As I have posted previously, living in semi rural N Yorks, several of my neighbours feel the need to run 4WDs. CRV's, Rav 4's. Freelanders, XC90s, Disco's, Kuga, X Trail, X1, Q3,Q5 ..this gets boring.
But within the past few months three of them have replaced 3yo Freelander TD4's with, what appears to me, identical replacements. With respect, they are all old folk who drive like slow frats, but I can only assume that they have been happy with their Freeloaders. Reliability must have been sorted then, and no DPF probs as they only drive a mile each way to the local supermarket.
I did consider a 4WD myself. A6 V10 estate. Then I woke up.
But I still think the local franchise must be darned good sales people selling diesels to these oldies whose idea of a long run is 15 miles to the nearest town.
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I had much the same thought today - saw loads of newish Land Rover products and I would consider a Rangie next time....but only if I could depend on it.
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Guy near me recently won several million on the lottery - he now has a brand new, new shape Range Rover Vogue.
When I win millions on the lottery that will also be the first car on my list
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The LR of the current time are not really offroad, 4x4s are they? Any more than the current Landcruisers.
I wouldn't have either in a situation where I might need it. I have a ccouple of older, and thus simpler, Landcruisers, a beefed up HiLux and an older Dodge.
Other than that, Range Rovers, Discoverys and Freelanders should just be judged as road cars; Do you like the size, comfort engine, equipment etc. etc.
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I used to have a Defender. It was more or less rubbish at most things but I liked it. Bit like my current dog really. Except my dog isn't orange.
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I too had a Defender. A 90. N reg. A fabulous working vehicle in sheep country, but as everyday transport? A great vehicle to buy. Even better to sell 6 months later. Especially at a £1500 profit. One of those 'must own in your lifetime' vehicles, surprisingly nippy, fun around town because everybody gives you space and absolutely nobody cut me up, although many tried in Bradford & Keighley!
Got it out of my system and don't regret a single moment. Totally different kettle of fish to a Freelander in urban cut & thrust.
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Don't forget that however inappropriate a modern diesel might be for short trip-low mileage use, many folk continue to buy them because:
1. It has been ingrained over years that a diesel is cheaper to run day-to-day than petrol (as is the indeed the case).
2. They prefer the low-down torque of a diesel, and like not having to rev the engine (which equates with wasting fuel) to get the power.
Friend had an old-shape Freelander V6 petrol. They hardly used it because it was so expensive on fuel. Wasn't reliable either.
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I know several people who own either Disco or Freelander. One of them had to be scrapped for a transfer box failure, the other is a petrol and on the rare occasion it's going, it does less than 20mpg. My neighbour has spent a fortune on his Disco 3, and my BIL has unbelievably just spent £11K on a 2008 100000 mile Freelander. It is already playing up with various electrical gremlins. However I drove it last month and found it comfortable, pleasant and decent to drive, if a little top-heavy in the bends. Less room in it than my Octavia estate though.
I wouldn't touch a modern one. If I needed off-road it would be Japanese every time. But in UK non of them make any sense for most of us.
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Funnily enough, I've just changed my 3year old freelander for a new one. Why? Because it's going out of production next year and I would never buy a new model -especially LR - in its first year or two. So I changed now so I knew what I was getting. Last one was competent enough, towed the caravan well, comfy on long runs, 40 mpg solo and never got stuck in some VERY muddy fields. Oldies doing short trips will have problems with the dreaded DPF clogging so not a wise buy for them.
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The girl across the road from me got one in the summer. She has a three mile journey to work every day so I can't see the sense of it, especially as it replaced a Pug 107 which had only done 30k in the seven years she owned it and the Freelander doesn't seem to get any more use.
Storing up trouble by the look of it.
Last edited by: Robin O'Reliant on Sat 2 Nov 13 at 10:28
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I've mentioned before that I'm not big into "sitty up" cars although I have sometimes had them. I prefer to sit lower to the road in the main but that's probably much to do with the use my cars are currently mainly put to.
However, there is a part of me which has a Range Rover on my "bucket" list. I wouldn't do it though unless I could easily afford it. I've had cars in the past which have taken too high a percentage of my income to really feel like they were always a good idea.
I like to try to be in a position where the costs of my cars are ignorable in the scheme of things. While I have the use of a company car to a great extent that is case, despite the tax implications, but at least that is a known and fixed amount. When I run cars privately I tend to buy things which I could afford to more or less throw away if I had to, if that makes sense?
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>> When I run cars privately I tend to
>> buy things which I could afford to more or less throw away if I had
>> to, if that makes sense?
>>
It does, and it's what I do too.
However much I enjoy driving the car is after all just a tool for a job and I'd never buy anything which could leave me in trouble if something expensive went pop.
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ON must still be in his bunk.
;-)
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There is a near neighbour who works for a local building company. The directors all have new company Range Rovers. The MD threatened the local dealer with loss of all their business and a move to Toyota unless they could solve the endemic unreliability and fix problems asap rather than waiting for parts.
I would not buy any vehicle from a manufacturer like that.
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No, I was ejected from my rack at the crack of dawn, have just got home, and am probably going to replace the Ceed with a RAV4 and become a another pensioner with one. I would not touch a Freeloader with your bargepole.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sat 2 Nov 13 at 14:22
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>> and am probably going to replace the Ceed with a RAV4 and become a another pensioner with one.
I'm probably going to replace my ancient barge shortly and am also looking at the RAV4, and a few others such as the Q3 and the CR-V.
The pensioners' favourite in my neck of the woods is the Jazz.
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>> >> and am probably going to replace the Ceed with a RAV4 and become a
>> another pensioner with one.
>>
>> I'm probably going to replace my ancient barge shortly and am also looking at the
>> RAV4, and a few others such as the Q3 and the CR-V.
>>
>> The pensioners' favourite in my neck of the woods is the Jazz.
>>
Well I am delighted with my Jazz...
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>> Another Ceed going then?
>>
Not just yet, there is plenty of life in mine, (famous last words). I replace my cars at five years, so in 18 months or so if all goes to plan. KIAs are no longer the bargain they were three years ago, the equivalent replacement model for my car is over £20K. Kia has moved upmarket with its pricing so a nearly new RAV4 could be had for less of my hard earned cash.
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Work colleague had a quite nice TD4 HSE auto, last of the FL1 on an 06 plate, i happened to notice one day that he had a £460 VED disc in the screen.
Assumed there was some error so looked it up, indeed that model goes in band L, now £475, quite amazing for such a small Diesel.
I quite like FL2 nice drive very sure footed, could be persuaded if LR didn't treat their customers as cash machines, sometimes tempted by the seemingly reasonable prices of luxurious piped leathered 2005ish RR's, nice lumpy V8 with an LPG conversion, just have to budget for a new auto box etc @100k.
Ewok does nothing for me, too bling too girly.
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We were talking Range Rovers over tea (petrol head wife) - both of us have seen late model Overfinch Rangies in the last week around here...must be the Waitrose effect.
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Or the only drug dealer in the village?
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The one I saw was very discrete - blingless, the only thing that gave it away was very unobtrusive badging and what caught my eye the (handsome) non-standard wheels (with proper tyres). The one Mrs RP saw was driven by a very glamorous woman with two Dalmatians ... not the druggie's dog of choice, even this close to a Waitrose..
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>> Ewok does nothing for me, too bling too girly.
>>
Agree, but JLR must be cock-a-hoop at the way they can get away with charging the fashion victims so much for a trussed up Freelander!
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Judging by the comments, most of the 'learned' correspondents here would not touch a Freeloader out of warranty. I seriously wonder though just how much of the perceived unreliability is merely apocryphal. If three of my neighbours have recently exchanged TD4s like for like then they must have been happy with them?
I very rarely buy new vehicles (only 4 out of 40+ in 40 years) preferring to buy at 5+yo and would not consider any JLR product.
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>>
>> Ewok does nothing for me, too bling too girly.
>>
Agreed -lighter than the FL2 and won't tow anything significant. So what's it for?
Road tax on FL2 is much less because of the dreaded DPF.
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>> I replace my cars at five years,
A much less expensive option is to change the battery every five years and keep the car for a decade or more.
;-)
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My view?
For what it's worth.
Don't touch 'em with someone else's bargepole.
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>> A much less expensive option is to change the battery every five years and keep
>> the car for a decade or more.
I decided to buy a landcruiser instead of the freelander or discovery.
Haven't even had to fork out for a battery yet. Front brake pads are getting low though.
Oh, and I bought a set of decent winter-marked all season AT tyres for it.
Last edited by: Tigger on Sun 3 Nov 13 at 09:44
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I was coming around to the idea of a freelander, but had to spend 20 minutes, in the freezing cold, trying to help SIL lock hers. Non-key ignition, so no way of locking it manually. It was only a few months old, but had spent weeks back at the garage. Not for me.
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I was astonished at just how capable the current generation Freelander is off-road. Leagues ahead of what it replaced; excellent interior and not bad to drive. Had one as a temporary hire car and decided to see what it was capable of...
Don't know why you're replace a 4-year-old one, though. Ashtrays full?
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My boss has one as his company car, which is a bit unusual in our place as the majority of managers take the cash and the ones that don't take A4/6's or C/E class. He uses his to tow his "holiday home" around so I guess that's why.
His is 2 years old and hes been happy enough with it, although he did have a DPF type problem with it, but the land rover recovery guys came to work and applied a software fix in situ.
There used to be one in the pool car fleet to. Only took it once and cracked the windscreen on the motorway. Quite liked it, but not sure if I would want to live with it day to day. I reset the trip and best I managed was 31mpg which I thought a bit poor
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>> Non-key ignition, so no
>> way of locking it manually.
Er, I think you'll find there is. Emergency key in side of remote (under sliding silver strip) goes into keyhole under cover at rear of door handle. Perhaps she should have called LR Recovery instead of her brother-in-law!
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Just been on the LR website...just browsing you know. I was configuring my new Range Rover Sport...they have a lovely range of imaginative and evocatively named colours including a a Corris Grey. Now Corris is a village in south Gwynedd straddling the A470....it is the greyest place on earth...it was created before the Almighty invented colour...someone a LR is having a laugh !
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I'm pleased that LR is enjoying success. I suspect it's partly owing to a change in positioning - obviously the Evoque in particular is a fashion proposition but these things find their own market and a surprising number seem to be driven by rather Corris-haired men, along with the quota of younger female owners in high heels.
I was in a new Discovery this morning and it was certainly nice inside.
Not for me though - they just add up to too much money with the extras, and I wouldn't have the confidence to buy second hand - the Discovery owner I was with today had intended to keep his previous one, but as he put it, "it seemed programmed to keep going wrong once it was out of warranty".
Another friend finally ditched his high mileage 2002 Freelander 1 recently, owned from new. He has a new Duster 4WD diesel, with most available appointments, and says it's the best £16,000 he's ever spent on a car. Next job is to chip it.
Last edited by: Manatee on Sun 3 Nov 13 at 18:42
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There were a lot of Dusters around in France this summer when we were there. One or two I saw were in a similar colour to that Ford used to call "Roman bronze" when it was applied to Cortinas. It's a sort of fertiliser brown metallic but it seems to suit the Dacia very well. Certainly makes a change from the silver, grey, white and black everything seems to have been for such a long time.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sun 3 Nov 13 at 18:48
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Makes up for the greyness by having it's own railway, though but, Pug !
www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7lKIIbScog
Ted
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Coris had a Youth Hostel for a while. Graded 'simple' in those days it provided good basic accom for that part of Wales and easy access to Cader or Aran Ffawy.
Now long gone of course as the YHA becomes a B&B chain.
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Corris is a simple place...
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I only know 1 owner of an Evoque and he is gay. I'm sure I've read somewhere on the net it's becoming a bit of a gay icon. Kind of figures really.
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LR Freelanders. Any views? - R.P.
