freelander prices

thetourist

am thinking of buying a freelander 2.0 diesel, maybe a 98 or 99 ... i have seen them for as low as 10,500 for a 98 with 100k miles ... does this sound about right ... or what should i expect to pay.

also i am considering the opel frontera and the subaru forrester --- anyone got any comments

basicaly i need a 4*4 with a budget of around 10-12K which has some room in the boot ( not like the suzuki grand vitara ) and thats not too hard on the juice and is around 2L for tax/ insurance reasons ..... carlesberg dont do 4*4's but if they did .......

lomb

dont think id buy a freelander with 100k on the clock liable to fall apart two miles down the road NOT WELL BUILT.

stay away from the frontera at all costs. a pile of junk if ever there was one. one of the worst cars ever made...

see about a honda hrv or toyota landcruiser swb diesel or possibly a pajero. i reakon the honda is the best bet.

thetourist

not really into the honda - it doesnt really look much like a 4*4 to me --- but i will check it out
the pajero is 2.5

... a landcruiser in the 10-12K department .... where :eek:

lomb

why do u need a 4*4. their heavy on juice. repairs are expensive and they handle like pigs. if u want a 4*4 the hrv is ok, also its carlike and fuel efficient and reliable.

if u read the reliablity reports for the frontera (jd power) ul c it came dead last whilst in production number two hundred and something. absolute crap.... the land rovers are better but not much but read up on reliability by doing google searches. id b very suspicious personally of a 100000miler landrover. potential for hugh and very expensive repairs.

the pajero isnt too bad but again handles like a pig.

best of the 4*4 are land cruisers but as u say they are dear.

ubu

DONT DO IT!!!
thats for the freelander and frontera

Foresters are extremely reliable and great cars, you cant go far wrong with one

unkel

Please listen to what lomb is saying. Sound advice. Why indeed do you need a 4WD?

Your post that you feel the Honda doesn't look like a 4WD really prompts an answer to above question...

fletch

DON'T buy a Freelander, my Uncle had one and it was back to the garage more times than he cares to remember, everything possible went wrong with it.
Remember reading in their first year of production, they were the most called out to car by the AA!! (Not a good sign)

puntosporting

G o with the subaru forrester an excellent machine!

fletch

puntosporting wrote:

G o with the subaru forrester an excellent machine!

I'll second that....can't go wrong there....or legacy outback

lomb

problem with subarus are they definately dont look right not by a long way. also i note they advertise them loads so that tells me they arent popular but have to create an image of popularity....
but saying all that they still dont look right..........
they are reliable though unlike fronteras and freelanders.

ambro25

Suprised lomb hasn't jumped yet at the subaru recommendations

EDIT: ah, thought so... HAHAHA!

lomb

subarus are cool

Shank

I have a 03 freelander which I am very happy with, I have heard of some probs with early models with faulty seals etc but one with 100k on the clock will probably have had any of these things sorted out. €10,500 seems like a good price but as always get a mechanic to give it once over before you buy. Think the honda looks awful myself but a better build quality I'm sure. Have heard bad things about frontera, stay away.

Toyota landcruiser best by far but you pay for it

lomb

Shank wrote:

I have a 03 freelander which I am very happy with, I have heard of some probs with early models with faulty seals etc but one with 100k on the clock will probably have had any of these things sorted out. €10,500 seems like a good price but as always get a mechanic to give it once over before you buy. Think the honda looks awful myself but a better build quality I'm sure. Have heard bad things about frontera, stay away.

Toyota landcruiser best by far but you pay for it

yeah but how many miles has it done?

Interceptor

lomb wrote:

problem with subarus are they definately dont look right not by a long way. also i note they advertise them loads so that tells me they arent popular but have to create an image of popularity....
but saying all that they still dont look right..........
they are reliable though unlike fronteras and freelanders.

I have driven Subaru 4x4's on every surface and terrain and can attest to their off-road ability, they are built better than Mercs and are more reliable than anything on the road. I've driven Forresters, Outbacks and the old 4x4 Leone and all were unkillable, have excellent road-manners and don't require overblown ad campaigns to convince me. I had an Outback in the US and used drive it frozen lakes at high speed, but thats probably off the point.

The Freeloader is a piece of under-engineered junk, the Frontera is also junk and is neither good on-road or off, and the two Hondas are not equipped for off road and only have limited 4x4 capability (they are 2-wheel drive until traction is lost then become 4wheel drive but have no low ratrios or lockable hubs).

Figure out how much off-road and on-road you are doing and think long and hard before condemning yourself to spending time in a Land cruiser/Pajero/Trooper. I had a Mitsubishi Pajero Sport for several months and had to drive from Galway to Dublin regularly and I nearly commited suicide in Athlone it was so bad. Great for pulling horseboxes though.

'c

lomb

exactly subarus are great except they still dont look right.
also the interiors are designed by cartoon characters. i was in a top spec wrx imprezza and to say the least i thought it was ugly, with a crap interior.
this is not to say its isnt suberbly engineered which it is but it still doesnt look right.
ur right about the pajero, handles like a pig and goes like one as well.

unkel

Interceptor wrote:

The Freeloader

LOL

lomb wrote:

exactly subarus are great except they still dont look right

doh don't like the look of any myself - please don't kill me Scooby fans

Shank

Lomb: only have bout 16k on it, but know a couple of people with 30k + on theirs no probs for them either.

Interceptor: what do ya mean under engineered, are you mistakingly thinkin that a freelander is supposed to be a fully fledged offroader. On the Subaru's 4x4, I have no idea on these other then there not being many about.

lomb

no offense but theres a hugh difference between 30000 and 100000+

Shank

True enough but like I said if this was a problem vehicle it has more then likely been sorted by now, as Land Rover are generally good in sortin stuff out.

thetourist

a guy i know had a frontera for a few years and loved it - thought it was a great jeep - he changed to a freelander and had that until it was about 5 or 6 years old - never caused him any trouble - his next car was a pajero which he had for about 2 months before he got rid of it because he hated it ???

freelander 1.8 petrol vs 2.0D -- i have researched freelanders a lot and practically every review i have read of the petrol is bad and of the deisel is good !!!!

Your post that you feel the Honda doesn't look like a 4WD really prompts an answer to above question...

i suppose i mean that it doesnt look right in general. - like it's a car pretending to be a jeep. i dont know if i would trust it offroad anymore than i trust my present car .i know that the forrester is a bit like this too - but i like subaru a bit -- and they have good reviews --- I have many reasons for wanting a 4*4 - i live halfway up a mountain and the roads are ok but not great -- potholes etc and also i want to feel a bit more confident pulling into the ditch every time i meet a tractor or somthing which happens 20 times a week. also i want to feel a bit safer wrt snow and ice - on top of that even though im not exactly into off roading ( though i might if i had something that could handle it ) i like taking back roads/scenic drives and i have a couple of times in the last year ended up on a road which was undrivable by a normal car ( at least when i'm driving ) -- also my work often means driving up country lanes etc etc .....

anyway - is this enough reason or am i a plonker

cerebus

I'd recommend a Forester as well - currently on our second, and still loving it. (I fear we have been assimilated into the Cult of Subaru - my wife is talking about waiting for Subaru to produce a minivan before we have another kid)

Great performance - and you grow to like the looks. We have driven it in all kinds of conditions, including logging roads in the winter where we have had to pull over for snowmobiles. Never had a problem.

Maybe check out the Forester XT for some turbo-charged action - more or less a WRX with a boxy body.

ambro25

IMHO and from reading the thread - you're looking for 4x4 driving benefits w/out however absolutely requiring 'boxiness' (size) - and you're also style-conscious.

Just get an impreza, a legacy (I'm biased, love my Scooby - lomb) or, if you can find it, an 3** iX-series BMW: car fuel economy and handling, full-time 4x4 benefits.

Simple

unkel

ambro25 wrote:

if you can find it, an 3** iX-series BMW: car fuel economy and handling, full-time 4x4 benefits.

Extremely rare in these parts of Europe, ambro25. I'd doubt there is even one in this country. Same goes for 5 series 4WD

alias no.9

Sounds like a subaru is the car for you, they always have been aimed specifically at the kind of driving you're talking about, rallying is only a sideline that boosted their image. As for a forrester v's a HRV, the HRV would find damp grass tough going, whereas the forrester will climb mountains.

I'd also steer well clear of any 3** iX or 5** iX BMW's. I know of a guy who goes to auctions for a trader in the UK who picked one up on the cheap (he didn't know the X was 4wd and thought it was a bargain), anyway, the trader made him send it back round the same auction the next day cos when they go wrong, they go horribly wrong.

thetourist

ambro25 wrote:

IMHO and from reading the thread - you're looking for 4x4 driving benefits w/out however absolutely requiring 'boxiness' (size) - and you're also style-conscious.

Just get an impreza, a legacy

yes your about right there - and i did consider the impreza - however one of the reasons i want a jeep is ground clerance - i just want a bit more than an ordinary car - i often end up on country lanes/potholed roads that i would just like to drive over as opposed to crawl over - what's the impreza like in this reguard ( low enough i suspect ) - also i was sort of hoping that in getting a jeep i might end up with a differential lock or lsd of some kind so when both wheels on one side end up in the rough they wont spin quite so much - admitedly i havent researched this a lot but i know that some of the jeeps have this facility - afaik even the frontera which doesnt have diff lock has front and rear axles locked so that if one axle spins the other one is likely to stay solid - any idea about the impreza - traction control etc
another thing is the tyre widths - is it possible to get wide deep groove tyres on it that would allow me to get up a grassy hill etc

..... really though .... is the impreza meant for this sort of thing ???? --- i mean i will be pulling a small trailer too - it seems a bit funny ???

:cool:



does anyone know what the forrester does to the gallon --- i've heard reports that it's as low as 12-15mpg --- true ???


ps thanks everyone for your comments etc - very helpful

ambro25

The ground clearance is decent for a saloon, and some models have undercarriage fenders (mine has). I suppose you could always up the suspension by an inch or so if you really needed it on a regular basis (I'd be careful of the effect on road handling, though).

Don't know about diff locks and all that stuff, but I know mine has auto-locking clutch in reverse (brake while you're reversing with clutch depressed = same as if you'd put handbrake on, well handy for parking on inclines).

Re. trailer, unfortunately, Subaru doesn't do diesels, which would be handy for the torque. Depends how often you tow + how heavy.

I've seen some Scooby with some rather rugged-looking tyres on, over the years (mostly around North Yorks farmland), though never something as extreme as you'd see on some Land Rovers.