Living in North America (the Canada bit) I can see the OP's point of view. Freelanders are getting to be quite thin on the ground. The dealers much prefer selling $150,000. Range Rovers
and don't really want to have anything to do with cheap old cars. My local dealer only has one partsman (A young woman actually so I suppose Trudeau would say "Partsperson"
) that even knows what a Freelander is. They stock absolutely nothing. All of the parts are available, but it took 2 weeks for them to get me intake manifold gaskets and the price was horrendous so I just order my bits from Rimmers, Cheaper and quicker and they know what they are dealing with.
Freelanders don't have the best reputation here. They had so many problems with the V6 when new that LR was actually forced to do a buyback.(The V6 was the only engine sold here) A friend of mine went through 5 engines in the first year
. At one point the local dealer had a half dozen new Hippos out back that were being cannibalised for parts. They got such a bad rep that one local specialist won't let them in the door. In my opinion he just wants the low hanging, easy money big bucks Range Rover repairs but that's just my opinion.
My local parts shop can get a lot of parts for the V6, like coils, sensors etc. but I get most of my parts from UK dealers. I do deal with a US supplier, Atlantic British but they just carry fast moving parts. They are a good part number reference as they only carry parts for the North American market Hippos so you know you are getting the correct bits for our market. You do have to do some research when buying from the UK to make sure you are getting the proper bits particularly with engine electrics.