RE: Shed Of The Week: Land Rover Freelander

RE: Shed Of The Week: Land Rover Freelander

Friday 25th July 2014

Shed Of The Week: Land Rover Freelander

Shed's found himself an all-terrain landaulet. Or an old Freelander three-door, if you must



Say what you like about Rover - and over the years, many have - but some of the stuff they came out with wasn't half bad. Conceptually speaking, anyway. Often as not, the only tiny thing that let the company down was its inability to turn a good concept into an equally pleasing reality. Admittedly, that's a fairly fundamental flaw for any manufacturer hoping to sell more than one lot of cars into a marketplace offering plenty of other choices, but the fact remains that they did come out with some decent ideas.

Share your stories... now!
Share your stories... now!
Take this Freelander. Industry gossip (alright, Wikipedia) suggests that Rover had been considering an entry into the small SUV segment as long ago as the 1980s. If that's true then they were well ahead of that particular curve. By the time the Freelander was launched in 1997, they'd had plenty of time to think about it.

It was time well spent by the looks of it, because the Freelander was seen as quite the thing by the average upwardly-mobile thrustmeister or yummy mummy. Rover had asked Honda to join in the venture, but they declined the invite, a critical underestimation of the power of the Land Rover brand even then. Instead, Honda produced its own soft-roader, the ostensibly quirky but actually remarkably characterless CR-V. It never went wrong and sold in small numbers, unlike the Freelander, which was subject to a thousand recalls and dominated the class for five years after launch. Which all goes to show that there's nowt so queer as folk.

This telly advert was probably one of the first Landie ads exhorting owners to 'go beyond'. Shed thinks the statute of limitations will have run out on the fact that an idea he had for a Freelander advertorial (based on 'going beyond' the start of the River Nile) was vetoed by LR when the possibility of driving over the odd patch of sand was mentioned. It was thought that any surface medium more granular and unstable than a Black Country B-road or lightly dampened farm track might play havoc with the not-that-brilliantly protected works of the wee beastie, and strand it embarrassingly.

Remember how clever Hill Descent Control was?
Remember how clever Hill Descent Control was?
Yes, the Freelander was more of a soft-roader than a strongman dirt-digger, a forbifor in name and style rather than extreme ability. But, although it didn't have the low-range trans, locking diffs or separate chassis of its big brothers, the Freelander did have a decent package of attributes including four-wheel drive and the first iteration of LR's clever Hill Descent Control system. Of course, it also had the notorious K-series 1.8 engine, friend of top-end rebuild specialists everywhere.

Our Shed is in the three-door bodystyle that has somehow retrospectively acquired the title of Hardback. For them as don't know, the back section above that 45-degree buttress comes off, leaving your rear seat passengers with their conks partially out in the breeze. Once upon a time, limousines both horse-drawn and mechanical offered this chopped-off look. These so-called landaulets allowed toff owners to benefit from the health-giving rays of King Sol while the pasty-faced chauffeur sweated it out in the enclosed cabin up front. Shed has never been entirely sure who the beneficiaries of this Freelander 'Hardback' configuration are, as the aforementioned buttress does restrict the back seat passengers' view somewhat. It looks funny, too, a bit like a supersized Suzuki X90. Choosing the three-door should at least get you around the mysterious 'exploding rear screen' problem that afflicted the five-door hatch, but not the sagging hinges problem caused by the not-so-bright placement of the spare wheel.

Who wouldn't want a topless 4x4?
Who wouldn't want a topless 4x4?
What else can go wrong? How long have you got? Actually, most of the potential faults only apply to early models, so we should be able to discount the fractured rear hub assembly suspension problem that made it hard to hold the car in a straight line, the unlatched front seats that would tip forward under heavy braking, and the chafing wiring harness that would knock out fans, fuel pumps, lights, air-con, ignition, engine management, ABS, HDC, and SRS. We can also forget about the dodgy child locks on cars built between July and September 2002.

The good thing is that most difficulties (like the diagnostic connector issue on 2000-2002 1.8 petrols) should already have been resolved through that blizzard of recalls. What about the blowing head gasket that blighted all 1.8 petrols (like this one)? Well, that's where the 'some service history' referred to in the ad becomes important.

History gaps notwithstanding, good Freelander 1s remain well sought after, and the specimen we have here does look to have been well pampered by its previous owners. The turquoise carpet is nicely redolent of the interior design schtick LR was getting into at the time. It's less than practical, but the compensation is a well thought-out cabin with lots of storage cubbies. The extensive use of damage-resistant plastic body panels helps too. Also, here you've got a tow bar, always a nice protective addition to any car even if you never tow anything.

You could argue that if any Freelander 1 has got to this point in what looks to be still-decent condition, maybe it would be a kindness not to subject it to the dirty rigours of the council tip. Sorry, recycling centre. That's the new posh name, don't ye know.


Here's the ad.

MOT February 2015. Road Tax August 2014. Drives Very Well. Some Service History. Very Good Condition For Its Year. Ready to Drive Away.

Spec Features - Driver's seat with lumbar adjustment, Electronic traction control, Electric heated + adjustable door mirrors, Electric front windows, Height adjustable steering column, Perimetric and volumetric anti theft alarm, RDS radio/cassette, Radio frequency remote control central locking, Robust passive engine immobilisation. 4 seats.

 

Author
Discussion

ManicMunky

Original Poster:

525 posts

119 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
Nope! Wouldn't touch it all!

Jim the Sunderer

3,238 posts

181 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
Mismatched tyres- I bet the rear diff is disconnected like they all are.

y2blade

56,029 posts

214 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
First the New Corsa as best car ever in news pages rolleyes

now this......PH is getting better all the time

Jasper Gilder

2,166 posts

272 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
I'd heard that a lot are 2WD as well

Cotic

469 posts

151 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
I had one of these from new in 2001; ran it fault-free for five years before moving it on. Actually, there was a fault; the speaker grilles went rusty...

Great memories of a holiday in Normandy tootling around with the hard top off and the sunroofs out; as close to a five-seat SUV convertible as you could get! A trip to an off-road course at Abingdon proved the off-road credentials too, kept up with our kid's bobtail through most of the obstacles.

Wouldn't have another though, 27mpg was the best I saw, and the handling was rather like a beach dinghy.

StarmistBlue400

3,029 posts

217 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
Crock of st.

'Perimetric and volumetric anti theft alarm, RDS radio/cassette, Radio frequency remote control central locking, Robust passive engine immobilisation'

Like anyone is going to steal it wink




JDMDrifter

4,039 posts

164 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
What an atrocious piece of misery!

y2blade

56,029 posts

214 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all

NailedOn

3,114 posts

234 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
Jasper Gilder said:
I'd heard that a lot are 2WD as well
A cheap solution for when the IDR fails!

I had two Freelanders.
The first was a TD5 Auto which was faultess but sluggish.
The second, bought on the back of the first was a V6. Everything that could go wrong did. A good concept woefully executed.

V8 FOU

2,970 posts

146 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
Urrgh! Yukk....

THAT centre viscous diff, no. H/gaskets - I could bang on about the dozens of those I've done, the modifications, but no.

One life, Just leave It Alone.

VinceFox

20,566 posts

171 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
Shockingly st cars. Avoid.

mrpenks

368 posts

154 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
The horror of a K series engine all wrapped up in mid 90s Landrover build quality. Fantastic.

J4CKO

41,287 posts

199 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
Never has there been a car that has less want for me, even new ones, and I expect they are fairly decent fail to raise a glimmer of interest.

The K series had its issues in smaller cars, sticking the poor thing in this big dollop was too much for its under specced cooling system, coupled with owners with zero mechinical sympathy killed them in double quick time, I remember motor traders saying they wouldnt touch petrol Freelanders.

Axionknight

8,505 posts

134 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
My Dad had one of these in the garage when he lived out in the sticks, I think it was a 1.8 and it was a turd of a vehicle. No joy, no speed, no fun, no reliability no nuthin'.....

Crap shed this week.

skyrover

12,668 posts

203 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
Hell no... land rovers darkest hour

rpguk

4,458 posts

283 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
I didn't know the back of them actually came off! I don't recall,seeing that even in reviews.

As it is I'd have thought a RAV4 would be a better proposition.

Edited by rpguk on Friday 25th July 09:45

pete5570

270 posts

171 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
The wife has a 2005 HSE td and that is a crock of ste, so I imagine this is gonna be a complete dog. We had the 1.8 petrol years ago and is was the single most unreliable mode of transport I have ever had the misfortune to own! Our current one is going soon thankfully. We've owned 2 discos and a V8 range rover and none of these gave any issues, but the freelander we have now! Top spec but hardly any of the toys work, the knocks and clucks from underneath are getting worse by the day and it has no go. A hateful thing indeed. I have a Y reg Mondeo as a work car and everything works, it is better to drive and I know it will get me where I want to go. Best left well alone!

B'stard Child

28,324 posts

245 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
Yuck - I predict page two for the first positive comment as the bearded "one wife - leave it" brigade join up en mass to offer an alternative viewpoint on living with a LR Product

jumare

417 posts

148 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
We had the later version (round headlights) TD4 5 door, it was OK for a small SUV. I didn't like towing with it, felt too light, so went back to a Discovery TD5.

I don't think they (Freelanders) deserve the derision being given to them. Don't like the Freelander 2 though, too boring looking.

The Don of Croy

5,977 posts

158 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
A friend had an early 5 door on his company car scheme.

In under a year it consumed two gearboxes, an a/c unit, and sundry 'minor' items.

Next year he opted out and promptly went back to a RAV4.

As the write up puts it - good idea, poor execution.