2000 Land Rover Freelander review from UK and Ireland

Head gasket blew at 42,000, necessitating a new engine!

Switch on rear window failed repeatedly after 20,000 miles meaning it would randomly wind down. Meaning I could never set the alarm!

Drivers' side window makes a grating noise, and never stays fixed.

Clutch went after 15,000.

Original tyres lasted less than 12 months and 12,000 miles!

Plus si many smaller faults I can't keep up with them all!

Having come from a Civic Coupe which went wrong only once in three years (and that was an electric window switch needing replacing), this was something of a shock.

It's somewhat less reliable than my Mark 5 Cortina, and somewhat slower too. Although it's a lease car, and they've had to pay for the bi-weekly major maintenance it seems to have needed, I still felt it didn't merit more than a "1" for running costs because it drinks more petrol than a 747. Any motorway driving at anything over 70 mph, and you can almost watch the petrol gauge drop.

The last straw came when the head gasket blew up eight weeks after a service, necessitating a new engine. At first I thought the engine was on fire, and actually stood there praying the car would explode.

I would never recommend one of these to a friend, unless they were in a "Brewsters' Millions" situation and had to get rid of a large amount of money in a short space of time.