Thanks but its a tall order to tick all the boxes ..........
Lives in the middle of nowhere on a nature reserve, 500 meters from the B road.
last winters snow caused him to damage his car trying to find the road.
Intends to use it in the winter only say 5000 miles a year.
To include some slow winter off road work , grass / stubble forest tracks, nothing too rough and always other 4x4 around to tow out of mud.
Mum cant mange to get in high vehicles so we thought a freelander was a sensible compromise.
do you think the diesel freelander makes better sense.
I have a diesel Freelander (TD4 51 plate manual) and have had nothing but trouble with it but some people on here say they're fine. We have a love hate relationship going on. One minute I want rid of it but when I do look for a replacement, I usually find that there's nothing that ticks all of the boxes for me. I had a BMW 3 series before that and over 5 years, it never let me down, not once. So I guess you could say that I'm expecting a lot of my Freelander.
If your father only intends to use it for driving in the winter, I guess MPG is not a major concern?
The Nissan X-Trail is generally said to be on par with the Freelander in terms off road capability. It doesn't have that much ground clearance (a little more than the Freelander afaik) making it relatively easy to get into. It boasts better ride handling and is more reliable overall. It's also more practical and has a massive cargo compartment by comparison. However, this does come at a price. They will typically cost a lot more than 1.8 Freelanders and somewhat more than a TD4. However, if he's willing to buy one with slightly higher mileage then perhaps he could compromise there.
The ageing Discovery 1 with side steps may be worth considering. They're reasonably comfortable and you can pick these up for Freelander 1.8 money. The diesels deliver reasonable fuel economy for their size. Parts are relatively cheap. They are very spacious and practical. However, they are not the most reliable vehicles in the world and they do suffer from well known rust issues. Though, I'd say it's much less of a risk than a Freelander 1.8.
There's also the Discovery 2. It's basically an evolved Disco 1. Better handling, slightly better fuel economy, better comfort, better performance, more electric gadgets etc and arguably more classy too and less agricultural. Some say they're generally more reliable than the Discovery 1 however, when things do go wrong, it's likely that repairs will cost much more. You will be unlikely to find a low mileage diesel TD5 version for under £4k though.
Then there's the Japanese 4x4 and 4x4 crossovers. Japanese cars are renowned for their reliability as you're probably already aware. I don't know much about the Toyota Rav4 and the Honda CRV but they're similar in size to the Freelander and have generally similar performance and characteristics. Though, they're not as capable off road than a Freelander, but by the sounds of it, your father doesn't need a capable off roader. It may be worth looking into those. That said, if I was spending much time in the forests, I definitely wouldn't consider one of these. I will probably get laughed at for even mentioning it too. But for light off road use, reliability(?) and for practicality over standard cars, they're fine imo.
