Faults:

Apart from the rear diff packing up at 24 000 km, repaired and paid for by Land Rover Portugal, and a front diff at 120000 km, paid by me, the car has been a pleasure.

I have driven it to places that a horse would not go to offroad, due to my business being rural property sales, where a 4x4 is needed, and is at times fully loaded with 5 passengers.

Thinking of buying the new Freelander 2.

General Comments:

I have done long distance ie 800 km, and it's OK for comfort.

Faults:

My head gasket blew, twice in the the space of a week.

Fuel tank indicator failed.

Rev sensor failed.

Timing belt had to be replaced.

Exhaust corroded.

General Comments:

I like the look of this car.

I like how practical it is and how safe I feel in it.

It's very comfortable.

Faults:

Rear window broke - a common but expensive fault.

Differentials needed replacing after bought - made clunking noise on gear change.

General Comments:

I love this car. I have crossed Europe (UK - Greece) three times with it, once towing a 5.5m boat, and it has never let me down.

It is great because I can go from a motorway to a dirt track, and it just copes with everything and gives a comfy ride.

I have also used it to pull my boat off beaches, and the 4wd has worked a treat.

Of course things will go wrong as it gets older, but the maintenance bill for my newer 'plastic fantastic' Renault Scenic (2003) is far worse.

I would have no hesitation in recommending diesel Freelander 1's - it is best car I have owned and I would buy another one tomorrow.

Faults:

New engine prior to purchase - you'd think that would sort everything. Fitted due to well known head gasket problem. Never had any problems with cooling.

Started missing intermittently under hard acceleration after owning for a week. Then in second weekend of owning it took it on a little ride down a beach, and the problem got worse in a big way. Clutch (also new) only just got us going on hard sand. This is a beach I would easily take a 2wd car on normally, not serious offroading. Then the miss became worse and worse driving back out, until it lost power for long enough for us to grind to a halt. Clutch was too pathetic to get going again in the soft sand. Almost lost it to the sea before being rescued. Turns out the rotor in the distributor failed, spent ages trying to work out myself, then took to the pros with electronic diagnosis equipment. After changing some corroded leads, the problem was finally found in the rotor. NZ$500 to fix.

Clutch didn't feel so new after that episode.

Low fuel light failed, leaving me stranded when it coughed to a halt unexpectedly.

Rear window would go to the top, beep, then go back down. Very common problem, but this was not fixed with the reported methods, never managed to fix it. Only way to make the window stay up was to remove the fuse, leaving the dilemma of leaving it open enough to open the door, hence letting fumes and rain in, or completely shut and unable to use the door.

Clock never worked. No radio display (maybe it used to display on the clock?); a nuisance.

General Comments:

If there was ever an unlucky car, this was it. 8 owners in almost as many years, a repossession, a new engine, and then when I had owned for a month, it was ploughed into by an idiotic boy racer, writing it off (courtesy of being 'not built like they used to' and suffering serious chassis damage at just 50kph).

Great handling for a 4wd, out-handled many sports cars I have driven. K18 engine revvy, but very badly matched to the 1400kg 4wd, nowhere near enough torque, making city driving a pain as I had to change gears all the time. Clutch utterly lame, couldn't handle the full time 4wd and weight of vehicle. I've got a better clutch on my dirt bike.

Adjustable headlights are a great feature that I will look for in the future. Add on spotlights were also great.

Sound system with 6 stack CD and 6 speakers was pretty good at moderate volume.

Seats uncomfortable, fixed by fitting a plank inside the seat as lumbar support.

Wonderful looking vehicle, always getting compliments. Great with the roof down.

Like so many British vehicles (I've had 3 much older ones before it, all 1970s BL jobs), it had many flaws but clever design and tons of character, which combined to make me very sad when it was totaled by some useless japanese rubbish so soon.