Thread: Farewell Land Rover

Originally Posted by DionM

I only hope the next owner has more luck getting the problem fixed, LRA just wore me out. They won. They ignored me long enough and I gave up. At least the dealer I traded it with is part of the same chain who owns the LR dealer who sold & serviced it, so all the history is there.

I would have gone as far as possible from the dealer that was looking after you with the Freo as it is normally what they tell the manufacturer is what the manufacturer basis their fault diagnosis on.

I was thinking while reading at the start that the service manager is probably making out like there isnt a problem other than the person turning the key.

They tried doing this to me at the Ford dealer I posted about earlier and were caught out as I got a freind at Ford Oz to print out copies of their reports on the faulty Trasmissions, rear spring hangers, diff problems, immobiliser problems and LPG computer problems with comments from the service manager along the lines of I had over loaded it and damaged by driving it extremly hard.

They put a fault recorder on the ECU at 1 stage that would tell them when it recorded faults that wouldnt normally be logged and also record engine revs and road speed, this logged that at a cirtain time (I was on the geelong freeway) it recorded revs at 6000 RPM at a speed of 269kmh out of an AU 3 dedicated gas 6 cyl ute with tool boxes and close to a tonne of tools etc in it.

What it didnt log was that while on that drive it was jumping in and out of lockup and back to 3rd every few kms.

Their solution to this was to write a letter to my boss (as it was a company car) saying they had logged my car traveling at 269kmh and this was why we were having so much trouble with it.

Luckily my boss was a smart bloke and said before I believe that you will have to proove that the ute will do 269kmh which they then realised it was a mistake.

Dont trust their service department, go somewhere else is my advice to you, they will try to get out of fixing it anyway they can.

Good luck Deon

Originally Posted by Frenchie

What sort of BS is that? So now you have to tell the dealer when you want to go interstate? or go offroad?

Well thats what they told him and thats what got them out of paying for the damages.

Another dealer has sorted half of the problems but it is still chopping out tyres.

Shame you're leaving the LR fraternity. Hopefully you find what you're looking for in another make even if it's dull and boring

Best of luck,

Trav

Originally Posted by aquarangie

Shame you're leaving the LR fraternity. Hopefully you find what you're looking for in another make even if it's dull and boring

Well yeah that's the thing, I still need a larger 4WD than my Jeep. So it looks like I'm off to Nissan or Toyota, not because I want to, but because they are not a Land Rover. Sad really.

Its sad to hear Dion, I have to say I did bite the bullet with the woes I had and went for the D3, mainly for the trade in value but have not regreted it. I for one can understand the disapointment that is LRA and personally wouldnt **** on them if they were burning. I hope you dont turn your back on the world of LR forever, the brand still has the heart its just the bastards who dont know how to market it.


Oh and eveyone who bags a freelander is just as bad as a toyota driver bagging a landy owner

I'm a long time LR and VW owner and hope that VW buy's LR as they make a solid car.Don't think for a second that toyota is any better at warranty issue's,two of my mates and two men I work with have had problems that toyota will not fix,that is one reason I bought a LR.My mates troopy has so many drama's If it was mine I would run the toyota manager over with it. Pat

Originally Posted by DionM

Comments about the Freelander's LR cred or the like aside (I have been around Land Rovers since I was 6 years old, I'm now 29, spanning SIIAs, RR Classics, Series III Stage 1, and my Freelander), the issue was with LRA's eventual refusal to acknowledge and fix properly two problems - 1 with poor cold starting (since it was 1week old), the other a severe loss of power under acceleration (almost like the brakes were jabbed on, but of course they weren't ... had many close shaves with cars almost running up the back of the vehicle in traffic when this happened).

They did little more than simply wait for the ECU to log a fault code - which it never did; so in the end I had a service manager tell me they would no longer investigate the problem anymore ... insinuating I was making it up.

That was the final straw. We were very close to buying a D3 (had the lease package all arranged and ready to go) ... that atttitude changed our minds instantly.

They could have fixed it. Looking at US forums it looked like the throttle body was a likely suspect. But they just wanted to wait for a fault code.

And yes, I bought a VW sedan.

And guys, lay off the stupid Freelander comments. I got out there and used it, and it was a true Land Rover in that it set the benchmark in design and 4WD capability for it's class - just like it brothers the Defender, Disco and Rangie.

I'm not posting as a bitter owner, I'm posting as a sad former owner.

When I had my 01 freelander the last of the 4's I think it was 01, look it wasn’t a bad car but it was a suburban want to be four wheel drive the only fault mine had other then badly needing another gear was that the throttle body was made of plastic and of coarse when the motor got hot it got stuck almost killing me and the car

Why the freelander to begin with I asked my self every day at the time my wife worked for trivett and a bunch of bastards they are another story for another day

I was told that they can do anything a larger 4wd could do (BS) anyway it was the first 4wd I ever bought took me from Sydney to WA with out hitch

In closing they are what they are a suburban city slicker

Just to update this one ... I got a call from the dealer who bought it auction (different to who I traded it with), asking me had I ever replaced the engine, because the engine number didn't match the rego papers ... and they were more different than a simple typo.

I certainly never knew of the engine being changed ... but then again, the vehicle was delivered without a compliance plate so who knows what happened before I got it.

I see she's on carsales.com.au now ... feel sad seeing it there. Poor little Freelander. Hope she goes to a good home.