fFREELANDER,HOW MANY MODEL CHANGES?

Hi

Hope someone can help me.
I have fallen in love with the look of the Freelander. I have provisionally decided on a 5dr petrol for around £6000,prefabably a year 2000+ model.
I believe they first came out in 1998, how many model changes are they & what dates were they?
Also i feel i am best to test drive 2nd hand vehicles from a dealer rather than private as obviously i need to know if i still want one before buying but dont want to feel like i am tyre kicking.

Yours in anticipation

JL

Hi JL
I've not long purchased a W (2000) reg diesel 3 door Freelander. I previously owned a 1998 Petrol 5 door. Up to July 2000 (which is when mine was registered) there weren't that many changes. However, BMW took over and whoosh - everything changed, including the engines (TD4). I did test drives on all sorts of Freelanders from dealers and finally settled on the old L series Rover diesel. The drive, personally, of the TD4 was ok but didn't have that solid feel the L series has (or the problems). I love Green Laning and didn't want anything too pretty. The look of the new Freelanders is very nice and sporty, the interiors haven't really changed that much until Ford took over. Well, they now start to look like over rated Mondeos!!! The new 2006 is getting to look like the Disco 3 and new Range Rover - where is this Ford thing all going???.
Stick to dealers - I got a great trade-in, good price on the new Freelander and I managed to pick up the extra soft back really cheap. Join The Freelander Club and gets lots of advice from really experienced guys. www.freelanderclub.co.uk
Hope this helps
Esther

j.l said:

Hi

Hope someone can help me.
I have fallen in love with the look of the Freelander. I have provisionally decided on a 5dr petrol for around £6000,prefabably a year 2000+ model.
I believe they first came out in 1998, how many model changes are they & what dates were they?
Also i feel i am best to test drive 2nd hand vehicles from a dealer rather than private as obviously i need to know if i still want one before buying but dont want to feel like i am tyre kicking.

Yours in anticipation

JL

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Hi JL,
I've kinda fallen for the Freelander myself and consequently went out and purchased one this Monday. It's a 1999 example which I guess makes it the first of the breed (I assume the '99 possibly carried one or two minor spec changes from the '98 model?). It has a few signs of age and the odd malfunction of course but has otherwise been well looked after, came with a full service history and, so far, seems to be running well outside of one or two 'running gear' issues.
FYI (as they tend to state these days) a 'tyre kicker' is basically suggestive of a half-wit with no real serious intent (amongst other things) of the subject in question, and as such you don't immediately strike me (on face value) as such an individual otherwise -in the first instance- you wouldn't have bothered dialling into this forum

bobbzie said:

FYI (as they tend to state these days) a 'tyre kicker' is basically suggestive of a half-wit with no real serious intent (amongst other things) of the subject in question, and as such you don't immediately strike me (on face value) as such an individual otherwise -in the first instance- you wouldn't have bothered dialling into this forum

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Take it you realise you're stirring up a 8 year old thread!

JL probably didn't even buy a Freelander back in 2005 as that was his first and only post

.....JL probably went for a test drive, opened up the ashtray & boom

(please refer to RADIO ISSUES in Freelander Section)

RIP JL

biggeeeee said:

Take it you realise you're stirring up a 8 year old thread!

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I have a thirteen year old vehicle, so it's a relative thing...and you've answered ferchrissakes