Looking at buying a 2000 Freelander, any good?

[B3Svert]

I am in need of a load lugger/dog wagon and have seen a 2000 Freelander (1.8 petrol) for sale with 61k on the clock. Knowing next to nothing about these cars, what should I be looking for?
It's got a lot of history on it, last service was at 58k in May 08. HG went and was replaced some time before that (saw the receipt, can't remember the date).
Full leather interior, AC etc. Price seems to be ok at list £2895 before haggling of course.
Any opinions/advice I should know about?
Cheers

[chibbard]

I am about to sell my wife's car that we have owned from new if you are interested. It's a 51 reg with 73K and open to similar offers. It's an ES model (high spec) in Monte Carlo blue etc. Personally, we have found it to be an excellent car and think they get a lot of bad reviews, admittedly the earlier ones were bad but our one has been excellent (apart from the head gasket issue that was resolved 5 years ago). Alternativelly, good luck with the search. You'll probably see a number of posts saying how crap they are now, but I would ignore them....

[300bhp/ton]

B3Svert said:

I am in need of a load lugger/dog wagon and have seen a 2000 Freelander (1.8 petrol) for sale with 61k on the clock. Knowing next to nothing about these cars, what should I be looking for?
It's got a lot of history on it, last service was at 58k in May 08. HG went and was replaced some time before that (saw the receipt, can't remember the date).
Full leather interior, AC etc. Price seems to be ok at list £2895 before haggling of course.
Any opinions/advice I should know about?
Cheers

Freelanders are great vehicles. The 1.8 is a good engine although head gasket faillures are common, but easy to repair and not nearly as much an issue as some (those who've never owned one) try to claim.

MPG on the 1.8 will only be mid 20's thouhg. For me I personally prefer how the diesel drives, ok less HP and slower but its more grunty and relaxed, also should see mid 30's mpg.

The 2.0 Di is very good as is the latter Td4.

If you ever plan to go off road make sure the Freelander has TCS and Hill Decent control, without it, it'll be rubbish off road.

Things to watch for are uneven tyre wear, the centre diff can go and cuase tyre wear issues and a juddering. Often some dodgy sellers will remove the rear section of the drive train so as to make it FWD only. It'll drive ok on the road but of course its then not a 4x4.

There are plenty of buyers guides if you Google it.

[A.J.M]

Going by your post in G G im not sure if its still relevant.

Dont be put off by people saying mine went wrong with x,y or z breaking. When did you ever see a post saying, this week nothing on my car broke? Exactly, rarely if at all. People like to moan over things but rarely praise it.

For that budget you would be looking at a 1.8 or old style diesel engine. You ight be able to get a td4 but would be an early one or high miler. ES spec is what you want. Has the full leather and air con and 16 inch alloys. Build quality was improved as the years went by with freelanders so you should be able to get a decent one. Do all the usual checks for any car and check the car is still a 4x4 as 300bhp/ton says/