1999 Land Rover Freelander 3 door review from Australia and New Zealand

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 window stay up was to remove 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.

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 boyracer, 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 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 dirtbike.

Adjustable headlights 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 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.