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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!”
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.
Mate of mine has one with 265k on the clock good chunk of these miles towing a race car up and down the country, he has had nothing major go wrong just serviced regular.
I had one I bought ten yrs ago. It got used daily a# a foresters vehicle, off the public roads, a lot of stop, start driving on gravel roads and grass rides. Would go anywhere.
I really liked it, solid, looked nice. Good resale value when I got rid of it. Nothing went wrong on it other than rear drum based handbrake used to seize and stay rubbing sometimes due to being covered in mud a lot.
I had it after an fl1 which was actually pretty good for the same duties and the dog loved the opening rear window/ grill combo. Only thing that happened to that was it ate a few diesel injectors. It was the bmw period Diesel engine. Looking at the mot records it’s still on the Rd today. The fl2 isn’t.
Can’t be worse than Highlander 2 can it?
Nice pop culture reference snuck in there! Well done that man. 😁
Picked it up after work yesterday - drives like a dream, night and day between this and the CRV. Fingers crossed now! 🙂
...and the rear seats don't look like they've been used at all.
No doubt I'll be returning to this thread! 🙂
Wow, those seats don’t look like they’ve seen 200k of action
Wow, those seats don’t look like they’ve seen 200k of action
Probably replaced after a massive accident set all the airbags off. 🤣
looks real nice. Enjoy.
First little niggle - air vents chucked a load of mist out last night and I thought 'ooooh shit- here we go!'.
Popped it into the garage next door and turned out to be filthy pollen filter and blocked AC drain. So easy fix.
To be continued!...
🙂
I remember the pollen filter being a trauma to replace on mine. Pulled it out at ten years old and it was dated before the car was built. On a full dealer history car too.
Oh and oil filter was a nightmare to access until I got a flex head ratchet spanner to fit and then it was easy.
Only just seen this, OP if you hadnt taken it I would have asked where it was I would. For £2k that is a bargain.
We have a 2004 FL1 TD4 on almost that mileage. Just passed it's MOt with no advisories the day after pulling a caravan around france for 2 weeks. Granted the engine check light now comes on when going up hills with the caravan but tbh I was just amazed it survived as we are only keeping it going until the expensive Michelin tyres (off road for using on the farm) are worn down too much.
Yes it has had a fair few problems like door locks, window regulators, injectors etc. I have just fitted new front wishbones as the outer ball joint rubbers split at 190k. It gets used for towing sheep and hay trailers and for transporting the dog and taking up kayaking and MTBing so it has a hard life.
OH would like a FL2 and we did look at one like that for >£11k but what we really need is a 3.5T tow car and me to do my licence. £2k is peanuts for what you get in the HSE, even with 200k.
It is a Ford derived engine so 2.2 diesel, not the crappy 2 litre BMW one. Chassis should be all land rover and you only have to look at the prince Philip crash to see how good the safety is. the FL1 body creaks and groans as it is a bit flexy but the FL2 is a much better car. Only weakness i know of was some of the early rear diffs and transfer boxes. Should be easy enought o pick a used one up though if they go.
just realised it has the updated terrain knob so is the refresh one too.
Hi Andy - it's got the sport auto box too, with the command shift. Didn't think I'd use it but it helps when it can't quite decide what gear to be in!
Garage has said the power steering is a bit noisy so that may need looking at at some time. But other than that it's all good underneath. I'll run it for a few months and see if anything nasty crops up though.
I've had the oil changed as it's not clear when that was last done.
Wzzzz - they said the pollen filter on this didn't look like it had been changed in a good few years. A small child is recommended to get in the footwell to replace! 🙂
Hi Andy – it’s got the sport auto box too, with the command shift. Didn’t think I’d use it but it helps when it can’t quite decide what gear to be in!
What's the auto on the FL2? I have a bit of fun keeping an older RR going, which has a ZF, and one of the best things I've done is service the gearbox (fluid flush, new filter, sump and new fluid) which transformed it. Really makes a difference, no more hesitation. Land Rover said these were sealed for life, but ZF disagrees.
Chassis should be all land rover and you only have to look at the prince Philip crash to see how good the safety is.
Its Ford EUCD platform, same as Galaxy, Mondeo, SMax and a load of very safe Volvos (XC70).
Wzzzz – they said the pollen filter on this didn’t look like it had been changed in a good few years. A small child is recommended to get in the footwell to replace! 🙂
Yup its weirdly inaccessible.
Keep an eye on the power steering. The filter blocks in the reservoir and the rack can run dry. A fix was to rip the filter out.
Well it was MOT yesterday - the day of the year I hate the most. 🙂
And... just a track rod end needed!
And an advisory for a rusty exhaust bracket.
Now on 206,000 miles.
I have one of these on 160K, the rear diff now needs replaced - a £700 touch, but that's been the only bill beyond consumables in the 100K or so that I have had it.
Planning to run it 250K.
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Yay well done. We sold our FL2 at 7years/80k miles because I was nervous about big bills but perhaps that was shortsighted. Yours looks really nice, and £2k for a year's motoring in a posh-looking car with all the toys is pretty decent (certainly less than most people will pay for their basic leased Kia / Ford etc). Update us in a year...!
We sold our FL2 at 7years/80k miles because I was nervous about big bills but perhaps that was shortsighted.
Looking at the big wodge of invoices that came with this one you may have sold at the right time! 🙂
Keep us posted... I love a good high mileage vehicle thread!!!
Wow, those seats don’t look like they’ve seen 200k of action
I see cars with seats and interiors that are absolutely filthy and stained with only a couple of thousand miles on the clock, if that, and the overall condition of the vehicle not much better, so that is pristine! We had a 2014 Pug 308 repossession come in, about 48k on it, and the stench when opening the door was unbelievable, like a kitchen waste bin in hot weather, it had a puddle in the driver’s footwell half an inch deep with an apple core dissolving in it; I had to move it about 100ft, and it was as much as I could do to keep my stomach contents in! That’s a showroom car by comparison.
The best I’ve had was a Saab 900 T16 Aero that was on 258k when it had to go. The front window pillars were starting to go so I sold it to somebody who was going to strip the dash and screen out to fix them. Mechanically it was sound. It’s now concourse and his pride and joy. Still on the original engine although I think he put a new clutch in.
LOL! Knew I shouldn't have posted that pic last week! 🙂
Car has started shutting down at random now. Just driving along and completely switches off - trundle to the side of the road, stick it in park, restart and all is good again.
Took it to the garage next door and it showed 71 warning codes - they cleared them all, took it for a hard drive and 17 more showed up, all unrelated and nothing that points directly at why it should be shutting down. They are thinking ECU is having a break-down!!
The shutting down isn't a problem with just me in, but the wife tows a horsebox with it and it could be extremely dangerous to be with no steering or brakes even for a few seconds.
I wanted it to last a year and it's done it's job, but time to shift it on I think - I'm not spending months chasing electrical faults on a car of this age and mileage. Been there, done that.
Going to look at a nearly new 180bhp Kuga this weekend.
Oh dear, our Mk 1 Freelander started doing that - just randomly, saying nope, I'm having a rest. It got traded in shortly afterwards. Can't say I miss it! It was held together with cable ties, blu tack and bits of wood replacing the window actuators when they started to fail in turn... Well done on getting twelve months out of it.
My megane did this - it was a single wire in a harness that had rubbed through the insulation and was cutting the engine when it shorted out, it only happened at certain angles/inclines/revs so was a bugger to find - but cast nowt to fix when we found it.
Hopefully yours is a similar issue.
Get it running in neutral with the bonnet up and start wiggling harnessess to see if it cuts out.