Owners of Freelanders Only! Give me your honest opinon please!?
I currently drive a gas guzzeling USA made SUV – 127,000K & a bad head gasket. I need to find something ASAP. I found an 03 Land Rover Freelander SE3 with only 62,000 miles on it for ,990 at my local Land Rover/Jaguar dealership. I've always wanted a Land Rover, I am a full time student & a single mom. I need better gas milage (currently my dodge gets 12-14 MPG) & something that will last me 2-3 years til I graduate & get my degree.
Land Rovers get a bad rap from a lot of people. But they're still in business & people still buy them. So why do they?
It seems like only the people with complaints are willing to give their opinion.
Are there any Land Rover Freelander owners out there that can give me a TRUE account of this vehicle.
I've checked ratings and reviews and they are all over the map… some say "best ever!" while others say "crap!"
All I want is a nice looking lil' 4X4 – that will last til I'm done w/ school!
P.S. don't suggest toyota – can't afford it
Tags: 3 years, 4x4, bad rap, crap, degree land, dodge, full time, gasket, head gasket, jaguar, jaguar dealership, land rover, land rover freelander, land rover freelander se3, map, mpg, single mom, time student, toyota, true account
It sure is a smartly designed vehicle. I too have heard of the generally negative reviews as well. Far as the MPG it won't really improve that problem all that much. 2-4 mpg is marginally better.
Another problem would be that Freelanders are not all that common which racks up the cost of parts if ever needed.
Maybe a Nissan Xterra?
9k is still a pretty fair price though.
Good Luck
People buy them because they are good looking.
But they are not reliable and they are expensive to fix since they are British cars.
If you want a something that will last you 3 years for sure, then I recommend a Honda CR-V.
My very close friend owned a Freelander, and as his sounding board, feel intimately aware of its shortcomings and benefits. I won't go into a lot of details, but after owning the car for 3-years, it spent at least 40% of its time in the repair shop. The dealer service (in the Seattle area) was quite poor, in that they would check the car in without writing up a proper work order, just to skate by the possibility of a Lemon-Law return. My friend foolishly did not contact the authorities to begin the Lemon-Law procedure and basically lived with this horribly unreliable vehicle's numerous trips to the shop. He did like the space, high seating position and off-road prowess, but nothing could persuade him to by another Land Rover. The worst part of the story? When he did go to sell the car, the depreciation was so bad, he cannot afford to buy another decent car! He took a $15,000+ bath on this jalopy. Conversely, I have another friend that drove a Disco for 110k miles and only had to have her brakes calipers repaired. Based on information from Consumer Reports and people I've spoken with, however, the latter is somewhat of an anomaly. Most people, in my opinion, live with trouble and horrific depreciation with LR vehicles–that's why the one you see is so cheap. Attached is a good resource link.