Mine's an early L Series diesel that's still running super reliably even though it'll be 20 years old next year. I don't suppose you'll end up with an L Series but I love my oft smokey, always noisy English diesel that was derived from the Perkins Prima and can trace its roots back to Rover engines from the 60's and run in cars such as the MGB (we'll skip over Marinas and the like!) and probably back further. Its last British incarnation was when they cast an extra cylinder into it, slapped on common rail injection and a chain and called it the TD5 - although it is still being developed in India both as a direct injection as used in Freelander and as a common rail engine Rover developed as the G Series to be 'the' TD4 before BMW killed it off. It returns the same fuel economy as the M47 TD4 but isn't as quick off the lights although you can run it on chip fat should you wish to and is less likely to leave you waiting for the AA in the station car park because an electronic component/sensor says NO. TD4's good, L Series is great
The V6's consume LOTS of fuel and can be THE most difficult engines to fix when they go wrong - which they have a tendency to do. The 1.8 petrols are super engines and usually surprise people with their capability in Freelander, but if you go that way, go with the expectation that head gaskets fail with regularity - probably on about the same regularity as the belts need changing - although it can be 2 HGs to each belt change.
I would recommend Freelander to anyone - unless you need lots of space in the boot.
Given the way the 4WD (AWD) works, you do need to keep an eye on your tyres (you absolutely must run matching make/model tyres and keep an eye on pressures - TPMS are great) and do a check on its VCU every now and then - budget for a recon when you get your car (£275 for VCU and support bearings from Bell Engineering) as even good condition Freelanders are probably poodling around on VCUs past their sell by date. I'm not a great fan on getting inspections on cars done when purchasing - but on Freelander, if you can, do an oil change on the IRD (front diff/transfer box thingie) - if the oil comes out grey - walk away, if it comes out looking like oil, you should have a good car. I wasn't aware of these characteristics of Freelander when I got mine and a couple of years later my transmission went into melt down - as many do. The plus side on that is that I found LZ to help me fix it
Other than the transmission incident (which is the only time its failed to get me home), its run boringly reliable for 8 years in my ownership. Other than servicing and parts you would consider normal wear and tear, such as tyres and brakes, it has needed remarkably few other bits fixed, one of which was the starter motor which is the only time I believe it has failed to start - it really has been amazing. I have used and abused it as well, its towed a 109 SSW home on a transporter trailer (over legal spec), broken an axle on a commercially hired trailer cos I overloaded it with concrete slabs (way over legal spec), towed our boat and all the camping gear (as well as us 4) over mountains on our holidays, taken 5 adults and our luggage on numerous air-conditioned road trips around NZ when we have visitors, starts every turn of the key on frosty mornnings to go collect the day's work as well as when its -7 (or what ever) up in the high country on fishing trips and piles down the river bed on fishing trips - even in 2WD with the TC light flickering away
Another plus for Freelander is that parts are readily available from the usual Landie suppliers and, I recon, cheap. Having had a couple of Discos, they are also a dream to work on - everything is so much lighter and easier to handle/fix.
For £4k, you'll have the pick of any F1 probably - so be choosy, you will get a low mileage one in really good condition. Even then though do check the IRD oil if you can as often you can not tell the condition just by looking at it - those 4 matching tyres may not have been on there for long! A dead VCU looks identical to a perfect one, although reversing on full lock and feeling for braking effect can give you an indication it is not always picked up.
