Freelander 2 – 200k miles on the clock – what could possibly go wrong!

Local car dealer has just taken one of these in as part-ex and wants just over 2k for it.

Top HSE spec – looks in great condition. But… those miles!

Timing belt/water pump changed at 196,000.

Can’t be worse than Highlander 2 can it?

Don’t you already have one scrap faux by faux in the form of a CRV.

If you can’t fix it your self it will be a money pit in short order.

Most of those miles would have been on the back of recovery wagon so not as bad as it seems

You could buy it.

To be fair to Land Rover, they pulled off something of a coup with the original cuddly 1997 Freelander by taking an Austin Maestro chassis and throwing a Talbot Rancho at it. No-one appears to have noticed the distinctly low rent underpinnings, certainly fewer people than have had to grapple with British Leyland door handles trying to get into a Lotus Esprit.

I’ve no idea what chassis a Freelander Two sits on, for all I know it’s a BMW X3 sort of offering and therefore isn’t made of turds with a Mk1 VW Polo rear axle (see Freelander 1).

OP – please let us know how it goes.

Don’t you already have one scrap faux by faux in the form of a CRV.

Yep – currently sat at another garage trying to trace a non-starting issue.

5 litres of paraffin and a match should sort it! 🙂

Probably wouldn’t throw 2k at another potential garage dweller.

Unless your planning to tag team them.
One in one out ….just keep a tab open at the garage.

Local Landrover specialist says the Freelander 2 is the most reliable vehicle they produced… he does go on to say “Relative to the others!”

Fill yer boots…

https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/land-rover/freelander-2-2006/good/

Unless you work on Top Gear/The Grand Tour and are doing some sort of ridiculous challenge involving a hilariously bad car then wtf?

Most of those miles would have been on the back of recovery wagon so not as bad as it seems

Exactly what I thought when I saw the OP!
A pal of mine had one which conked in the middle lane of a motorway while he was taking his caravan to Cornwall, he flogged it there & then & came home with a Kia.
Another mate had one & the transfer box failed at about 45K miles, costa fortune.
My Mrs thought it would be nice to have one to tow our caravan. I talked her out of it.

Why would somebody nurse a famously temperamental car up to around 200k, then spend money sorting timing belt and water pump, then decide to get rid of it soon after? If they were happy with it at 199.5k miles what changed at 200k to make them want to get rid?
I think that there are a lot less risky ways to spend £2k on a car…. Could be fine though.

Well, just to put the other side of the argument – mine did 135,000 faultless miles and is still going strong with about 165,000. The engine and gearbox are Ford items, btw. Superb car, IMHO. Not bad off road, either. Certainly better than the Navara I’ve got now. A bit thirsty, but mine was the 190 bhp one with an auto box.

to be fair alot of the freelanders bad name comes down to the K series…. it should never have been in that car.

The rest were rover electrics and the silly Viscous coupling that people wouldnt service and then were surprised when it seized. – the bodge then was just to remove it and throw it away.

to be fair alot of the freelander 1s bad name comes down to the K series…. it should never have been in that car.

The rest were rover electrics and the silly Viscous coupling that people wouldnt service and then were surprised when it seized. – the bodge then was just to remove it and throw it away.

MOT History shows nothing scary. And that it has averaged 28,000 miles a year.

Hmmmm – and it’s a nice shiny blue! 🙂

remind me again how the apparent most reliable brand of car in the world is working out for you.

Id also look at the cost of being recovered while towing with a horse on the back (iirc you need a tow car for a horse box right )

remind me again how the apparent most reliable brand of car in the world is working out for you.

LOL – yep I went for a Honda CRV because everyone warned me off Freelanders – current spend on it is running at 4.5k for the car; 1.3k for a recon turbo; £400 on sundry crap; and £500 so far trying to trace the non-starting fault – and if they do find the fault +whatever that costs. And if they can’t fix it then the car may be worth 1k as a part-ex.

To be fair my sister-in-law and mother-in-law both have CRVs and have had no issues. And they treat them like shite – which grates as I like to think I’m mechanically sympathetic! 🙂

Breaking down with horse in isn’t much of a problem as they only go to local shows and we have plenty of horsey contacts to call on if the trailer needs towing back.

CRVs are OK. Like a big cuddly Civic with a silly side opening rear door. Pretty good for dogs and bikes and kids, sometimes all at the same time.

Ours has had regular sort of expected stuff need replacing / repairing, although the timing chain failure was a surprise.

Before we got it, we looked at a Freelander. For about 30 seconds. Before deciding it was horrible. All crap plastic, and a reverse tardis, on top of the flaky engine problems.

yeah you own that CRV now. your throwing good money after bad.

I’m all for fixing cars but you have bought a lemon that someone else has had all the good of.

Your in danger of doing the same with this freelander at that milage.

‘Flaky engine problems’ – which are they?

Plus, you have to look at a CRV before you get in and after you get out. Not the prettiest vehicle.

I reckon this particular JLR vehicle is like a triggers broom.

Nothing original is left on it, each part/item has been changed at least 3 times… the body shell even, so at least if you buy it you’ll get some warranty off the “new” parts on it eh 🤷‍♂️

I’ve no idea what chassis a Freelander Two sits on, for all I know it’s a BMW X3 sort of offering and therefore isn’t made of turds with a Mk1 VW Polo rear axle (see Freelander 1).

Yes the Freelander 1 was a bit rubbish. But it kick started the entire small SUV market – no one else was doing it particularly well at the time. It is compromised as it was engineered on a shoe string budget, take that into consideration and what they achieved was amazing.

The Freelander 2 was engineered by FORD, they threw £££££ at its development, lots of parts have FoMoCo stickers on them. They are a fantastic car.

Its based on the Ford EUCD platform which also underpins other great cars such as:

Ford S Max, Mondeo, Galaxy and loads of Volvos inc XC70

The 2.2 litre DW12 engine is great, jointly developed by Ford and PSA (peugeot/citroen), see also the Peugeot 607, 406 and Citroen C5.

OP I would bite their hand off at that price. The FL2 feels chunky like a proper Land Rover / mini range rover, unlike the disco sport etc.

Its a bit awkward to change the oil filter on these, and don’t expect the stop/start to work, or the rain sensing wipers.

I think there are two issues here.
1. the reliability of Land Rover products, but this one seems to b a good one on the surface so fair enough.

2. The price! As said you could get a newer, more fit for purpose and less ‘risky’ car for that money. If it was £800 I would say risk it.

Edit-
I like the look of them and did consider one when we bought our estate. I accept all of the above about built by ford etc, but the Land Rover badge undoes all of that rational thought for me.

‘Flaky engine problems’ – which are they?

Plus, you have to look at a CRV before you get in and after you get out. Not the prettiest vehicle.

Maybe this is a bit too ancient history now, but the freelander was carrying a K series, which has a fair bit of documentation out there on its failure modes.

The CRV is like an oil painting beside a mk1 freelander.

Id also look at the cost of being recovered while towing with a horse on the back (iirc you need a tow car for a horse box right )

Somewhat OT, but the builder who did some work for us a little while ago has horses and told me a story about his wife towing a horse box.

They were tootling along the M62 when the towing van broke down. So they were stranded on the hard shoulder, complete with horse in the box. Not to worry! Brother-in-law has a van which could also tow the box, so they got on the blower to him and he came across.

Then there was the small matter of uncoupling the horse box from the broken van and hooking it up to the working van. That can’t be done with a horse in situ, so the horse had to come out of the box.

Traffic police understandably wary of having an unboxed horse frollicking beside the motorway, so closed all six lanes of the M62 while the operation was in progress.

I’ve no idea what that little operation cost in the end, but it couldn’t have been cheap!

FR2’s are okay for a Landrover product. If the OP’s came with a big folder of care and had decent brand tyres/battery/exhaust ie someone who spent money on it over its life and it didn’t have reoccurring annual MOT adviseries then if go for it. BUT I spanner my own cars – no way would I run tired complex/expensive cars if I was paying for someone else to keep them running.

Rnp nails it.

If you were doing own maintainance this is a reasonable punt.

If your paying a garage this only needs 1 / 2 faults and your treading water on the cost Vs benifit graph again.

lots and lots and lots….

Just had another look whilst walking out at lunchtime – stack of invoices* and history with it. Company car used to travel to Europe and back on a regular basis.

Can’t believe I’m even thinking about it – even as a stop-gap vehicle! 😱

*as you may expect for a Freelander some would say! 🙂

Well – only gone and done a deal for it! 🙂

Had a test drive last night and if you stuck a sticker over the mileage you’d never guess it had done 200k.

Pick it up Monday, only outlaying 1k with what he’s given me for my non-running CRV so it’s worth a punt on this one I think. Just need it to last me a year, 18 months at most.

Nice colour and alloys.

Just look after it as much as you can.

Sweepstake on first big bill?

That looks really nice. If it’s HSE model it will have lots of toys / heated leather etc. It’s basically a prestige / luxury car so at £2k is worth a punt for me. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you though!

Comes with added running boards so he can scoot it down the road.

Now that’s a different deal if you get shot of the CRV that’s a deal breaker.

At 1k I’d take a punt.

Looks nice good luck.

We’ll be thinking of you over the hard times to come op.😉

Joking aside, looks good.👍

They were probably the least problematic car Landrover produced. Common faults on these are the steering racks lunching themselves due to blocked filters in the reservoirs and window regulators. Plenty of spares availability. Much better than the FL1 it replaced.