reliability myth or maybe im lucky

Bought my gaylander commercial new in 1999 as i didnt wanna be astra/escort van man and i used to tow a welding plant and go on sites that they would get stuck on, i can honestly say its been a pleasure to own and drive, the only things that have gone wrong are the passenger window wire broke, startermotor stopped working and the brake light switch needed to be replaced and obviously a new battery, the only big problem was due to me ignoring the fact the VCU was on its way out and it caused the rear diff to go bang and chuck shards out the casing, so in 13 years its never let me down and has by far paid for itself and given 184ish thousand miles and still going strong and in my mind still looks good with no rust underneath or on top, we dont use it as a work vehicle anymore, the wife uses it as a runaround now and we cant honestly bring ourselves to sell it as its been such a good vehicle
So look after them properly and you will get good service out of them

IS it the 2.0ltr Rover L series doozle? If so then that's why, they is the most reliable Freelanders ever built some say.

Some might also say that an exploding diff is a rather visible blemish on any given record of reliablity - but you're clearly alot more forgiving than most! Good for you mate, we need more people who have good stories to tell.

And you're absolutely right about servicing them.

i really feel the same way about my old one 2001 td4 auto gs and was not going to part with it but went into lr stratstones and they had just had a newer one in a 2006 td4 auto hse, and fell in love again but the old one did me good the only thing that went really wrong was the vcu at 167000 miles was not bad but it did take the auto box which I also had done but still loved it , i wanted my wife to have it but she prefers manuels so kept her own 1998 1800 petrol xei . with only 70,000 on the clock

^^^ proof if you ever needed it. When it comes to Freelanders Knowlege is reliability!

WLJayne said:

IS it the 2.0ltr Rover L series doozle? If so then that's why, they is the most reliable Freelanders ever built some say.

Some might also say that an exploding diff is a rather visible blemish on any given record of reliablity - but you're clearly alot more forgiving than most! Good for you mate, we need more people who have good stories to tell.

And you're absolutely right about servicing them.

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To be fair the exploding diff was me being a cock and ignoring the VCU vibration, so i put that down to me letting the car down rather than the car letting me down, lesson learnt

little1uk said:

I put that down to me letting the car down rather than the car letting me down, lesson learnt

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If only all drivers shared that attitude!

One diff in 185000 isnt a bad reliability record by any measure . There are a lot of vehicles that dont get past half that , withgout a major issue , and a lot are Japanese or German .
I have operated 99% british built vehicles in fleet numbers over 40years and have only had reasonable levels of defects mostly down to wear and tear rather than bad design . JMHO

I think fixing faults sooner rather than just leaving them has a huge effect on future reliability. If your clutch is on the way out then you know to get it changed. If you ignore it then you'll break down and risk meeting ratty. Faults can happen with any car, but some more often due to owners who dun't look after them. Some failures occur and you have to put up with them. Others can be solved before they gets worse.