What's the deal with the Freelander?

[upcruiser]

I don't see much mention of it on here ever. I've always thought it would make a nice daily driver with reasonable fuel economy, good handling, and some light ability to take it off the beaten path. I hear so many horror stories about them though. I was looking for videos on youtube last night and stumbled over a video some woman made, trying to gather people together for a class action lawsuit against Land Rover due to her dissatisfaction with her Freelander. What's the deal? Are these complaints unfounded or is the Freelander really that terrible? It just caught my interest lately and was curious to hear what others think for some perspective.

[Scott Brady]

I have driven one a few time (loaner while my DII was being repaired). Not a bad vehicle, but pretty expensive when new, which put it out of the market segment. They do handle great and are pretty good off-road too.

[justfred]

The biggest thing that stopped me is that I had a hard time fitting through the door. Once I was in it was roomy and had good visibility and was fun to drive. I was looking at an SE3 with the convertible back - I used to have an Isuzu Amigo and loved it, this is the same form factor.

I didn't like the way the muffler hangs down in the back, apparently there's a fix for that.

But the service record, by people like consumer reports, is abysmal. Worst car ever, with the exception of the VW Touareg (which I was also considering!). There's a lot of "ghost in the machine" - error lights come on, and there's nothing to do to clear them, even though they're indicating actual problems with ABS/traction control/whatever. All sorts of faulty seals - Rover seems to love to do this, which is why the extended warranty always seems to pay for itself.

By the way, they are (or were) the most popular Land Rover product in Europe - probably due to the price of petrol. I think they even made a tdi version. (I still haven't figured out why we can't get tdi engines here in the US.)

[mike h]

Freelanders were used in the 1998 Camel Trophy. They don't have a low transfer case, but are pretty capable off-road, from what I'm told - but I've never driven one. I see an orange one running around my town, the same orange the G4 Discos are painted, but sans graphics. It also has a full size expedition rack, which is rare on Freelanders. One of these days I hope to meet the driver. I assume they sell in very small numbers so not much chatter about them, and most of that market is happy with a Subaru or Tourag, which are far more common in the US.

[upcruiser]

Yeah, from reviews I had read when they were introduced in the US, they were pretty capable for their class. I was watching the '98 Camel Trophy footage last night and it was pretty cool, though that was probably the least technical 4wding that they had done in the history of the event. Every Team had a Freelander AND a Defender for it. Too bad it sounds like the reliability issues seem not to be isolated ones. I had always heard negative things about Land Rovers in terms of reliability even the Discovery. After talking with owners and hearing accounts on this forum, it seems like alot of it was overblown. That's why I was wondering if this was a similar case with the Freelander too. Sounds like it really does/did have some problems though.

The Freelander II looks pretty sharp. Its like a mini Range Rover now with notably better clearance too.

Here's a 5th Gear review of it, quite funny too...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi7qSaL4u8s

[JohnC]

They are not very good offroad. The first time someone showed up at MAR with one he busted a CV. He had lifted the Freebie and the CV had too much strain on it.

One of the guys in our group just blew the engine on his.

[LUISJG]

I had one , in fact was the last year production ,returned it under lemon law after 12 months.
it was a real nice looking vehicle but that was all.

[craig]

I'm dredging into the neurons waaaaayyyy in the back of my brain here. I'm pretty sure it was a friend of mine who is a Master Land Rover tech who told me the thing that is horrible about Freelanders is that the motors are bad and the factory that makes them no longer exists... blown motor=scrap heap.

Craig

[stevenmd]

I'm dredging into the neurons waaaaayyyy in the back of my brain here. I'm pretty sure it was a friend of mine who is a Master Land Rover tech who told me the thing that is horrible about Freelanders is that the motors are bad and the factory that makes them no longer exists... blown motor=scrap heap.

Craig
You are correct!

[asteffes]

So now they have this LR2, which I guess is supposed to be one less than the LR3. It resembles the Freelander quite a bit. Has much changed internally or is it just a facelift?

[stevenmd]

So now they have this LR2, which I guess is supposed to be one less than the LR3. It resembles the Freelander quite a bit. Has much changed internally or is it just a facelift?
There has been quite a bit of discussion about the LR2 on LRRForums.com. Looks wise, it does resemble the Ford Escape and the Freelander. However, it is being reported by those who have driven it that it does pretty good offroad. Although it will never be able to handle difficult trails, it is said to perform quite well on light to moderate trails. Other than that, it would be a good daily driver for those that don't want to pony up the dough for an LR3 ~ but then again, for the price of an LR2, you can get a used LR3 still under warranty.

[nvprospector]

I'm dredging into the neurons waaaaayyyy in the back of my brain here. I'm pretty sure it was a friend of mine who is a Master Land Rover tech who told me the thing that is horrible about Freelanders is that the motors are bad and the factory that makes them no longer exists... blown motor=scrap heap.

Craig

Not to mention they had major issues with the transmission. The primary pump would love to strip out. The one redeming factor was that the ECU was not relient on the BCU so it was eaiser to upgrade the computers then in the DII. You where able reflash the existing computer and reset the SLABS using HyperTerminal comands instead of testbooks.

[FortyMileDesert]

So now they have this LR2, which I guess is supposed to be one less than the LR3. It resembles the Freelander quite a bit. Has much changed internally or is it just a facelift?

It's a totally different truck.

I ran a Freelander for four years. Did more than forty serious off-road treks. It's probably the best rig without a two speed transfer case ever built for off-road use. However, many folks had a LOT of reliability issues with it.

The new LR2 shares nothing with the Freelander except for a bit of resemblance. The LR3 runs a 3.2 liter inline six cylinder Volvo engine, a six speed Aisin Warner transmission, a Haldex differential between front and rear diffs, . . .

[mono78v]

I have a freelander 1. Its an 03 plate td4. i can't fault it, i've owned it 2 years and only had a small amout of problems with it which i think is pretty good considering the use it gets. The car is cheap enough to run, and alot of fun to drive. It does ok off road, obviously your a little restricted with no low range box and not the best ground clearence but over wet grass and snow/ice its spot on. I'd definatly recomend them. In my opinion the freelander 2 is a fantastic car too. a family friend has one which i have been out offroading with. Both are good and resonably capable cars obviously can't compete with a defender but they were never designed to.

[stu454]

From what I understand, the diesel Freelanders are a completely different animal with regards to reliability.

One of our local shops has one with a blown engine. It's worthless save for a few bits that can be parted out and it's value as scrap.

I wouldn't take a petrol NAS Freelander if you gave it to me.

[R_Lefebvre]

A big part of the problem with the Freelander's reputation is because it was only available with the Rover V6 and auto transmission in America, which aren't very good units. Actually, from what I've read, seems the auto isn't that bad except for one fatal flaw, that maybe isn't even that hard to diagnose and fix, but the dealers are just suckering everybody into paying for a whole new trans. The engine requires a rediculously expensive timing belt change, and develops a mysterious engine coolant loss that can't be traced back to a leak or head gaskets? Other than that, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. It isn't a hardcore off-roader, it was never intended to be, and that's fine.

I wouldn't mind picking up an 05 myself, as a daily driver. But I'm pretty concerned about those two issues. Lately I have been concidering an 08 at some point. It's built on the Ford EUCD platform, and much of it is shared with a number of Volvos and Fords, and it's a Volvo engine. All good stuff. It does have a Haldex AWD system which I'm not a fan of and I question the durability/repairability of it. But, I'm another year or two away so... we'll see what happens in the interim.

[Mercedesrover]

...from what I've read, seems the auto isn't that bad except for one fatal flaw.....

The engine requires a rediculously expensive timing belt change, and develops a mysterious engine coolant loss that can't be traced back to a leak or head gaskets

Other than that, I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

The transmissions are junk.

A timing belt will cost you $1800 to change (There are 3 belts....One is $264.00 and the other two are $138.00 a piece, plus labor)

The motors all go bad. There isn't one that hasn't gone bad. The only remedy is a new motor....A new motor is $6000.

Other than that, I don't think there's anything wrong with it.....:smilies27

[4Rescue]

So now they have this LR2, which I guess is supposed to be one less than the LR3. It resembles the Freelander quite a bit. Has much changed internally or is it just a facelift? yeah I'm wondering about that too. The First gen's were garbage, plain old garbage. Take every horror story you've heard about land rovers and they happened consistantly to the Freelander. The Diesel versions were marginaly better (heaps better in the engine department alone) but still suffered the electrical gremlins of the gas powered US version... which was known to blow it's motor, be it a HG or a full on windowed block.

I heard one give up the ghost from a distance @ the TSF trails here in Oregon. most everyone in our group mlooked at eachother and grimaced... We didn't know what it was but it sounded like a day-ender for sure. Several hours later we came back through the same way and sure enough, there was the freelander (it actualy looked cool with some tall skinny tires and a basket rack etc.) with a nice big fat hole in the side of the block. The guy was revving the snot out of it and I'd guess a wrist-pin lert go or something??? I didn't investiate that closely it was tha5t bad you could see from just a peer into the engine bay(yIKES! I never want to see that under my hood) Either way it was hosed and a LONG way from the trail head...

BUT: As someone else said, the new Freelander II looks like the freelander front clip grafted onto a shrunken Range Rover back end. It looks quite nice eh. Plus from all the video's I'm seeing on youtube it appears like it moght have a low range???? Can't tell for sure, but it definatly tackles things the original would have struggled with.

SO what's the deal on the FL-II??? It would appear that LR took all the flack of the first Freelander and dove into making a wholy better rig all-around. But I don't know...


Cheers

Dave

[SMD]

Plus from all the video's I'm seeing on youtube it appears like it moght have a low range???? Can't tell for sure, but it definatly tackles things the original would have struggled with.


No low range, no rock crawl mode on the Terrain Response. Has the other modes.

[stu454]

......Has the other modes.

Like 'Apple Martini' and 'Coach Purse'??

Sorry, 9th grade humor poking its head out.:sombrero:

[One4adventure]

They make wonderful kindling!!!:Wow1: