Land Rover Freelander?

I forgot about these. You almost never see one. When I do see them, I always tell myself I should ask about them on GRM, and then I forget about them again. I saw another one today, and now I have to know. Are these terrible? They must be. Do they have any redeeming value whatsoever? They sure have that turn-of-the-century vibe going on in spades, would seem like a "different" option in the cute-ute category, a vehicle for somebody who wanted a Nissan Xterra with British build quality (probably in the same way a Jaguar X-Type is a "different" option for a compact sedan). So, does anyone know anything about these?

They have a terrible reputation in the UK for reliability or rather, the lack thereof. As you may have guessed, that's not a good sign.

If you want a Land Rover, buy a Disco or a Rangie.

They're terrible.

I'm always surprised when i see one driving, as they're usually blown up.

They're like Jeep Libertys. But way worse.

Horrible turd, ultra-heavy, very unreliable, expensive parts! RUN AWAY!

all I can say about them.. the mechanic doing the work on my disco would have thrown me out if I had shown up in a freelander

They are horrible in many ways. Don't walk, run.

If you have long legs, you aren't going to fit. I just had to move one from one end of the lot to the other and with the seat all the way back, my knees hit the dashboard. I'm 6'2".

Even Land Rover guys think they're unreliable. Can you even get engine parts?

I should add that I am NOT considering the purchase of one, or anything along those lines. One of the two I most recently saw was, unsurprisingly, broken down on the side of the road. However, it's always good to know why such oddball vehicles failed so miserably for future reference. I do think they're kind of neat looking, it would be cool to strip one out as a Baja racer build, but they do sound like truly abysmal vehicles!

Their greatest weakness is transmission related.

JohnRW1621 wrote: Their greatest weakness is transmission related.

IIRC the transfer case is a proprietary unit made of glass and recycled paper. All the torques in a childs tricyccle can destroy it.

the big problem with them... (other than who made them) was that is was designed to be both a good road going trucklet -and- good at going offroad.. all with a transverse V6 and four wheel drive.

You do the math.. take a company that can build fairly robust and capable offroad machines, and have them build a car that is also supposed to go offroad.. and yes, you cannot use -anything- from your other vehicles to build it.

I've had 2 people get quotes on those only to have one of them "blow up" before the girl could finish the paperwork. The other one had a gas leak that the buy-here lot said they'd fix before delivery & didn't, then the trans E36 M3 before she made the 1st payment.

I love Land Rovers, but the Freelander is horrible. Pass.

Iirc there was a thread on these not long ago. I learned things.

These are legendarily unreliable, even by British standards. They like to shed block sleeves at some undetermined early mileage. 60k? 80k? Early. At some point, the Chinese determined buying the rights to the engine reproduction market for these was in their best interest. Subsequent replacement quality reduction has been noticed, because really what's better than a E36 M3ty British engine? A E36 M3ty Chinese knockoff of a E36 M3ty British engine. Basically, they're rolling turds on par with biturbos, without any of the coke era redeeming qualities. Best served on fire, with a gin and tonic as you watch it burn.

Have we actually found a vehicle that nobody on GRM will enable on?

Is this the Anti-Answer? What's the opposite of a Miata? The Land Rover Freelander.

I think it might be, yeah.

In reply to Swank Force One:

Unpossible.

For how cheap Discoveries are now, I see no reason to ever, ever own a Freelander. I enjoyed the two that I had.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote:

JohnRW1621 wrote: Their greatest weakness is transmission related.

IIRC the transfer case is a proprietary unit made of glass and recycled paper. All the torques in a childs tricyccle can destroy it.

This is from memory - for some reason the drivetrain design puts a permanent load on the transfer case or center diff, which will bust those in short order.

The majority of the ones sold in the UK also came with the Rover K-Series inline four that originally seems to have been designed to use the head gasket as a consumable. IIRC the KV6 that the US got is better, but not great. Because of the Freelander issues, LR in the UK finally developed a fix for the head gasket problems which is now much appreciated by the owners of S1 Elises and MG Fs...

The rumor mill is that Carmax either won't warranty them or charge you even more of an arm & leg for the warranty.

Swank Force One wrote: Have we actually found a vehicle that nobody on GRM will enable on? Is this the Anti-Answer? What's the opposite of a Miata? The Land Rover Freelander.

When somebody asks "Need vehicles to crush in monster truck show, what should I use?" the answer will be Freelander

(They're very crunchy)

In reply to SlickDizzy: Looks pretty nice. CRV knockoff?

I am confused. Any vehicle this mind crushingly bad should be beloved of at least 50% of this this community.

Want something good to say about them?

The rear diff is quite popular for BEC's in the UK as it's lighter and now easier to find than the traditional Sierra unit. LSD's are thus readily available for them over there!

Funny, I saw one in the wild earlier this week and my first thought was "holy crap, I haven't seen an actual running example of those in years!"

I still really want one. I hate that they're so damn awful, because the promise of the truck is so good. I love the idea, and it is a comfortable place to spend time.

I came super close to buying one new in 2003. Yellow, SE3 trim, with the dealer accesory soft top.

Just like this:

Some day, if I find one at a disposable price, I may still pick one up to hopefully enjoy for a few months and pass along.

This post does not represent enabling, however.