The Freelander, Is It Any Good?

I'm looking into buying a Land Rover and was wondering if the Freelander is any any good, especially off road? My budget is £4000 so can't afford a shiny new Land Rover.
Thanks in advance for any replies.

Only a good one. Unfortunately, yu will only know for sure after yu bought it. Only consider a TD4 and read as many posts on here as poss first.

The Mad Hat Man said:

Only a good one. Unfortunately, yu will only know for sure after yu bought it. Only consider a TD4 and read as many posts on here as poss first.

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Are they any good off road?

It's a TD4 I'm looking for, I'll get a mechanic to check anything I may buy over before I do the deal.

Alan16ac said:

I'm looking into buying a Land Rover and was wondering if the Freelander is any any good, especially off road? My budget is £4000 so can't afford a shiny new Land Rover.
Thanks in advance for any replies.

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It doesn't have to be a Freelander....

£3,995 asking price for a 2000 X plate Disco 2 from a dealer:




2000 LAND ROVER Discovery 2.5 Td5 GS

Aye, nice car, but for some reason insurance is £1200 more on that than a TD4 Freelander for me.

Alan16ac said:

Aye, nice car, but for some reason insurance is £1200 more on that than a TD4 Freelander for me.

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Ouch! That's a large amount of cash.

Back to the Freelander then...

Tigger said:

Ouch! That's a large amount of cash.

Back to the Freelander then...

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Mmhmm

Freelander TD4 £1500
Defender 110 £1300
Disco £2700

So freelander it is, just wanted to know how well it copes off road in comparison to it's brothers and sisters.

Alan16ac said:

Mmhmm

Freelander TD4 £1500
Defender 110 £1300
Disco £2700

So freelander it is, just wanted to know how well it copes off road in comparison to it's brothers and sisters.

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Sorry, I can't help you there I drive a Freelander 2 and though it's going to get stuck before a Defender or a Disco, it's still hugely capable. However, I've got no experience of the FL1.

hi alan,i think its lack of ground clearance and a low ratio box as far as the off roading goes,no probs with traction with mine.tim.

Have a search on Youtube for Freelander off road or in snow etc, they have their limitations off road but dont seen to be too bad, if you have the correct tyres

I can genuinely say the Freelander 2 is the worst car I have ever bought.....dealer bought it back from me after only 5 weeks as it it so many faults....do not touch with a barge pole

hello,

In short - yes, they are good. Ive got a 99 Xedi (diesel) and its fab.. tows my daughters horse and trailer to horse club no problems.. Its cheap to run (ave 36mpg), cheap to insure (£310 fully comp) and rugged..

Its never going to be a defender or disco, but a defender has NO comfort and a disco does 20 mpg if youre lucky.

As previously said, ground clearence is the biggest difference between the freelander & the disco & defender.. The low ratio box doesnt make a massive diference to be honset.. If you get a high spec pre 01 model, or any model after 2002, youll have HDC.. its not quite a low ratio box, but its not far off...

Ignore the people on here who say "dont touch it with a barge pole" that only applies to petrol freelanders..

Theres good and bad in every marque, and on forums your more likely to see posts off people bitching about their problems than saying how great their jeeps are..

Mine tows mint, is cheap to run and decent off road. Get 4 decent tyres and youll be fine in the snow..

Ive been green laning withfriends who have a Suzuki grand vitara (which also has a low ratio box) and a nissan x trail (not sure if this has a low ratio box), and it blew them both away.. I even had to pull the x trail out of a ditch it got stuck in!!

If you want something good for winter, cheap to run, good off road, and comfy to drive, a freelander diesel is for you....

If you dont care about money on fuel and insurance, and are good with a welding torch, get a dicsovery...

If you couldnt give a **** for comfort, but want to drive anywhere, get a defender..

your budget wull get you the following:

At least a 03 plate top spec freelander diesel
At least a 99 series 3 mid range discovery
At elast a 94 defender 90/110 diesel.

Each of the above has its own qualities and its own drawbacks!

Good luck

my disco (ok - so its a 200TDi) does 30-36MPG

newcyboots said:

hello,

In short - yes, they are good. Ive got a 99 Xedi (diesel) and its fab.. tows my daughters horse and trailer to horse club no problems.. Its cheap to run (ave 36mpg), cheap to insure (£310 fully comp) and rugged..

Its never going to be a defender or disco, but a defender has NO comfort and a disco does 20 mpg if youre lucky.

As previously said, ground clearence is the biggest difference between the freelander & the disco & defender.. The low ratio box doesnt make a massive diference to be honset.. If you get a high spec pre 01 model, or any model after 2002, youll have HDC.. its not quite a low ratio box, but its not far off...

Ignore the people on here who say "dont touch it with a barge pole" that only applies to petrol freelanders..

Theres good and bad in every marque, and on forums your more likely to see posts off people bitching about their problems than saying how great their jeeps are..

Mine tows mint, is cheap to run and decent off road. Get 4 decent tyres and youll be fine in the snow..

Ive been green laning withfriends who have a Suzuki grand vitara (which also has a low ratio box) and a nissan x trail (not sure if this has a low ratio box), and it blew them both away.. I even had to pull the x trail out of a ditch it got stuck in!!

If you want something good for winter, cheap to run, good off road, and comfy to drive, a freelander diesel is for you....

If you dont care about money on fuel and insurance, and are good with a welding torch, get a dicsovery...

If you couldnt give a **** for comfort, but want to drive anywhere, get a defender..

your budget wull get you the following:

At least a 03 plate top spec freelander diesel
At least a 99 series 3 mid range discovery
At elast a 94 defender 90/110 diesel.

Each of the above has its own qualities and its own drawbacks!

Good luck

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Thanks great advice there mate!
Gonna go and look at a few freelanders near by tomorrow.

What's HDC btw?


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=53.163043,-3.155690

Alan16ac said:

Thanks great advice there mate!
Gonna go and look at a few freelanders near by tomorrow.

What's HDC btw?


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I am here: Google Maps

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HDC or Hill Descent Control is part of the ABS system, only that it's designed to try and keep the car under control during steep descents by applying variable brake pressure to the wheels that need it. When I had a Freelander, I never found it to be of any use and in the few situations where I thought I needed it, it actually did more harm than good. (the braking action can be a bit too harsh on snow/ice and can get you going sideways in next to no time!)

The Freelander's off road capability is good compared to other 4x4s in the same class. (Honda CRV, Rav4 etc etc) but if you plan on off roading a lot, you may find that it may get expensive... It will cope with pretty much everything except for deep ruts. Don't think "that's not too bad". Why? Simply because on 50%+ of the green lanes, you will encounter ruts, some of them may be too deep for the Freelander.

Yes, defenders and discos cost more to run. However, the Freelander IS a compromise and if you push it too hard in the mud, you WILL break it. Just to give you some idea, I managed to wreck pretty much my entire exhaust system on my Freelander, resulting in a near £400 repair bill. It was damaged by a concealed tree stump. If it had the ground clearance of a disco or defender, it wouldn't have happened. If you get a chance, look underneath a Freelander and you will see that the exhaust is shockingly low, especially where the u-bend meets the backbox on the TD4. With that kind of setup, you're just asking for trouble if you decide to venture off on rough terrain.

Also the Freelander TD4 manual has a weak clutch setup and if you don't learn how to master clutch control off road very quickly, you will soon kill it and this will cost you around £600 to repair. (as I found out 1 month after having a Freelander) Mastering clutch control may sound easy to any qualified driver, but it really does involve more skill when off road.

In the end I got rid of my Freelander and got an older/cheaper disco. Yes, the disco has its own problems to contend with, but as they're so cheap, I will simply just buy another when the time comes. For the price you're willing to splash out on a Freelander, you could buy two decentish discos.




Here's how I spent one Saturday:


The car was well and truly stuck due to being grounded. The rut/ditch was obscured by the water and although I still tried to keep away from that side, the car slid into it. It had proper General Grabber ATs on at the time too.

Only thing I miss from the freelander were the performance, fuel economy and comfort. But on the other hand, that's not what I bought a 4x4 for!

Outtheoffice said:

I can genuinely say the Freelander 2 is the worst car I have ever bought.....dealer bought it back from me after only 5 weeks as it it so many faults....do not touch with a barge pole

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Buy it off yer fer 10k cash?

Is it blue? Diesel auto wiv low miles?

I'll give a quid more for it
If yer gonna buy any landrover, yer gonna have problems at some point......so it's either a good set of tools and a bit of knowledge ( most of which can be found on here with the help of the members on this site ) or a deep wallet. I like my hippo ......never got stuck yet and spending the weekend under it the odd time it does play up getting it sorted is more fun than decorating

Mantamad said:

Have a search on Youtube for Freelander off road or in snow etc, they have their limitations off road but dont seen to be too bad, if you have the correct tyres

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And what are the "correct tyres", or better tyres?

Looks like I'll be buying a freelander to be honest.

Quick question, and I hope I don't sound like a dumbass.
But so far I've been into fast cars and cornering fast, now coilovers are popular, they lower the car, help eliminate body roll etc = faster through the bends.

The main thing I'm getting at is lowering the car, is there anything people do to 4x4s to raise the car? Could I increase the freelanders ground clearance?

yes - many peeps have done - but it aint much better and yu risk going thru tyres very quickly as it affect camber.