The concept of the Freelander is a part time four wheel drive vehicle. Which is basically front wheel drive until the front wheels lose traction then drive is transmitted to the rear. The only time a Freelander is four wheel drive is if one or more front wheels lose traction. At all other times it is a front wheel drive car. As long as the VCU is regarded as a consumable item with a service life, all will be well. There is no mention of testing VCU operation in the service sheets. If Land Rover had been honest about the VCU there should have been. Would have thought this innovation would be greeted with open arms by most Freelander owners who use their vehicles for everyday transport. The Freelander working correctly is no more than a slightly muddy farm track car. It is not really suitable for the proper off roading that some people want to use it for. If you want to go serious off roading get a proper 4x4 and stop trying to do it on the cheap.

wammers said:

The concept of the Freelander is a part time four wheel drive vehicle. Which is basically front wheel drive until the front wheels lose traction then drive is transmitted to the rear. The only time a Freelander is four wheel drive is if one or more front wheels lose traction. At all other times it is a front wheel drive car. As long as the VCU is regarded as a consumable item with a service life, all will be well. There is no mention of testing VCU operation in the service sheets. If Land Rover had been honest about the VCU there should have been. Would have thought this innovation would be greeted with open arms by most Freelander owners who use their vehicles for everyday transport. The Freelander working correctly is no more than a slightly muddy farm track car. It is not really suitable for the proper off roading that some people want to use it for. If you want to go serious off roading get a proper 4x4 and stop trying to do it on the cheap.

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Serious off-roading? Yup - get a Defender. But for other times, I would say a FL has just about the right on/off road balance for everyday use, bad/snowy weather and the odd grassy field.

That said, my wife's FL with its traction control is probably more 4x4, strictly speaking, than my non-TC Defender...!

Now I've started the pub fight, I'm off...

This pub fight has been had so many times I don't think anyone has the energy left for it.
Agree to disagree would be my recommendation.
I like wine, I like beer and I like JD. As such I think I have the capacity to also like Freelanders, Land Cruisers and Range Rovers.
All different and that's what I like about them!

davidsmith1307 said:

This pub fight has been had so many times I don't think anyone has the energy left for it.
Agree to disagree would be my recommendation.
I like wine, I like beer and I like JD. As such I think I have the capacity to also like Freelanders, Land Cruisers and Range Rovers.
All different and that's what I like about them!

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No pub fight. Nothing wrong with liking Freelanders. All you have to do is recognise they do have limitations to their viable use and certain well documented mechanical foibles.

Indeed wammers. I prefer to think of those shortcomings as 'personality'.
Discos have rust and amusing immobilisers, P38s have psychotic electrics in general and freelanders have IRDs/VCUs... All sent to try us in one way or another.
I'd rather drive any of the three than most modern vehicles though.

wammers said:

The concept of the Freelander is a part time four wheel drive vehicle. Which is basically front wheel drive until the front wheels lose traction then drive is transmitted to the rear. The only time a Freelander is four wheel drive is if one or more front wheels lose traction. At all other times it is a front wheel drive car. As long as the VCU is regarded as a consumable item with a service life, all will be well. There is no mention of testing VCU operation in the service sheets. If Land Rover had been honest about the VCU there should have been. Would have thought this innovation would be greeted with open arms by most Freelander owners who use their vehicles for everyday transport. The Freelander working correctly is no more than a slightly muddy farm track car. It is not really suitable for the proper off roading that some people want to use it for. If you want to go serious off roading get a proper 4x4 and stop trying to do it on the cheap.

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I won't say anything about your description of Freelander. Almost everyone disagrees with you, including drivers of other LR cars. So you are just plying your old, tired and incorrect spiel and it not worth correcting you any more.

However, what do you determine to be "proper off roading" and what do you determine to be "serious off roading" and what do you consider a "proper 4x4 for serious off roading"?

wammers said:

No pub fight. Nothing wrong with liking Freelanders. All you have to do is recognise they do have limitations to their viable use and certain well documented mechanical foibles.

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Consider both points recognised.

As for the 4x4 capability, the Def wins on ground clearance and low range. However, if you consider 4x4 to mean 'all 4 wheels capable of being driven', then both FL and Def have this, of course.

But... In my ideal world, a 4x4 should be capable of driving all 4 wheels simultaneously. I've been stuck many times in my Def with two wheels spinning on one side. The FL, on the other hand, has TC and therefore is arguably more capable of satisfying my ideal 4x4 criterion.

This all goes back to the problem of open axle diffs on an off-road biased vehicle and no TC. Physics guarantees that in a sticky situation you will lose drive to the wheels that have the most grip.

That said, I'd generally choose my Def for most off-road tasks, although the FL is an absolute master on snowy roads (look at where I live)! Many's the time I've sailed past Jap SUVs spinning and skidding like drunk ducks on a frozen pond, and very satisfying it is too.

Having had both Freelander and Discovery 3, I can say that in slippery conditions, I'd rather be in the Freelander. While the D3 has much better ground clearance than the Freelander and low range. The heavy D3 gets bogged down in mud far to easily for my liking. On a steep grassy incline, gravity has a much bigger effect on the D3 too. This makes progress interesting at times for sure. The Freelander with it's much lower mass is less troubled by gravity in these situations. On icy roads, the Freelander is still controllable with little fuss. The D3 again becomes an unwieldy beast that struggles to stop. In a head to head on really slippery surfaces, the light and nimble Freelander wins over the D3.
If rock crawling is your thing, a Freelander isn't a good companion but in most situations, a Freelander isn't too bad. It's definitely better than most, if not all other 4X4 vehicles in its class. It's a lot better than most "proper Land Rover" owners give it credit for.
I've used my V6 Freelander to pull an off roading pal in his D2 out of mud, twice on the same day out. The Freelander drove through the mud without really noticing. I then had to reverse back through the mud to "unstick" his D2 that was helplessly spinning 2 wheels. The V6 Freelander pulled the D2 out without any drama. The whole process was repeated on the return journey too. My D3 has also driven the same lane but still made more of a meal out of the mud hole section than the Freelander ever did.
Tyres play a massive part in off road ability. Both my Freelander V6 and D3 were fitted with good AT tyres so the rest of my experience is solely with the vehicles ability. My wheel spinning mate in his D2 had pointless road biased tyres which probably got him stuck.

As someone who has had countless defenders (most recent a 2010 td4 90), still own the D3 I bought new in 2008 (150,000 miles, many of them in the gloop), D2s (including an insane D2 V8), series 3 88" etc...etc....

The Freelander is extremely entertaining off road. It has to be driven differently, but it can go places that a current L405 failed to get to (FFRR driven by a member of the development team from Gaydon who confirmed that light and fast will nail it if done right). SO once again Wammers, you're talking bollocks.

Absolutely agree with all the above

I'm not so sure any standard LR is a great "rock climber" anyway, they would need to be modified for that. The "big" ones do also have better wading ability - but that does lead to silly decisions being made as owners tend to think they are invincible - which of course they are not!

As above, fast is the key. It needs a bit more momentum than the defender, nothing more. The TC works well with less weight to push about. An auto Freelander doesn't need low range, just the throttle pedal, nothing more. With a different technique and a bit of speed, a Freelander will go to places that it shouldn't.

GrumpyGel said:

Absolutely agree with all the above

I'm not so sure any standard LR is a great "rock climber" anyway, they would need to be modified for that. The "big" ones do also have better wading ability - but that does lead to silly decisions being made as owners tend to think they are invincible - which of course they are not!

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The D3 has a Rock Crawl setting and it's seriously good too. Obviously it's not like the custom built rock crawling monsters, but for what is in effect, a luxurious vehicle, it's very good.

On the one occasion I got my D3 stuck (ditch edge obscured by heather disintegrated at the side of the road) it was Rock Crawl and the artificial locking of e-diffs that got me out, much to the amazement of the bloke on the phone to the local farmer calling for a tractor to pull me out.

Look at that, just listed today, another 1 of those "4WD" Land Rovers that is actually only FWD.

To quote the ad as well "Bought for extreme off roading but not suited im told by off road club.".

I wonder what this could be....

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/land-rover/auction-1040429956.htm

Clue : They're obviously good for "proper" or "serious" off roading, but not "extreme".

I went and had a look over this L Series yesterday for @htr ...

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1039666060

This was my "inspection report"....

I rang the guy and arranged to go see it this afternoon on the yard. When I got there there was nobody around!

I had made up a 1 wheel up test rig so I could try it on a test drive.... but I needn't have cos there were no props on it anyway! Its 2WD I'm afraid even though the first question was about the 4WD and he answered "All ok as it should"!!!

... blah blah on various bits and pieces ...

The best part, I rang them when I got back to thank them for not bothering to be there as arranged. The guy who's number is listed "027 3576517" said that its not his yard - he just looks after a couple of cars for the yard owner. He gave me the yard owner Jayden's number "027 363 4002". So I rang him, thanked him for not being there but asked how it ran and how the 4WD was. He said all good - so I pointed out it had no prop shafts. Anyway he said he'd be there tomorrow afternoon so I said I might go back. I then put a Q up on the ad saying "You should make people aware that this is only 2WD. There are no prop shafts on the vehicle.". While I've been writing this, he's rung back calling me a prat for putting the Q up! I basically told him that he's the w***ker who couldn't be bothered to be there as arranged and was the one lieing on his advert - so stop f**king wasting my time - and hung up on him. So I'm probably black listed on his account now - no great shame.

Dodgy traders!

I notice there is a Seller Comment admitting that it is 2WD now! You won.