Freelander reliability .....

I am seriously considering buying a new Freelander but all of the magazine reviews mention poor reliability.

Having owned 3 Fords and one Audi (A8 quattro) in the family over the last 9 years and only having reliabilty problems with the Audi . I thought I would ask this Forum if the relibablity of the Freelander was good.

At the moment I am inclined to buy a different 4x4.

Can anyone persuade me that the Freelanders reliability is good - and justify it?

btw I won't be using mine for real off road but will be going on rough tracks.

Listen to wot peeps who dont have an axe to grind, say. This is a lsndrover forum- opinion is devided into those that own them and think they are the best thing since sliced bread and those that have owned tbem and think they are a pile of ****e, and those that think they are stain on the "true" landrover mark.

You wont get a unbiased opinion on here- just look in the freelander forum at the fred titles!

if you feel the need to go gaylandering buy a diesel and make sure you have viscous coupling and rear diff checked.:welcome2:

wanabe said:

I am seriously considering buying a new Freelander but all of the magazine reviews mention poor reliability.

Having owned 3 Fords and one Audi (A8 quattro) in the family over the last 9 years and only having reliabilty problems with the Audi . I thought I would ask this Forum if the relibablity of the Freelander was good.

At the moment I am inclined to buy a different 4x4.

Can anyone persuade me that the Freelanders reliability is good - and justify it?

btw I won't be using mine for real off road but will be going on rough tracks.

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I hope they are wrong as I put a deposit on an HSE yesterday lol. About 20 mins after I left the showroom I was in an outlet shopping centre & there was a guy sitting in his Freelander 2, I asked him what he thaught of it & his reply was absolutely fantastic, love it to bits, had it almost a year & no worries!!


If they wear the Landrover badge then they are a Landrover & if you buy new you can only have a 2.2 diesel.

I’m with Mad Hat Man on this one - you are unlikely to get an unbiased report on this forum- I'm on my third Freelander. :welcome2:
The first two where never out of the workshop, but then again were corrugated underneath due to the abuse they got off road.
Was asked by a RAV4 driver the other day what I thought about my FL2, I turned the question on its head - why when he was thinking of getting rid of his 4 year old car was he not replacing it with another RAV4?
I told him the truth:
1 They are made in Britain - this matters to me.
2 I would probably still buy one if it broke down every week.
3 The new one is much more reliable than the old battered one.
4 They are the best compromise between road biased and off-road biased to suit my driving needs. ie I do a lot of road miles (30K a year), need to tow a caravan, and went across the Sahara last year all in the same vehicle.
5 In 160,000 miles I have only been let down once, they have always got me home, the one time I didn't make it I tried to do the 350+ miles to Newcastle and back knowing the clutch had been slipping for a week:doh:

Most opinions here are based on the freelander1, the freelander2 is a massive improvement and I don't think there are many people here who have one. There has been mention of them having problems with fuel pumps failing prematurerly.

I have a freelander (03 plate) its done 50k and been spot on over the last year or so since i've owned it. Until now... lol. the clutch has been playing up recently, sometimes it doesn't return (posted a thread on here about it) Not sure how major this problem is gonna turn out to be, it only does it occasionally at the mo so i'm waiting to see if it worsens whilst i save some money up to fix it. i'll keep you posted what it turns out to be. still, despite this problem the freelander is ideal for me. Befor this i owned a series 3, the series 3 was far superiour off road but broke down most weeks. As my only needs for a 4 wheel drive are camping, towing a small caravan, and mild green laneing the freelander does a fine job.

FFS were all agreeing with MHM today...that makes a change...

If you really are after an unbiased opinion then you have landed in wrong place...no fookin chance on here....

Having owned many and varied 4x4s including most of the LR marques I decided to buy another...

Like a **** I didnt listen to all the advice available and bought a Freelander....worse than that I bought a V6....and even worse again converted to LPG.....

I took all the ****e the numpties have thrown....took the FL to places they are not supposed to go (often dragging real 4x4s home behind me)

4 years & 60k miles years later was it a good decision....

BEST 4 X 4 IVE EVER OWNED.....THEY DO HAVE LIMITATIONS ..... THEY DO (LIKE ALL LR) NEED TO BE MAINTAINED.....THEY DO REALLY FOOK THE PURISTS WHO STILL THINK CART SPRINGS RULE RIGHT OFF

Dont expect to drive it without opening the bonnet.... Its a Landrover not a nissan

How much money are you looking to spend? Will it be a FL1 or 2?

Mine is a 04 HSE Auto and I've been doing all the proper things like regular oil and filter changes. Also got a Syngery 1 tuning module fitted.

I've owned a Disco 300Tdi and a V8 110 County, both are known for rust issues though my Disco came from cyprus and had much less than most but a really leaky roof!

I'm very happy with the Hippo so far, taking it for a play on Salisbury Plain once in a while. The only problem there was ground clearance in ruts and keeping the synergy dry. Mud and moderate wading had no problems.

I just put a deposit on an approved used 2008 Freelander 2 2.2 TD4 HSE with 16k miles on the clock and I am too worried by what people say about reliability. I just hope I will be lucky. Like the original poster, I too will not be doing anything extreme, I will be taking the car on gravel and mud maybe 10 times a year. and this is country roads, nothing special. Fingers crossed.

had mine from 6 months old td4 auto kalahari now done 141000 had a few niggles fuel leak and blown bulbs but thats it fingers crossed best 4x4 ive had and ive had a few including so called proper landrovers

tincan said:

had mine from 6 months old td4 auto kalahari now done 141000 had a few niggles fuel leak and blown bulbs but thats it fingers crossed best 4x4 ive had and ive had a few including so called proper landrovers

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The freelander is a proper landrover, it has just as many faults as the others.

and so endeth the lesson amen

Ive often jumped on the 'slag the f/l' bandwagon just for the fun of it, Im a couple of months new to land rover and from wot me read and experienced i reckon all l/r's is as reliable as the next just some worse than others... reminds me of a saying an old man told me years ago 'theres no such thing as ugly women.. just some better than others'

God his wife must have been ugly then.

well I have owned a FR2 GS auto for 3 years ! and its been the worse car for reliability in over 35 years of driving !
The faults I have had cover 6 pages of A4 paper and to be honest I had 14 faults in the first month of ownership ! I should of rejected this heap !
There have been so many faults its too long to list but customer support from L/R and dealers is questionable.
It spent a week in the dealer for its third year service and MOT and finally putting list of outstanding issues right, I went straight on holiday abroad only to have 3 more failures whilst on holiday including non start ! EGR valve and new instrument pack needed !
Spent another week at the dealer on return , got it back and only done 176 miles ( used twice )and another 2 faults have occured ! this time PAS started whining and apparently needs new resovoir and the rear brake quadrants are seizing casuing the rear brakes to sqeak !
This is how its gone all along ! everytime i use it something goes wrong !
The mileage was 17000 miles yes just seventeen thousand at the third service !
It cause's nothing but stress at home and had to buy another car couple of years ago as runabout for all the days the FR2 wouldnt start !

thats coz, allegedly, you dont maintain it or service it propper

:5blurk5:

Get one thats serviced regularly and thats a good start.

Ive Got a 2000 XEDi, and the only problem ive had so far was an injector washer that cost £20.

Its a fab compromise... It drives like a car on the road, does about 37mpg combined, is comfortable spacious & practical.

It also tows well.. I pull my daughters horse in the trailer twice a week to pony club practice, and it does it no sweat.. Ive also pulled the above said horse and trailer through muddy & waterlogged fields, and the hippo didnt get stuck once.. (i did laugh it a man who tried the same in his X-Trail and failed )

It IS a landrover.. Yes they call em gaylanders in jest, but even die hard disco and rr fans will admit they are the best in their class (compared to x trail Honda CRv, RAV 4 etc) We all know Discos have the door handles off a Morris Marina, lights of a Maestro van and rust like the titanic, but we all know they are still the daddy and that EVERY land rovers got its faults.

Particular Marques are tarnished with a bad reliability brush.. But really its eveywhere..

I bought a 55 plate scenic DCI when it was 14 months old with 7000 miles on it.. In the 3 years i had it i had to have two window regulators, an alternator, new digital dash, constant automatic parking brake problems, and in the end, low compression on cylinder 4 - needed total rebauild ata cost of £1800 when it only had 30k miles on it!!

Guy who works with me had an identical 53 plate scenic from new, its got 168k on it and its never let him down..

You want an opinion on them, look on here... But it wont be unbiased!!! As stated, people on here either love em and put up with any faults, or they come on here to post all their problems before finally selling it!!

Whens the last time you saw a car forum loaded with people saying their car has never had a fault and rocks???

If you like the freelander, buy it.. If it goes wrong, youll either put up with it cos you love it that much, or you can sell it and buy something else!! Simples!

But for god sake if you do buy one - DO NOT take it to a land rover dealer!! Plenty of specialist places are around with treble the knowledge, and 1/3 of the price.