Freelander 1 Should I Keep My Freelander For My Son?

Hi all,

I recently bought a 2015 Discovery Sport for my wife, replacing the Freelander we bought new in 2003. We are reluctant to sell the car, as it's now not worth much, yet has only covered 90,000 miles since new and still drives well. It's a pre-facelift 2.0 Td4 ES manual in Monte Carlo Blue with the factory fitted A-Bar.

In a few months time, my son will turn 17, and so I was wondering whether I should give it to him to learn in (as we don't live in a city, and sometimes need to use an off road track to access our street) or whether I should just face the fact the Freelander isn't worth much, sell it and buy him something smaller with the proceeds?

Many thanks.

do you have to ask
the answer is A BIG FAT YES

There's a few considerations. Is it reliable, will it break down on him and will be be able to sort it out if it does? What will the insurance be like? A 2L might be quite expensive! What are they like in a crash scenario?
If you buy something else second hand, it will come with problems that need fixing, sooner or later. Sometimes it's a case of better the devil you know

F1 does not have the best safety rating, but safety ratings are based on the size of vehicle and a small vehicle's 5* rating may only be the equivalent of a 2 or 3 on a bigger car. My thinking is that the Freelander has a lot more metal between a driver and external object.

It won't have side airbags, but when we were young we were luck if we had seat belts - so it is the finer detail, and a AWD Freelander is more likely to keep a car on the road in a lot of conditions.

I tried to get my boy to get a Freelander when he was after his first car, as I'd be able to help him maintain it better and felt safer with him driving something with a fair bit of metal round him. He was never going to get one though.

When my daughter was after her first car, she had more money to spend. I didn't want her throwing her money away on something that was going to devalue overnight, and being young assumed she's want something 'different'. So I suggested something like an MGB (strange since I'm probably more protective of her than our son and they're not exactly safe by any standards). But it shows how detached I am from modern life because they don't want 'different' - different means you're weird - they want Nike meets Disney meets Geordie Shore. She got a Mazda 2/Demio.

Edit : I should add that my son is more than happy to drive our Freelander when his cars are broke down

What does your son think about it?
You've a good, capable vehicle, never raced or rallied and one careful owner etc. What's there not to like?
If it breaks its not the end of the world and you can get him something else, and I can already hear chants from this crowd of "Defender! Defender!........"
When it comes down to it, it's your lad who's decision counts. Lucky guy!

Corfewoodsman said:

If it breaks its not the end of the world and you can get him something else, and I can already hear chants from this crowd of "Defender! Defender!........"

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There'll be none of that dirty, rusty, rattly, oily, smelly, leaky chanting in this forum please.

Defenders? Aren't they just the deadweights we use to test out the towing capabilities of our Hippos?

One word, insurance?

Thanks everyone,

My son and I are really liking the idea of keeping it, he’d love a defender but my wife said no to that, and she doesn’t even like this idea.

Insurance wise, when he has his provisional we’ll pay no more than we do for my wife on her Disco Sport. When he passes, it’s going to rise to around £2k, however that’s not an issue because we don’t have to buy a car on top of it.

As you’ve said about reliability, I’d much rather use this because we know what it’s like, the dampers die on us and every so often but other than that (and a broken sunroof) it’s never broken down on us.

Keep it if it's going to be useful, or sell it on for a premium price, if the body is straight. A low mileage (comparatively), 1 owner, FL1 TD4 ES will fetch top prices for what it is, as most for sale are high mileage, abused, multi-owner vehicles, with tatty body and interiors and zero service history too.

As for insurance. When our daughter passed her test (January) I looked at her using my TD4 SE as her runaround. However the insurance was almost £3K for her to drive it under her own policy.

So that idea went out the window completely. I actually bought her a Fiat 500, for £1050, which she was then able to insure for herself for £900, so the car and insurance cost less than the insurance for her on my TD4. The 500 also does twice as much to the gallon, and is actually better equipped than my FL1 SE too.

It pays to do some research, before splashing out the cash!!

I'd start by asking the laddy himself, would he want the freelander as his first car, or would he prefer a small hatchback such as a fiesta/corsa/fiat 500/yaris/peugeot 207 like the rest of the kids will be cutting about in?

If he says he wants the freelander then, as I said to Nodge when his daughter passed her test, there is a financial incentive to getting a new driver to do additional courses such as pass plus and institute of advanced motoring, these both reduce the insurance premium. Nodges daughter was reluctant to go there, but if your son is more amenable to these courses it will help reduce the start-up motoring costs for him, although that holds true regardless of whether he buys a 1.1 shopping trolley or chooses the freelander.

There is also the advantage that there is a certain caché in being the kid who's car is not the stereotypical circa-one-litre compact hatchback. He can make that perceived "coolness" advantage even greater by "dressing up" the freelander with a set of all-terrain or mud tyres, better still if those new tyres are slightly oversized at 235/70/16 or 225/75/16 or 205/80/16. The tyres alone transform the freelander from a "soccer mom SUV" into a "Cool looking Jeep!" as they really do give it a more rugged looking "stance". And if there is a need for ground clearance for the offroad track you mention, the freelander will be the better vehicle.

If your freelander has a towbar fitted, he could do his trailer test, this would allow him to be "the guy who can" hire a car trailer / box trailer / borrow a caravan for a festival. It'd also mean he could buy/build a track day toy and trailer it to and fro events. Another advantage the freelander has over the stereotypical 1.1 shopping trolley most kids get as their first car is that, given you live in the country, and he will be traversing a lot of country roads, the freelander's slightly elevated driving position will allow him to see over some verges/hedges and see more of the road ahead increasing his situational awareness and making his driving (slightly) safer.

Lots of Pro's to keeping the freelander for the laddy, not least of which is it will be the first car he can remember, so he will most likely have a sentimental attachment to the vehicle - I know that holds true with my about to turn 13 year old laddy, but the deciding factors would be does the boy want the car? And if he does want it, are you as a family prepared to absorb the increase to his motoring costs, namely more expensive insurance and lower MPG, of him starting his motoring career in that vehicle? But if the vehicle has proven reliable over the years, and is expected to continue to be reliable, as in you aren't aware of any looming problems, then the reliability could make up the difference in total cost of ownership between an unknown hatchback and a cherished one owner freelander.

I've deliberately been very objective in everything I've written above as I don't want to dictate "you must keep and cherish the freelander"... But as you say, the freelanders aren't fetching heavy gold just now, and it would be a shame for a cherished example to disappear into the cheap car market and be scrapped in two years if it needed a clutch or an exhaust or some such, as happens to "cheap" (read disposable) cars. And if the laddy wants the car, and you can afford it, given you've owned and cherished it for seventeen years, I'd say keep it, and chalk up the laddy's increased motoring costs to the cost of "having nice things".

edit: one other advantage the freelander has over the stereotypical shopping trolley first car - with yours being a prefacelift its got the black plastic bumpers all around, so any mistakes he makes would wreck colour coded bumpers that would look unsightly until repainted.

GrumpyGel said:

There'll be none of that dirty, rusty, rattly, oily, smelly, leaky chanting in this forum please.

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Dinnae diss a defender, I was having a drool at a nice '90 van sitting on 265/75/16 all terrains on colour coded Zulu wheels that I seen last night - from the drivers seat of my 635d.

Just don'y go parking it up for a year, as they don't like it. Keep it running regularly.

The real answer is in the finance of it all. The insurance being the big one and in truth is the deciding factor. My son ended up on our insurance as though he passed his test young enough he rarely gets the opportunity/need to drive. Often at uni he would just get insured for the weekend. Next year he will be 25 and think about insuring himself fully comp with his own vehicle as the rates get sensible.

No harm having a third vehicle that if it was to have a bash then no real loss. There are loads of cars out there under £1,500; the hard part is finding one that doesn't need money spending on.... and that insurance.

Nodge68 said:

As for insurance. When our daughter passed her test (January) I looked at her using my TD4 SE as her runaround. However the insurance was almost £3K for her to drive it under her own policy.

So that idea went out the window completely. I actually bought her a Fiat 500, for £1050, which she was then able to insure for herself for £900, so the car and insurance cost less than the insurance for her on my TD4. The 500 also does twice as much to the gallon, and is actually better equipped than my FL1 SE too.

It pays to do some research, before splashing out the cash!!

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Ah to to my son on my Freelander was a extra £780 as a learner
We got him on my wife’s Abarth 595 (fiat 500 ) 180 bhp for £580 for the year ?...
What a lucky lucky boy he is

Dar ran Dar ran said:

Ah to to my son on my Freelander was a extra £780 as a learner
We got him on my wife’s Abarth 595 (fiat 500 ) 180 bhp for £580 for the year ?...
What a lucky lucky boy he is

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I love the pocket rocket 500. We've 2 Fiat 500's in out household, the daughter's 1250cc Lounge and the wife's 1400cc Sport, which thankfully passed it's MOT today, which means all the work I've done on it over the last few months have been worthwhile.

I quite fancy the Abarth myself, but they're so expensive for what they are, so I'll stick with my TD4 FL1 for the moment, with the occasional blast in the wife's 1400 Sport.

Nodge68 said:

I love the pocket rocket 500. We've 2 Fiat 500's in out household, the daughter's 1250cc Lounge and the wife's 1400cc Sport, which thankfully passed it's MOT today, which means all the work I've done on it over the last few months have been worthwhile.

I quite fancy the Abarth myself, but they're so expensive for what they are, so I'll stick with my TD4 FL1 for the moment, with the occasional blast in the wife's 1400 Sport.

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It’s the competition version plus a remap 210bhp
It’s as a load of toys LSD floating discs..... o and seats
But 25mpg and a 7gallon tank don’t go well together the Bluetooth will make anyone snap
The stereo is sh.. just as well as the noise from it is past a joke my wife would gladly park it up somewhere with the keys in and walk away she absolutely hates it
I / We have had Fiat/ Fiat Abarths since the 80s and loved the punto but this is so small we have only done 1500 m in 18m since I got a Freelander again
But my son is now the envy of his mates driving around in it
He’s in for a shock when he passed his test as we are changing it ( no clue what to get )

Panda 4x4? Just sticking with the Fiat theme. My Punto was a little corker and so easy to work on whenever I shredded another clutch.

paul99 said:

Panda 4x4? Just sticking with the Fiat theme. My Punto was a little corker and so easy to work on whenever I shredded another clutch.

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Had them all strada uno tipo bravo all the puntos even a X1/9 the best was the last punto Abarth absolutely class

paul99 said:

Panda 4x4? Just sticking with the Fiat theme. My Punto was a little corker and so easy to work on whenever I shredded another clutch.

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I just wish Fiat would use a more beefy gearbox. I've got the daughter's 5 speed box to rebuild soon, as the clutch is getting decidedly soft where it's contaminated with oil. The wife's newly MOT'd 1.4 Sport has the 6 speed box, so isn't so prone to input shaft bearing failure.