I recently bought a 2002 TD4 5 door and really like it, my boss has 3 defenders (90's) including the 2008 60th anniversary edition with a remapped transit engine, I also drive a defender Hi-cap for my other job (retained fire fighter), they are awful, awful road cars, possibly the worst road vehicle you could ever drive, the 60th anniversary one is a bit better but not much. However they are all fantastic off road.
The Freelander is great on road, not so great off road, mostly due to height and no low range but the hill descent thing does work quite well. I was lucky enough to take my Freelander on to one of the areas I often take the Hi-cap fire service defender and it was fine on 75% of the terrain, but didn't inspire confidence in the same way the defender does. I flatly refused to try one of the hills I traverse happily in the Hi-Cap.
For me it depends on use, I needed something to use for work, could tow and won't get stuck in a wet field but it needed to be a comfortable family vehicle with a degree of fuel economy and umph - I didn't want a jap wagon nor a discovery (too big) and I've clearly written off a Defender unless I need to go off road to put out a fire or live in a very rural area.
Ignore the petrol ones, take time choosing the right one and keep a few hundred in the bank just in case something goes wrong. Land Rovers in general are about the most unreliable thing out there and the Freelander hasn't changed that ranking!