1999 Land Rover Freelander XEi review from UK and Ireland

1999 Land Rover Freelander XEi

What a disappointment this car has been. I bought it five months ago from a very reputable dealer, but have had trouble from day one.

I had to wait a week over the agreed pick-up date because the clutch needed to be replaced (the car had only done 48,0000 miles and I could see from the documentation that came with the car the cam belt and the exhaust had already been replaced) and the CD player had stopped working. I should have taken this as a warning of things to come.

The day after I picked the car up I drove it 30 miles, parked it for three hours then drove back, not an arduous task for a robust Land Rover, not so, the engine over heated causing the head to blow and warp. I had to wait a week for the head to be replaced with anew one, the dealer told me that it was a common fault with these cars.

Then I thought it would be a good idea to get a ‘proper’ service from a Land Rover Dealer rather than rely on the pre pick-up service from the dealer. This is when I found out how expensive Freelander’s are to maintain, £1300 on brakes, fluids, tyres, replacement joints and other bits and pieces, too many to list.

With the car serviced and a new head I thought I’d take it on a 250mile journey, big mistake, broke down five times en-route! Eventually managed to get a Land Rover dealer to look at it (after waiting 4 days) fuel pump needed replacing, again ‘a common fault with these cars’ and a bill for over £300.

Nothing else could go wrong I thought, took it on another 250mile trip and the rear differential completely mangled itself, with a big bang while I was in the outside lane of the motorway and another bill for £800.

The styling of the car is great, the ride is great, the comfort is very good, but the very poor fuel consumption, very poor reliability, a general feeling of being under-powered, switching on the air conditioning affecting the performance and all the general rattles have made it a very unpleasant experience and I can't wait to get shot of it, I can only feel sorry for the next person to own it.