Freelander 1 Am I daft?

Morning

Right bear with me...

Recently bought the mondeo I'm using ( mk4 titanium tdci 2.0) to replace my short owned discovery td5 due to an imminent move to the peak district as buying a house with the mrs near bakewell and I will be commuting to work in Ashby 50 miles away which with everything else i end doing about 30k a year or there abouts, Plan is once I'm Settled to start job hunting to something more local. ,


Prob is the mondeo it's not that great, its twitchy to drive on country roads ( if I'm honest i think it's become grown too big for the suspension to cope) and is physically too big for 90% of things I use my car for. plus sides it does 600 miles to a tank at 48mpg

Now the reason I think Im daft..

I want a freelander..

I miss the high up driving position of the disco and the sense of adventure driving a landrover gives you, that sort of "where are we going to day?" sort of thing..

Now realistically I do too many miles to afford to run a disco over 30k a year on my wages In and as I've always liked the old FL1 this is the new choice, in my head it will reach reasonable mpg over the route i use ( A515-A50 then lanes to ashby de la zouch) and with plenty of green lanes up there i can stretch its legs and get it mucky every now and then

So I'm trying to figure out if a FL1 TD4 will be financially viable over that sort of mileage ( more than on likely road tyres or road biased all terrains on) and will it be a reliable choice (will be my only car )or not and would i be better off sticking with the rep mobile?

so is anyone else doing that sort of mileage in a fl1? And am I daft?

Yeah you're daft.

you will struggle to get such mpg even with a diesel FL
maybe a suspension refresh on the mondeo would be an idea ?

We had a FL1 and whilst it was ok at what it did, a long distance cruising car it was not. The main problem is that with 5 gears and a rather low 5th gear it needs a lot of effort to keep at motorway speeds compared to other things. The mpg also drops loads at motorway speeds.

Last year we went to Munich and back and whilst it performed perfectly I wouldn't want to go again in it.

Go for something in between like a Focus or Mazda 3 I reckon.

Saying that my parents are selling a 2008 BMW X3 2.0d M Sport with 65k miles for £7.5k, which would be a more sensible choice

Hmm, that Mondeo is cheap to run. A FL TD4 [M47 motor] won't be as cheap I'd say about 40ish mpg achievable. Reliability and cost of servicing probably favour the Mondeo too. Would the sale of the Mondeo pay for a FL and maybe leave you some cash in hand? There's that cost of ownership calculation: all costs including purchase price divided by km will give you a £ per km cost. However, it does leave out the enjoyment / fun factor. Will watch with interest. The late model TD4s are nice vehicles.

I sometimes wish I didn't have that " are we going today" feeling.

digby said:

you will struggle to get such mpg even with a diesel FL
maybe a suspension refresh on the mondeo would be an idea ?

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I know it will only do 37 ish combined and i've looked into it on mondeo rear bushes are about £220 ( you need specialist tool to wind out bushes) and fronts come to £90 per arm but could save on labour and do those myself but is it worth it on a £3000 car?

htr said:

Hmm, that Mondeo is cheap to run. A FL TD4 [M47 motor] won't be as cheap I'd say about 40ish mpg achievable. Reliability and cost of servicing probably favour the Mondeo too. Would the sale of the Mondeo pay for a FL and maybe leave you some cash in hand? There's that cost of ownership calculation: all costs including purchase price divided by km will give you a £ per km cost. However, it does leave out the enjoyment / fun factor. Will watch with interest. The late model TD4s are nice vehicles.

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No fun factor n mondeo at all only thing i enjoy decent stereo, could get a decent fl for about £2k oand mondeo worth about £3300 on a good day so cash in hand easily

james6546 said:

The main problem is that with 5 gears and a rather low 5th gear it needs a lot of effort to keep at motorway speeds compared to other things. The mpg also drops loads at motorway speeds.

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TBH I'm on the motorway less than 10 minutes as its only 2 junctions down where i get off and back onto a-b roads

Have you driven one? If so you should.

Personally I didn't get on with the seating position, gearbox or clutch! It was a lot better once we put a ronbox on it and blanked off the EGR though.

james6546 said:

Have you driven one? If so you should.

Personally I didn't get on with the seating position, gearbox or clutch! It was a lot better once we put a ronbox on it and blanked off the EGR though.

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Only ever moved em around many years ago and passenger ride in one not long back n found that seat ok lol cant be much worse than mondeo that seats too narrow for my arse

LUKBENPHI said:

Only ever moved em around many years ago and passenger ride in one not long back n found that seat ok lol cant be much worse than mondeo that seats too narrow for my arse

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The seat is ok, just too high and doesn't have much support.

james6546 said:

The seat is ok, just too high and doesn't have much support.

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Well ive got one on my watch list i'm going to have a butchers at so might go see if dealer will give me a test drive

cash em both in and get the X3 !!!!!

Doing 30k a year means that you will spend a long time in your vehicle. So you should have something nicer to be in than a simple A to B vehicle.

My last car was a Mk4 Golf GTI with 200 bhp. It was great on A and B roads and quite comfortable on short motorway journeys and got about 35 mpg. But doing a long journey was tiring on the moderately stiff suspension and light body weight.

In contrast my TD4 is a whole lot better at long distances for me. I reckon the further your bum is from the road the more relaxed the driving is. It sits well at 70 - 75 mph but tyre noise (with my AT tyres) limits comfortable cruising to those speeds. It is also confidence inspiring in wet weather. Sitting high up also means I can see more stuff, both further up the road and out of the side windows.

Cost of ownership could be a problem for a high mileage driver though. 12k service interval plus reduced reliability means it could well be in the garage a lot more often than my old Golf or your Mondeo. On the plus side you won't need to replace the fuel pump and all the injectors at 130k like you will on the Mondeo.

I get 37 mpg with about 2/3 town/country and about 1/3 motorway.

got a 2002 TD4 which I bought for £500 its been pretty reliable only had the HP sensor wiring loom problem in the 12 months I have owned it. Recon it does 40+ mpg on a longer run. I would say go for it, deffo more fun than ford Mondeo to drive

There's a bit of daftness having any Land Rover as a daily drive - if that daily drive involves lots of miles. I used to pile around UK and Europe (mainly motorways) in my D1 TDI300... it was very comfortable, had a great view, made you feel real good and would just about stick to 80 (so long as there were no hills) - but it was getting less than 30mpg at those speeds and when you had to stop quickly the enjoyment turned to extreme fright very quickly! Bit mad really.

When we moved over here we got a D1 V8 and switched to the sort of roads you're describing - we also switched to a 100kmh (60mph) speed limit and coppers that will nick you if you even think about exceeding it. Once again the satisfaction factors were fantastic, but when it was running well and returning 17mpg it was madness and its not so well figures of 13mpg - lunacy.

So a high miler daily drive Landie is somewhere between daft and lunacy!

Unless you've got real deep pockets for an Evoque - the only Landie that gets to the daft end of the daft/mad//lunacy swingometer is a Freelander.

Since we switched to Freelander 5 years ago the "smiles per miles" may not be quite as high as a Disco - but we get a lot more enjoyment from it because we go places rather than worry about how much it will cost. Ours is an L Series, but the mpg figures are very similar to the TD4. The worst figures we've had from it have been when we went touring with 5 adults and our luggage. Mix of open 'A' and 'B' type roads, throw in climbs up mountain passes over 3,000 feet and 30 plus degree weather meaning long periods of AC and we returned 36/37mpg. Not bad. With 1 or 2 people we get a whisker shy of 40mpg. The car also performed fantastic on that trip (as it always does) and all 5 people enjoyed the trip in comfort - . Admittedly - we're keeping to Kiwi 60mph limits - if you push to 70 or 80, those figures will drop.

I obviously love my Freelander - think its a cracking motor, and do not think its a daft option what so ever. However, I do see it is a bit daft to spend 20% more on fuel when you don't need to - but then you'd also be a bit daft to spend so much of you life in a boring Mondeo!

Put HT tyres on as well not AT - it will help economy/comfort - if need be get a 2nd set of wheels with ATs for the weekend! Manual rather than auto as well for economy - if the journey doesnt't have a lot of gear changing it won't matter much, but if it does the economy will be a lot better.

you will need a 4x4 in Bakewell in the winter time especially if we have a lot of snow some roads get closed in winter over buxton way I know I used to travel that way and when the roads are closed they will only let 4x4s through so if you have a freelander make sure everything works

Freelander 2 would be a better proposition

We used our FL1 as the main car for over 10 years. Never let us down.
We use tarmac tyres with a high rain rating. With the Ron box on we get 35_45mpg. This is going over the woodhead pass, snake pass to Manchester from Rotherham and M1 to Birmingham.
Drives really nice, but I would recommend the auto box as it's alot more relaxed to drive.
The downside is if you put the sun visor down you can't see out the windscreen very well, and I'm only 5ft9..
Now to put it into perspective, we now have a grand Cherokee as the main car and getting back into the Freelander feels like driving an old shed! But it's still great fun. Just service it regularly.
Mike

digby said:

cash em both in and get the X3 !!!!!

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Slightly out of my budget!

Bandit127 said:

Doing 30k a year means that you will spend a long time in your vehicle. So you should have something nicer to be in than a simple A to B vehicle.

My last car was a Mk4 Golf GTI with 200 bhp. It was great on A and B roads and quite comfortable on short motorway journeys and got about 35 mpg. But doing a long journey was tiring on the moderately stiff suspension and light body weight.

In contrast my TD4 is a whole lot better at long distances for me. I reckon the further your bum is from the road the more relaxed the driving is. It sits well at 70 - 75 mph but tyre noise (with my AT tyres) limits comfortable cruising to those speeds. It is also confidence inspiring in wet weather. Sitting high up also means I can see more stuff, both further up the road and out of the side windows.

Cost of ownership could be a problem for a high mileage driver though. 12k service interval plus reduced reliability means it could well be in the garage a lot more often than my old Golf or your Mondeo. On the plus side you won't need to replace the fuel pump and all the injectors at 130k like you will on the Mondeo.

I get 37 mpg with about 2/3 town/country and about 1/3 motorway.

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dont say that the mondeo's already at !14k

No problem with doing my own servicing as i'm an ex mechanic so that will keep costs down theoretically

Totally agree with the bum further from the floor disco was the best mile muncher i've had but no good on motorways as wasn't that quick to accelerate so you were constantly having to plan your over takes or you'd get stuck behind something waiting for a gap

I had the gti too but standard and agree totaly, diesel gt tdi was better much softer suspension but it rolled in the corners badly.

freelance said:

Freelander 2 would be a better proposition

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Sadly Budget wort allow it