Buying a Freelander - Am I mad

[gsxrblue]

Hi everyone

Im looking into buying a Freelander TD4 for about 5k and everyone I talk to says to avoid like the plague.
Now having had a Citroen Xantia in the past Im used to bits dropping off but the Xantia was mechanically one of the most reliable cars Ive ever had.
Can anybody reasure me that they arnt as bad as I hear or should I look elsewhere ( X-Trail, Honda or Toyota)

Did Land rover sort the problems out and if so when ??

Hears hoping

Neil

[GreenLandy]

Old Freelander was scrap when it left the factory IMO IRD box and viscous prop are known to go and aren't cheap to replace. BUT I have to admit it they're a good little run about. I wouldn't have one but no of people who are happy. £5k gets you a lot of 4wd from the opposition!!!

[seltaeb]

Yawn !! There are lots of winger's on here that will take every opportunity
to knock the Freelander (Pipe smoking LR Snobs ).Go and have a
look at some .I've had a one for a couple of years they are great .The only thing
that fell off was me on a chair when i came to get it serviced .So called Specialists charging the same labour costs as LR Dealers and slagging them off on
forums IMO .

[GreenLandy]

seltaeb said:

Yawn !! There are lots of winger's on here that will take every opportunity
to knock the Freelander (Pipe smoking LR Snobs ).Go and have a
look at some .I've had a one for a couple of years they are great .The only thing
that fell off was me on a chair when i came to get it serviced .So called Specialists charging the same labour costs as LR Dealers and slagging them off on
forums IMO .

I'm not an LR snob or a so called specialist but having spent 2+ years working in a 4wd garage I thought the OT should no some of the problems.

greenlandy said:

BUT I have to admit it they're a good little run about

[seltaeb]

[quote=GreenLandy]Old Freelander was scrap when it left the factory

Hmmmm


Matt, what i was trying to say is,if i were a newbie to LR and was looking to buy
a Freelander or infact any LR product ,that sort of comment would put me off the
whole range. Didn't mean to offend,but you like using that throw away line.

Edited by seltaeb on Saturday 22 September 17:30

[Lancashire Lad]

Go for it. It may go wrong, but you only life once. They're great little 4x4s. If it does go wrong, it'll be easier to work on than a lot if its rivals.

[Graham]

Im not really a softroader fan, and the gaylander wouldnt be my choice of car, but the wifey had one, 1.8 K series at that, and the only real problem we had with it was an abs sensor fail.

the seats are mounted higher than i'd like, but other than that its a reasonable car for its size.

comfey enough, mpg was reasonable in the petrol and the handling is actually very good. If we hadnt sold it I'd have tried it on a track day

G

[JUST PANTS]

We have an 03 freelander 1.8 also,had it for about 6 months now and i think its great.
Its the wifes and i run a discovery xs tdi so find it nippy and nimble after the disco.
Also a couple of months ago i used it to do a 360 mile round trip,i kicked its head in for two days and it still returned over 30mpg.
Get one bought,many of the later ones 02 onwards are fitted with better quality head gaskets and ird units so are a lot stronger.

[Kentish]

We've had a 2003 Freelander 1.8 Serengeti since it was 5 months old after the dealer demo period and it's been great with no big issues.

They are well made, very solid, trim and interiors are very strong and they handle and ride really well for a 4x4.

Also, don't be fooled by some peoples comment about them being "soft roaders" - they are far from it!

I went around a quarry in pooring rain with some Discoveries and the Freelander could easily go anywhere the Discos could. In fact the Freelender was better in some areas as the overhangs are shorter.

My advice is buy as new and as low mileage as you can because the quality improved on later cars and the interiors were better.