Got it home and started to unravel its life history 3 weeks ago, Its not been loved a lot in its 85,000 miles. Phoned the dealer this morning and it’s going back on Sat for a full refund due to having a bent chassis. I am gutted. Mrs has put here foot down so were getting another Freelander again. Strongly suggest anyone buying takes a mechanic mate with them or gets an RAC independent check before the green mist descends and you buy a lemon. Oh it was clear on HPI on all counts.

🙁 😕 😯

How did it have a bent chassis?

Probably from the factory 🙂

Lucky escape I think.

Imagine the pile of trouble you”ve juts avoided.

Bent chassis. 😯

We need a photo, a lifetime around Landys and I thought I’d seen everything that can rot and fall off a 90, this is a new one to me.

It’s bad luck but at least you can get a refund, don’t be put off!

Name the dealer? Pleasently surprised they gave you a refund without hassle

Can you go into more detail about how you discovered the issue

Reasonably commin to see the crumple behing the front spring turret and the outrigger on rusty old chassis ask kenneththecurtain

Big solid bumper transfers all load directly into the chassis.

The other thing to remember is that the tollarances from factory are +- 1 inch

Hit anything solid with a defender and the chassis tucks up and out between the damper turret and the bulkhead. I hit a reasonable sized tree many years ago in our 100 comp-safari motor and banana’d the chassis properly! (and bent
t the roll cage across the top of the cab as the car stood on it’s nose into the tree)

Good news is that a re-chassis isn’t actually that bad a job and will be needed at some point due to rust anyway………. 😉

Colin Newman who owns New Road motors in Llandovery told me a great tale about a defender. He got a phone call asking about trading in a Defender against a grey pickup he had for sale. Made an offer on the defender which was accepted after a bit of grumbling, was assured the Defender was a good one but was a slow starter.

He said what turned up defied belief, every panel was dented, back window was broken, screen was cracked, doors all bent out of shape it was just destroyed. The slow starter bit was the best 😆 the poor thing hadn’t been switched off for 3 months, just kept it running 24hrs a day 😯 parked up in a barn just ticking over every night. it had been run on red its entire life, he just shipped it straight up to a place in the midlands that broke it.