a little nervous about convertibles, but I loved that this thing had the roll bar.
It has a six-cylinder engine and all-wheel drive. It feels like a Range Rover, like a vehicle you’d see driving in Africa. It’s a rugged little car and the suspension is stiff. It feels like you’re driving a substantial vehicle.
It has a tiptronic transmission (allows drivers to shift from automatic to manual shifting) that’s good in tricky situations. I drive it in automatic mode most of the time, but if I’m in slippery conditions, I can switch to manual and gear right down. I’ve been on a substantial back road hill coated in ice and everyone else was slipping around, but I didn’t. I had driven manual as a teenager. This gear system was a great convenience when I lived in B.C. I skied a lot and the Sea to Sky was called Death Highway because there are so many fatal accidents in winter. I really learned how to use the tiptronic transmission.
I read the huge manual that came with the car and practised in a parking lot. It stays perfectly in gear and doesn’t slip.
Now that I’m back in Toronto, I’m living an urban life, but go to cottages in summer. I love when I find a wide, open highway in Ontario, like the 400 on a day that’s not busy. I love that summer feeling, the heat and the wind, and the openness of the car.
I have used it to go camping. You can put the soft top down and there are metal brackets you can use to strap and clamp things to. There’s a big hook at the front that can be used with a winch. It was designed for serious off-roading.
I’ve come to the conclusion, and my insurance company has told me they believe as well, that my Freelander is likely the only convertible of its kind still on the road in Canada, and possibly North America.
It was a rare car, even when it was new.
I have been fastidious about having it serviced. I take it to a local mechanic I trust. The Freelander’s original engine was notorious for being a lemon and it started to have a head gasket problem, that was reported widely all over the internet.
That’s why so few are left on road. I had the engine replaced in 2016. I was pretty determined and worked with a Land Rover dealership to get a new engine for it. That engine runs great.
I’ve only had one incident with the car. I always kept it in a garage and we (she and current spouse Mike Manning) had raccoons in the garage. A raccoon got into the car and ate all the leather off the stick shift. I was able to get the knob replaced, and the leather compartment between the seats, but not on the stick shift, so the bottom of it still has all this eaten-up remnants of leather.
When I take it out, people always ask me what kind of car it is. It still has the original paint and has never been repainted, the body has no rust and it’s stood up well.
My family keeps telling me it’s crazy to hang on to it, but I love the car and can’t bear to part with it.”