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Looking at a low mileage Freelander, what at peoples thoughts and worries ?
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My mechanic just laughs at the mention of them. Lots of work for him, though....
RAV4 is a much better vehicle.
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Dreadful cars. One family member and one close friend had them (one petrol, one diesel). Both ran up four figure garage bills inside of 6 months. Neither would buy again.
The diesel example had five breakdowns and three grands worth of repairs in 18 months.
They look quite nice. Don't be fooled.
Cheers
DP
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It's probably low mileage due to the time it's spent off the road being fixed :-)
Edited by daveyjp on 04/07/2008 at 16:59
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"It's probably low mileage due to the time it's spent off the road being fixed :-) "
And because having paid the garage bills the owners couldn't afford to fill it up ;-)
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the time it's spent off the road being fixed:-)
Well, they say Landrovers are great Off Road vehicles! Maybe this is what they meant....
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I was rying to think which part of it was reliable ! I think the pedal rubbers & glove box lasted ok. Could I say something good about it Nah!
I Doc
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Colleague had one as a company car.
There are several acronyms he used, none of which can be repeated here. Needless to say he never ever had another.
Unreliable heap of junk is rather longer than the three words he used.. one of which (the middle one) was "of".
Good for spares: cos that's what they need.
Fit and forget? Nope.
Fit and worry about what will fail next.
Bargepole job.
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I've never had anything to do with them apart from deliver them, and we tend to hear some unrepeatable stories about many makes delivering to fleets etc.
Are all variants of this model as bad, i understand the 4 cyl petrol engine could be not the best choice.
Was the V6 as bad, was it the gearboxes as well, i know the disco boxes were not good.
Surely the BMW diesel was ok.
Was it the dealer attitude in many cases?
Not wanting one of these, just curious about how bad they are/were.
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One of the sparkies I work with uses a T reg one as a company vehicle. Think he does about 60 - 70 miles a day.
Has not given him any trouble AFAIK in the time I've been working with him (Only three months mind) but it had a LOT spent on it before he bought it. (HGF and various other bits)
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Not a pre Mar 01, but MiL has a 53 plate (pre facelift) 2.5 ES auto - it's a nice car. Not given any trouble in the past four years and is used as a workhorse in different driving conditions. It is serviced on the button at a main dealer.
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The franchise I used to work for sold these at another dealer, I finished there in 2001.
Despised internally but lovely showrrom :-)
Some didnt even make it as far as the customer before they broke down. Comically bad cars but excellent showroom appeal.
Latest products are better but in teh same way that being shot in the chest is better than in the head.
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Dont be put off buy all the bad press. You will need to look at 10 before you find a decent one.
My cousin works for Land Rover, and always said get a TD4 if you get one.
I bought a 1.8 GS Hardback. It has got an extremely good service history and in the last couple of years has had the Head Gasket replaced by Land Rover.
As with all K series engines, they need to have the oil and water checked regulary.
Yes they do have other problems,road noise being my biggest annoyence, but they are decent cars.
If you want one, get one that has done over 70/80k. Most probably would have had all the major repairs already done.
Landy zone has a good website forum where you will get a mixed bag of views!!
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I have a T reg Freelander 1.8 petrol, which used to be my wifes. It's done 74k miles and in the last 6 mths, here are the faults I've had repaired:
Shattered catalytic converter
Broken anti-roll arms
Blown head gasket (ouch!)
Complete exhaust
Cam belt replaced
Current problems:
Have bush problem at rear where the car judders and bangs as I corner.
ABS, Traction Control and Hill Descent Control lights all on constantly. Could be earth fault or ABS pump fault (apparently).
As I'm getting rid of the thing this week, I'll be leaving those for someone else to worry about.
My advice? Landrover are unreliable and poorly built. All the faults above are common on this model and mechanics love me because of the amount of business they get.
This one has full Landrover service history and I do less than 2k miles per year. I don't drive the vehicle hard and it is well maintained. Once they begin to fail, everything goes at once.
Never again.
Edited by jim_h on 01/08/2008 at 12:12
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Having had two of these over a nine year period I feel qualified to post on this.
The first one was a 1998 XEdI with just over 5,000 miles at a few months old and didn't have any problems with it. I got an average of 35MPG and this was traded in for a new TD4 GS in 2002. Again never had any problems and it was a great car to drive. This had the BMW engine so was quieter and more economical returning an average of 38MPG.
I sold this last year as we change our cars at 5 years old and bought a Honda CR-V. The reason I didn't go for the new Freelander was that I didn't like the new style or the price!
If you are still considering one definitely go for a diesel. The 1.8 petrol had loads of problems and the 2.5 is very thirsty.
I know there were owners who did have bad experiences with Freelanders and maybe I was lucky having two good ones but from my point of view they were both great cars.
Andyfr
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My dau has a W reg and its cost me £5k in 2 years. Transfer box, viscous coupling plus clutch followed by head gasket and full service. Add on the tyres and exhausts.....She was told to get either a RAV4 or a Suzuki but decided on neither. My local mechanics hate the car but love the work...Don't buy one.
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First post on this forum so - hello!
Back on topic! ... Bought a new (ex dem) 5 door 2.0 XEDI in Dec '99. Its mainly been used by my wife but aswell as her general use it has been used to tow a trailer (motorbikes to trackdays) and recently a 4 berth caravan. Its done just over 72,000 miles and was dealer serviced every 12 months (free - part of the deal at point of sale) whilst in warranty and then independent every 12 months after that.
Forgetting consumable costs (tyres, brake pads, exhaust etc) over the years once warranty expired we've had to replace:
Nearside door catch.
Rear door catch.
Rear window unit/controller (cable snapped).
Front prop bearings.
Front oil lines. (They become slightly porous over time and you get a small oil leak. They lasted 8 years on ours).
All of that ^^ (OE parts) came to £450 as we fitted them ourselves or mates rates (so no labour). They are all pretty common faults so plenty of info to help on the net - particularly on landyzone as mentioned.
We keep considering changing it, but tbh its at the point where its not worth selling now. After a full inspection and service a few weeks ago prior to its next MOT in a couple of weeks the front suspension bushes were looking worn so we've just had the front suspenion arms replaced and a hot wash/ waxoyle underneath at a total cost of £450.
The 2.0 diesel engine is a plodder but seems a reliable one. We're getting +/- 35mpg depending on how and where its driven.The car is very clean (looks a lot younger than it is) both inside and out. Its worn very well. Despite the general slagging off they get we've been really pleased with ours and (touch wood) its been cheap to run and reliable. Nice drive aswell. Very comfy.
Given the choice I'd steer clear of the petrol engines as the k-series head gasket issue is considered a matter of when rather than if by most.
HTH.
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Engine wise, the 1.8 is probably too small to pull such a heavy car, added to the movement in the 4x4 drivegear and added strains on the engine, it has a greater risk of headgasket failure. If you do like the petrol, look out for one that has been replaced with a landrover headgasket and oilrail. The 2.5 is a KV6 Rover engine and other than a big 3 belt cambelt service every 90K which can be as much as £600.
The early diesels were Rover L series and are pretty much bulletproof, based on old technology means they are a little noisy on idle though. The TD4 is a BMW unit and is generally reliable - unsure if the LR application suffers fuel pump problems though?
Next door neighbour has had 2 now and runs them to quite high mileages, tows what can only be described as large flat on wheels all over the country and has had no problems at all with either of them. He now has a TD5 Discovery rather than the new Freelander 2.
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Well you will all be pleased to know, I didn't bother with a Freelander and chose a sensible Focus instead. Very pleased!
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