Hi quoman,
Just to relief your mind of all wrong ideas I'll let you know I bought a new 2001 Td4 Steptronic SE 5drs. (have it since january 9th 2001), in october 2001 I had it chiptuned and have done about 45.000kms so far. Every day I drive the car both my wife and I are glad we decided to buy the Hippo (Freelander) and not somethign else. It was, for us, since day '1' a dream to drive and every single day we drive it (the wife always as passenger) we like it more and more. Our previous car was a Mercedes 190E (petrol engine 2.0L and done over 200.000 kms with it) which is not the least of cars to compare the Hippo with but in fun and comfort to drive it is much better, for us, than the Mercedes. When, with the Mercedes, we did a trip of about 100 kms my wife already suffered of backache and now with the Freelander we can do 600 kms daytrips and she comes out with no pain at all. I always said I hoped to have the Freelander as reliable as the Mercedes but after a couple of problems (all taken care of under warranty, namely a MAFsensor, a radiator and a fuelpump) it looks as things are stable now. So don't worry about the Td4 and enjoy every minute you drive it, and if a problem comes up, don't think other cars never fail. (As a matter of fact I had to replace the dead battery last month, it lasted almost 5 years, so what ??) Have fun and take care.