2001 Land Rover Freelander from South Africa - Comments

Gear box failed to changed gears, slipping, jumping gears. After 4 attempts at repairing gear box, and still being dissatisfied, the manufacturer replaced gear box at end of warranty period. 6 months later, the prop shaft has broken. Manufacturer agreed to pay 45% of cost. This problem relates to the broken gearbox, and I feel the manufacturer is responsible. Without my permission or knowledge, the dealer returned the vehicle to me without the prop shaft, saying that they had not repaired my vehicle. It was only a week later that they phoned me to tell me that the prop shaft was in fact still in their workshop. Is the vehicle safe to drive?? What effect does this have on the vehicle?? It is now also making a whistling sound. There should be some international law that protects consumers. This is an investment that has cost an enormous amount of money, and because of it's reputation, no other motor sales dealers want to accept this vehicle. I have been offered half of it's book value. It is criminal that a company can get away with eroding our assets at such a level.

The Freelander has serious manufacturing problems.

Steven,

I am experiencing similar problems with my freelander, warranty runs out soon. I feel it's time to consider get other car, thank you for your input.

Regards

Adam

Victoria, Australia.

My free lander has just started to make a clunking sound when it changes into third gear at low revs. Is this how the gearbox problems start.

Regards Mike Temperley.

Freelander 1.8 EFi. Gearbox failed after 180,000 miles. Not bad considering the mileage. Yorkshire. UK.

We just spent NZ$6,000 replacing the gear box of our 2001 Freelander with only 33,000km on the clock. What a joke. LEMON +

The freelander front prop shaft has an irreplaceable rubber boot. I have been adviced to purchase a new front shaft at great cost because of this. Any ideas how to overcome this problem?

John

I bought a 3-year-old 33,000 mile freelander TD4 a year ago from the local Land Rover dealer with a one-year Landrover assured warranty. 10 days after warranty ran out, a transmission whine started and the dealer says a bearing has gone in the gearbox. But Land Rover dealers are not allowed to repair the gearbox so a new one must be fitted at a cost of £1400. As warranty has expired no-one is interested in helping.

Land Rover Customer service is not interested although I've been a loyal LR customer for 15 years, including two Discoveries bought new. My total LR mileage adds up to about 400,000.

LR Customer services says that if the Freelander had been in warranty when I had bought it, they might have been able to help as they can assist customers after their manufacturer's warranty has expired. But as the Freelander was just a month out of warranty when I bought it they can't help!

So DON'T buy a Land Rover that is out of warranty. Better still, NEVER buy a Freelander as they have transmission problems that can cost you a lot of money.