I'm sure the heart starter would do the job at 18v, not sure he would want to cart one around for when the inevitable happens. Pity the system on the Kuga seems to pull the voltage down so that a jump from a normal (12v) battery will not kick it into life. I think the AA man had to frig around to raise the voltage enough to get it to go. Happy days. FL2 Metropolis, Loire Blue, ebony/ivory

My wife has a 2013 VW Tiguan Rline 4motion Tdi 170, been brilliant and 100% reliable for nearly 47000 miles.
Ive got a 2004 Discovery 2 Td5 which has now got 141000 miles and hasnt been 100% reliable, only hasnt made it home under its own power once!

Guess which I prefer?

bbrap wrote:

... needing to call Ford recovery each time (who send the AA))

I had to call Land Rover Assistance once due to a non-start and they sent the AA out - turned out to be a flat battery because the bluetooth didn;t shut down correctly (see its not only Fords that have that problem!!!!) Now - 2017 BMW X3 M Sport Carbon Black
Gone - 2014 BMW X3 M Sport Space Grey, faultless!
Gone - 2011 Freelander 2 SD4 HSE Bali Blue with xenons
Gone - 2008 Freelander 2 TD4 HSE Rimini Red with bodykit

Land Rover Assistance is the AA, just dressed up in Land Rover kit and vehicles.

I turned down £10,000 free from Audi today!

By chance, I saw on the Audi website that there was a £10,000 Audi deposit contribution if buying a new A7.

Our neighbours have one and it looks great.

This would mean I could have one for the price of a new Evoque SE Tech, what's not to like?........

Well I test drove one and found:

(a) No heated front screen
(b) You can't see the corners. I am used to the LR "command" driving position in FL2, Evoque, Defender, S2A
(c) Letter box rear view worse than the Evoque
(d) Lovely to drive, smooth, powerful but utterly sterile as a driving experience
(e) Salesman didn't seem to know anything about cars beyond whatever 2 day course he went on at Audi
(f) No passion for the cars, Audi reception was like a cross between a posh hotel and an airport lounge, although the coffee and snacks were very nice.
(g) Getting back in my 2012 FL2 felt "special" straight away and I was able to start smiling.
(h) Last day of the offer today, salesman was very keen for me to do the deal but offered me WBAC price for my FL2 so that didn't get things off to a good start, although the sales manager apparently was keen to "negotiate".

I hate that, just give me your best price or even ask me what I am prepared to go to - I got 10% off my Defender 110 XS when I told them the price I would be prepared to pay, without them blinking. I then got 75 litre of diesel as well.

Oh well, fun for a while. I don't think they realised I wasn't bothered about the various "just a minute(s)" and "I must speak to the business manager", I had a good book to read!

So, it looks like I will be going for something LR yet again in 12 months, when the FL2 is five years old, then do a 3 year deal, in time to see what the new Defender will be like.

Some things don't change, although a little luxury is very nice! I couldn't have my S2A as my daily drive long term, my back wouldn't stand for it.

You can take the man out of the LR but you cant' ....... etc.

After last weekend I think the answer would be no, or certainly it would need to be another Land Rover. We were caravanning and when we arrived Thursday evening the site was pretty wet. On Saturday a Disco Td5 got stuck, mainly because the dif lock wouldn't engage. My Feelander got him out without any problem.

On Monday morning, after the storm, the field was like a quagmire. There were various 4x4s, Honder, Kia, VW and a Subaru Forester. Mine was the only other Land Rover apart from the Td5, which since getting stuck had parked on the road.. None of the others managed to get off the field without being pulled out with a tractor, yet my Freelander fitted with Wranglers managed to get out with a 1700kg caravan in tow without any problem at all, This made me appreciate just how good the Freelander is when the going gets tough. Remember there are never problems, just new challenges

Tonyj couldn't agree more re your Freelander capabilities, as I have mentioned in another post on here,at the 4x4 extreme event I attended recently the only vehicles able to move on the pits\camping field where the triallers with obvious mud tyres fitted but I had no problems getting across field in my f2 with bfg,s fitted

I would get a Disco 3 if was using it fot pleasure, if for work more i would get an older SWB Shogun.
I am very happy with the Freelander and use it for both.

I have had two Subaru Foresters in the past a 97 turbo import which was great fun, no-one seemed to know what it was and with 240 BHP, the boy racers couldn't get close enough to find out, when I went to the motor factors, all the staff used to come out and have a shufty at it, second one was a n.a. 2008 and a bit more sedate, but both were brilliant go anywhere cars, both automatics by the way. The new shape Forester, post 2008, is available from Peugot, Citroen and Mitsubishi, the frogs used their own diesel, and Mitsubishi stuck a vw lump in theirs for a while. Have a look at the 4WD models produced by these manufacturers and spot the similarities to the Forester. I offer a small prize to the first person who can name them. I bought an E Class Merc Estate after the last Fozzie as I fancied a 6 cylinder diesel, it was great car, great drive and quite economical, but useless for towing a boat, even a small one, a sprinkling of gravel or a few pebbles on a slipway, and you were in big trouble with the tide coming in!.
Looked around for another Fozzie but but couldn't find a clean low- mileage example at a sensible price, and decided to try a Freelander, have always liked the looked of them, especially the FL2 and I am delighted with my black 2013 with heated leather. Particularly like the option to select the surface you are driving on when off road, and suspect it might be even better than the Fozzie when the going gets really tough. Pics attached of Turbo Forester and FL2.

discofan wrote:

My wife has a 2013 VW Tiguan Rline 4motion Tdi 170, been brilliant and 100% reliable for nearly 47000 miles.
Ive got a 2004 Discovery 2 Td5 which has now got 141000 miles and hasnt been 100% reliable, only hasnt made it home under its own power once!

Guess which I prefer?

The dull one?!

I've now had my hairdressers Freelander aka Ford Kuga long enough to be able to compare the two.

(1) The inside - the Kuga knocks spots off the Freelander for styling and moderness. There's nothing in it for seat positioning and comfort in my 6ft 5" opinion but the layout and modern feel of the display and dials etc makes it a hands down win for the Kuga. I had the heated seats (although the wife says they get hotter in the Kuga!!!), electric chairs (no not old smokey lol), electric sunroof etc on my freelander so no difference there. The Sat Nav display is rather small on the Kuga to be honest and the Sat Nav prefers to use Eco Mode which can take you some weird ways. Overall build quality is very comparable to the Freelander, just

There's also a lot of gizmos on the Kuga that are nice to say you have but in reality don't work brilliantly. That thing where you wave your foot under the rear bumper and the boot opens automatically sometimes work but you end up looking like Billy Elliot. Also that thing that reads out your text messages - well I must have got the Polish language pack on mine because I can't understand it.

(2) Outside - I liked the chunky look of the Freelander and still like to watch one pass me on the road. Think the Kuga is a bit 'girly' looking to be honest. Although the Xenon lights are brilliant (literally) there seems to have been a load of packing with plastic done as the light unit is a lot smaller than the normal light one. Overall the Freelander wins it for me.

(3) Drive - well my Kuga has got intelligent AWD, whatever that is. You can set the display to graphically show you what power is going to what wheels. Basically it starts off on all four wheels and then when you are up to speed gradually switches power to front only. Coupled with a rather harsh suspension I would not trust the Kuga on anything other than light off roading. Yet in my Freelander I felt much more confident of its abilities although I didn't do much off roading to be honest. Also my Kuga has got 18" wheels but to be honest the fitted Continentals just don't fill the wheel arches at all.

The noticeable difference with the Kuga is the torque. Despite being slightly more powerful with the horses the 2l diesel offers torque tally differently. It is much faster off the mark than a Freelander but 4-5 and 5-6 gear change area is a real flat spot if you are not careful. Freelander was much much better in my opinion with the torque distribution.

Regards handling (well at speed) then the Kuga wins. I have a local corner that can be done at highish speeds. The Freelander became arse cheek squeezing time at around 45mph but the Kuga sails round it hitting 55mph. But that's the end of boy racer stuff now.

Interestingly I am also only getting about 8mpg more out of the Kuga as well.

So to conclude - the Kuga wins hands down for interior styling but for drive and confidence it would have to be the Freelander for me.

Oh and I joined a Kuga owners club and what is one of the hot topics of conversation - that bloody Haldex unit

Very interesting. Thanks for writing such a nicely balanced review

Looking forward to my long awaited Jaguar F-Pace test drive on Thursday. It has huge appeal visually and in features; but will it drive as well as the reviews suggest? After the disappointment of my DS test drive I really hope so!

Briefly trying out the configure option on their website can easily result in an impressive but very expensive vehicle!  Life is not a dress rehearsal!

looked at the F pace in the dealer while my Volvo had it's first service (Jaguar Volvo Landrover dealer )

very impressed and in a different league from Landrover in terms of finish and quality.

Iain