Is the Freelander rubbish?

Spectre said:
Most of the extended warranties out there do not cover most of the stuff that goes bad. And you might want to check for a quote on them first - you may not be able to get more than bare engine and transmission coverage with no electronics covered.
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The Land Rover assured/certified warranties do cover nearly everything. They are exclusionary contracts are nearly perfect mirrors of the factory warranty.
 
Perhaps, but the original poster seemed to imply that it was on a generic used car lot, not at the LR dealership.

If it's not at the dealership, I doubt he'd be able to get the LR certified warranty. :p
 
Yeah, the first problem is the fact that its a Freelander. Second is the fact the fiancee wants it because its 'cute'. Both the beginnings of a series of problems.
 
Yeah, it's on a generic used car lot, one catering to entry-luxury vehicles. The warranty seems to cover the engine, diff, gearbox, axles, etc. The expensive stuff at least.
 
I wouldn't recommend the old Freelander, However I've heard nothing but good from the new one. The old freelander wasn't built in the Ford era, it was when LR were still part of that monster of British crappyness "MG Rover Group" and were therefore utter shit.

the new one is based on the MkII focus, and is therefore - good.
 
Dr. Sebastian Clarke said:
Yeah, it's on a generic used car lot, one catering to entry-luxury vehicles. The warranty seems to cover the engine, diff, gearbox, axles, etc. The expensive stuff at least.
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Yeah, but it's the electronics and other stuff that fail more often. (Though the engine and gearbox are fragile too....)
 
anti-net said:
I wouldn't recommend the old Freelander, However I've heard nothing but good from the new one. The old freelander wasn't built in the Ford era, it was when LR were still part of that monster of British crappyness "MG Rover Group" and were therefore utter shit.
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Exactly. The original Freelander was designed, conceived and led to production under the umbrella of MG Rover, that thriving international succesful carmaker, which is probably why it has reliability problems.

The problem is that it looked quite good back then, and still looks decent now. Which fools the more naive, and the less car-savvy, into wanting one.
 
teeb said:
Exactly. The original Freelander was designed, conceived and led to production under the umbrella of MG Rover, that thriving international succesful carmaker, which is probably why it has reliability problems.

The problem is that it looked quite good back then, and still looks decent now. Which fools the more naive, and the less car-savvy, into wanting one.
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You summed it up nicely but there is more.

The Freelander started life under MG Rover but then went into production under BMW. BMW ignored the Freelander for the most part and then Ford bought Land Rover and they really ignored the Freelander. Now you have this vehicle with tons of problems that no one will take responsibility for because so many different companies were involved with it.
 
British_Rover said:
You summed it up nicely but there is more.

The Freelander started life under MG Rover but then went into production under BMW. BMW ignored the Freelander for the most part and then Ford bought Land Rover and they really ignored the Freelander. Now you have this vehicle with tons of problems that no one will take responsibility for because so many different companies were involved with it.
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The proverbial red-headed stepchild.
 
British_Rover said:
You summed it up nicely but there is more.

The Freelander started life under MG Rover but then went into production under BMW. BMW ignored the Freelander for the most part and then Ford bought Land Rover and they really ignored the Freelander. Now you have this vehicle with tons of problems that no one will take responsibility for because so many different companies were involved with it.
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I don't know if this is fact or vain hope, but I seem to remember reading that the New MINI was mostly designed under MG Rover, if not engineered or led to production.

I guess there is one thing we should be thankful for under MGRover.
 
Brit_Rover, is it true the '04 Disco is the best one to get? I might be willing to put a couple payments in for her if she wants a proper Rover. I heard that the 2004 model was the one that had most of the kinks out of it, before they went to the LR2. Granted, she will be instructed never to touch the button for the center locking diff...
 
teeb said:
I don't know if this is fact or vain hope, but I seem to remember reading that the New MINI was mostly designed under MG Rover, if not engineered or led to production.

I guess there is one thing we should be thankful for under MGRover.
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Yeah I think you are right in that MG Rover did the design work for the MINI but BMW but whatever minimal engineering they did was completely redone when BMW took over.

You have to remember the time line to see how it probably all came together.

BMW bought Rover in mid 1994 and most likely had complete control of everything by early 1995.



The Freelander launched in 1996 for the UK so by the time BMW had control of MG Rover pre-production would have already started and the design was pretty much set in stone.

Contrast that with the MINI which went on sale in 2001 more then six years after BMW bought MG Rover and about a year after BMW spun off most of the company.

BMW would have been involved from the engineering and design of the MINI almost right from the start. In talking to people who worked on the Mark III Range Rover(L322 in Land Rover Speak) BMW liked to be involved in everything and had pretty solid control of things. They even went so far as to dumb down the L322 in an effort to keep it from stepping on the X5s toes. I am sure BMW knew there were going to divest themselves of Land Rover shortly and didn't want to make the L322 too strong for whoever bought Land Rover.



Dr. Sebastian Clarke said:
Brit_Rover, is it true the '04 Disco is the best one to get? I might be willing to put a couple payments in for her if she wants a proper Rover. I heard that the 2004 model was the one that had most of the kinks out of it, before they went to the LR2. Granted, she will be instructed never to touch the button for the center locking diff...
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Yup the 2004 Disco is the best one to get. You are confusing the LR2 with the LR3 though. The LR3, which is essentially the third Generation Discovery and is sold that way in the rest of the world, came out in october 2004 as a 2005 model. The LR2 which is really the second generation freelander didn't come out until April of 2007 as a 2008 model.


The locking diff on a disco is really a lever that you slide to the left and not a button.
 
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