looking at a 2003 SE, need advice

Hello everyone, I joined to get some information from freelander owners about this car.

Tomorrow i am test driving a 2003 freelander SE with 49k miles. My friend works at the dealership I'm driving it at. The car is priced as $18500, but he says I will probably end up with a price of about $17500.

here are my questions:

1) How is this price? (i assume it varies depending on where in the country you are.

2) I'm driving a 99 acura tl currently, and like the idea of a small SUV, but one of the things that struck me in pictures i saw of the interior is how "barebones" it seems to be, especially the dash. i dunno if i will like the change from the TL.

3) i heard, but haven't yet seen firsthand, that the gagues are small and not very brightly lit. any thoughts on this?

4) how is the 4x4? i won't be taking it offroad, but am in massachusetts so there is plenty of snow.

5) i've read that the pros to this car are it's smooth quiet ride, and that it's built well, and the cons are it's somewhat small and has slow acceleration and bad gas mileage.

6) ANYTHING else i should know about this car. cars i've owned in the past are, since i got my license in 2000 (i'm 21 now)
1991 firebird (hahah)
1993 ford explorer
1995 grand cherokee
1996 lexus sc300
1999 acura TL (currently)

i don't usually keep cars long...the 3 years i've had my TL are the longest i've kept a car.

Hi dpakman91,

Sorry I can't be of help as this is more for the US counterparts I believe.
As I have the impression not so many US members on this forum I will take the liberty of adding the URL of another Freelander site/forum which has mainly US members and thus more appropriate 'public' to answer your question. This is in no way intended to keep you away from this forum of course, just trying to be of help to you. As it is a rather short notice thing I hope you will get some response in time. Good luck.

http://www.freelanderowners.com/forum/index.php

ps: On the other forum I opened a topic referring to this site/request (because it's so urgently needed), hope you will get response in time.

Hello,

I have a 2002 Freelander. First bit of advice I would give you, is to not pay more that 15500 for the car. Second thing is I would purchase an extended warranty for the beast, as once your over 50000 miles, you wont be covered for any repairs needed, and believe me, you will be on a first name basis with your dealer's service manager. I love mine, but its in the shop quite a bit.