Due to 3 years of absolute hell related to reliability and the problems still continuing I need to consider another mode of transport.

Has anyone towed with a Ford kuga TDCi ? If it had the 2.2TDCi engine with 400nm of tourque I would buy tomorrow but its only in 2.0ltr although they now do a 163bhp model also with power shift and 340 nm of tourque.

I have owned Mondeo's and 3 X-type diesel Jags and the last one was the 2,2D and the power was fantastic and the engine so smooth but reliability was fantastic. We also have a 1.6TDCi fiesta and that too has been perfect and the service from the Ford Dealers has been excellent. Cannot fault it but well L/R has been the worst experince in over 35 years of motoring !

Such a shame you got a Friday car. I can't speak for the Kuga but a guy near me has one and tows a caravan and he says it doesn't struggle with the weight.

The other problem with the Kuga is that it won't have the same abilities. Not something that bothers some people but I take mine off road and the Kuga wouldn't cope with the conditions.

Besides that, it won't perform as well in heavy snow unless you shell out for some wintracs.

Have you considered the Nissan X-Trail? Supposed to be pretty decent in the rough stuff and snow too. Plus Japanese cars tend to be reliable. LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

Thanks Doc
I'm not too worried about its off road capabilities, other than towing the van out of a muddy field should it rain, or just severe terain when in Europe.
Also I gave up using the FR2 in the snow as I had the snow build up under the N/Side wiper between junctions on the M5 in a blizzard which bent the mechanism and was told by " Landrover Custoemr Services " that snow is an act of god so they wouldnt cover the parts and labour. This left me with a really bitter bitter taste when its supposed to be an off roader but cant be used in the snow + you have to remeber that mine wouldnt start in the snow and if it did it would be in reduced performance mode so useless as it was ! That was bad bad bad , but to make matters worse when I went to purchase a new wiper motor/mechansim assembly it was only £46.00 ! as it was still a warranty part ! so Landrover can afford to ailienate a customer for £46.00 ! unbeliveable.
It was suggested that i should of pulled over on the hard shoulder ! I had already cleared the snow the junction previous which tells me its a design fault and as i was hit on a motorway by a car doing in excess of 70mph in 2005 whilst i was stationary there is no way I would stop unless its a matter of life or death !
The Nissan Xtrail and reduced engine output for an auto ( only 150bhp but 175 bhp in manual) which tells me the box isnt strong and sadly the reliability has not been good iether for turbo's and injection pumps and intercoolers !
My Ford Engine in the Jag towed like a train and pulled better than my FR2 with the same van on the back, but the Jag was manual !

I don't know what van your tugging but the Kuga is a bit lighter than your Freely, you will be on the limit their or their abouts at 1500kgs.

It appears the Kerb weight for the 136bhp manual is 1700KG to i guess the 164BHP auto will be 1760ish KG and my caravan is 1600 KG.
I have jsut come across a site where there are countless reports on towing and over 20 very posotive reports and one negative and no breakdowns. Infact 88% of Kuga owners reported 100% reliability and is one of the highest in its class along with the Toyota.
Your correct that my only feeling is it may be a little light weight but as mine is so unreliable its not usable so may be better to have a light weight with reliability.

In fact just tried a comparison on a towing web site. Kuga is 200KG lighter but still runs in at 1700KG but performance etc are matched apart from FR2 will hold 6th at 70 and Kuga needs 5th. Having said that my FR2 will not hold 6th towing on the autoroute unless i'm at 80 ! then it will sit there no problem.
towing limit for the Kuga is 2100KG and 2000KG for the FR2
so may be they are a closer match than they used to be when they were first out

Oldgeezer you are correct in the weight department, it was muted on here when they launched, I think our Mod looked at one briefly. I have just specced one up with options to bring it as close as I could to what I have and it came out a touch over £32k but at the end of the day it is just a Ford

I can understand where you coming from and thinking of changing because of the grief you have had, I was their also their 18 months ago but even in my darkest hour still couldn't dump the LR badge, looked at changing it but still staying with LR.

oldgeezer wrote:

Due to 3 years of absolute hell related to reliability and the problems still continuing I need to consider another mode of transport.

Has anyone towed with a Ford kuga TDCi ? If it had the 2.2TDCi engine with 400nm of tourque I would buy tomorrow but its only in 2.0ltr although they now do a 163bhp model also with power shift and 340 nm of tourque.

I have owned Mondeo's and 3 X-type diesel Jags and the last one was the 2,2D and the power was fantastic and the engine so smooth but reliability was fantastic. We also have a 1.6TDCi fiesta and that too has been perfect and the service from the Ford Dealers has been excellent. Cannot fault it but well L/R has been the worst experince in over 35 years of motoring !

It's interesting that the X Types were built on the same production line in Halewood as the Freelander, using largely the same engine built, in the same plant at Dagenham, yet you say they were perfectly reliable. Meanwhile you've had a great experience with the Fiesta, whose engine was also built at Dagenham. You are considering buying a Kuga, which is based on the same platform as the Freelander, with a engine also built at Dagenham. Most of the quality control processes at the ex Ford plant in Halewood (and its suppliers) will be exactly the same as they are at Ford's Kuga plant in Germany.

Quality of manufacturing and parts sourcing is one thing, the quality of customer service departments is another. During the 30 years (and approximately 1,200,000 miles) I've driven, the worst customer service I have ever received has been from Ford's "customer service" department and some of their dealers.

I would suggest that, overall, moving to a Kuga would give you a car that's about as likely to malfunction as another new Freelander, but with customer service from hell, rather than merely purgatory!

If lack off road ability is not important to you, but reliability and reasonable towing ability is (and you can live with the looks), why not look at a Honda CRV?

Tigger wrote:

.... why not look at a Audi Q5 or in Nov a Q3

mcphersonstrut wrote:

Tigger wrote:

.... why not look at a Audi Q5 or in Nov a Q3

I don't remember saying that!

You didn't..... I like the look of the Q3 though

Thought about a Kuga before I took on Mildred in 08. Soooooo glad i chose Mildred! If I left the LR brand I'd head straight over to a Mitsubishi Shogun. A SWB will meet your towing requirements. My dad bought a new LWB elegance (sat nav, reversing cameras, hard drive for DVD/CDs, full leather, pulls my double horsebox with two big horses and you don't know it's there) for 29k... Compared with Lloyd who cost 34k...
Hull dealers very good as are Oakley in Wes Auckland.

oldgeezer, have a look and test drive in the Subaru Forester Boxer diesel, really an impressive reliable package,

also in general and excellent dealer network.

Iain

Subaru diesel reliable? Really? I'd like to see where you read that DPF, DMF and EGR faults coming up all over the place at 20-30k miles based on what I've heard. Current driveway contents:
2021 V60 Cross Country B5
2009 FL2 dog bus and shooting wagon

On Order: 2023 Fisker Ocean Ultra - deposit paid.

NoDo$h wrote:

Subaru diesel reliable? Really? I'd like to see where you read that DPF, DMF and EGR faults coming up all over the place at 20-30k miles based on what I've heard.

Did some digging with my mate in the trade and seems it was very early ones and all ironed out, with the exception of DMF/Clutch issues, which still seem to prevail. Current driveway contents:
2021 V60 Cross Country B5
2009 FL2 dog bus and shooting wagon

On Order: 2023 Fisker Ocean Ultra - deposit paid.