Thread: Freelander Td4 Anygood?

I dont own one, but have read alot on them. If its fuel economy you want the Freelander is the pick of the three you have listed. The TD4 has unbeatable economy. As for faults i am not aware of any common faults in them. The TD4 was designed be BMW so it should be pretty good. The mags reckon the Auto box is pretty good. Smooth shifts etc. I have a with an X-trail, he likes it, it will get up and go more readily being a petrol, but fuel economy will be worse. The Subaru's are good, but if you ever want to play off road they lack the ground clearance of the other two.

Of course i am going to recommend the Freelander, i am a land rover nut, but i feel the Freelander is a pretty good car and the only thing in the X-trails favour is the price, its cheaper than a freelander. Hope this helps. Oh did i tell you to go with the Freelander, just making sure. Matt

I've been looking into the same thing at great length recently. WE narrowed it down to the Freelander, Sante Fe and X-Trail.

The X-trail won, but partly because we couldn't find a decent 2nd hand Freelander with a TD4 (and the missus didn't want a diesel :roll: ). Forrester is quite a bit smaller than the other 2, if you intend on carrying 4 or 5 large people, cross it off. It's not a bad car, brilliant in fact, just a tad too small.

Freelander had early problems, the old diesels were slugish, the 1.8l petrol was a good engine, but was completely unreliable, some older freelanders have gone through 2 of them in the UK. Safer not to go there. There was a problem with the IRD unit, but that was fixed around '01.

If you are buying new or near new, the freelander is an awsome vehicle. I loved the interior, ride, everything, it just didn't work out for us. If you compare the features lists of both the X-trail and freelander, the X-trail falls a long way behind.

A good mate has just been looking in the same segment.

They went for the Forrester. Great build quality, great re-sale, better off road than people think (the manual has a low range box) which the others don't. They make a turbo 2.5 flat six in the XT which goes really hard!

I have only heard good things about the new Freelander TD4. Personally I reckon it would be touch and go between the Freelander and an Outback (distinct from the Forrester) as to which would further in the rough stuff. Outback has better clearance than the Forrester and again a low range box. I love diesels, so I would probably lean to the Freelander, but only a new one or very new second hand one (hard to find) with warranty.

Hope this is some help.

Regards

Hey Flywheel -- the current edition of 4x4 Australia has a review on all the softroaders. Worth the buy or flick thru at the newsagent.

In short these were their findings for the vehicles you are interested in:

Forrester -- 4.5 out of 5
Freelander -- 3.5 out of 5
X-trail -- 4 out of 5
Santa Fe -- 3 out of 5

I don't really understand their star rating system, because the sub-criteria (offroad, on-road etc) dont seem to add up to the final score :? The write-up on the Freelander is better than the score would suggest, however the Forrester seems to be the pic.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Change you mind buy a defender instead that way if you ever go of road you can tow home some of the members from here isnt that right Kimba?

Defenders are trying to lose that image of just being 'tow mules'. They are very street savy and urbane, you know 8)

I would go for Defender 90. A nice yella one, before you cannot get them anymore. You are guaranteed of a great re-sale value. Apart from that they are a great vehicle........and excellent as a 'tow-mule' :wink:

My missus is also considering the new freebie. The only issue is, how well does the diesel go? She'll be stepping out of a 2000 honda civic, and looking at the three door freebie. I know that if it doesn't go as well as the honda she won't like it, I'd hate for her to think bad things about any vehicle in the LR line up. She's pretty impressed with everything else she's seen or read on the freelander.

The 3-door Freelanders are bloody expensive, but they are very cool 8)