Salisburylander · Jun 11, 2013

Hindsight is a wonderful thing! Last year I sold my FL1 1.8 and bought a Mercedes ML! It seemed a good idea at the time but turned out to be one hell of a mistake! The build quality is not dissimilar to a 70's Morris Marina and it's been to the garage on numerous occasions, costing hundreds of pounds!

I am now thinking of exchanging it for a TD4 auto, I've seen an '04 in silver that I like the look of but a bloke at work reckons the auto box is nothing but trouble!

Is it really that bad? Surely it can't be as bad as a ML?

Nodge68 · Jun 11, 2013

Salisburylander said:
Hindsight is a wonderful thing! Last year I sold my FL1 1.8 and bought a Mercedes ML! It seemed a good idea at the time but turned out to be one hell of a mistake! The build quality is not dissimilar to a 70's Morris Marina and it's been to the garage on numerous occasions, costing hundreds of pounds!

I am now thinking of exchanging it for a TD4 auto, I've seen an '04 in silver that I like the look of but a bloke at work reckons the auto box is nothing but trouble!

Is it really that bad? Surely it can't be as bad as a ML?

It's like anything, you pay your money and take your chance. You found out the hard way that Mercedes are rubbish with a posh badge and fancy price tag!!
I'm not a fan of auto's but don't think the Jatco unit used in the Freelander is a particularly bad box, yes they can fail but it's not a uncommon to see them go 100'000 miles without trouble ether.
The most important thing with an auto box is regular fluid changes with a suitable fluid.

teddywood1 · Jun 11, 2013

I did 171,000 in mine before any trouble, but that was down to my own stupidity not have the fluid changed at 60,000 ,now I have another one and the first thing I did was have the fluid changed even though it had only done 50,000 and I can say they are better autos than ford I was for ever having problem with them , and they are a 5 speed auto ,the later Freelander 2 has even more gears .

Salisburylander · Jun 11, 2013

I need an auto due to worn out knees! Trouble is that the cars I can afford are all in the 100k mile bracket; although I reckon I could change a gearbox if necessary!

loudandproud205 · Jun 12, 2013

TBF you ended up with a bad ML by the sounds of it my neighbor has had theres about 5 years and have had no real problems with it.

I was tempted by one a year or so ago deciding between that XC90 or X5 in the end my parents gave me there old Td5, some day I wish I had bought a Volvo lol

Salisburylander

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Nodge68

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teddywood1

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Salisburylander

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loudandproud205

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