New member so please be kind....

I'm considering buying a super cheap Freelander 2, 2007-2008 with 150K + miles, there's quite a few for between £2.5K - £3K. This would be a second car, mostly used for carrying muddy kids, dogs, bikes and canoes. I guess we would only do 3K miles a year.

So questions for you knowledgable bunch -

- Is buying an old Freelander 2 going to end badly?
- What should I look for when viewing them?
- Anything else I should look out of?

Thanks
Simon

Cam belt needs to have been done preferably with water pump haldex etc would be worth checking and obviously have a good look at service history if possible

It really does depend on the previous owners.
Serviced properly the car is capable of 250,000 miles on the original engine and gearbox - probably not the original window winder motors!. Stuff wears out both with use and due to age, have a good look, does everything work, does nothing leak, not fixing stuff however trivial is for me a sign of someone running a vehicle on a shoestring.

If there is a proper paper trail of servicing by specialists you are in with a chance, this is NOT the same as a big pile of bills, which is often a result of poor servicing.

I sold our 2008 with 185,000 miles, the same year she came back from the south of France towing a caravan - absolutely bullet proof car, started first time every time, really wish I had kept her because the much newer and more expensive Evoke that replaced her was a complete nightmare that I was happy to lose £8k in 6 months just to get rid. Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

Top tip , always do an MOT check on any potential vehicle you may be thinking of going to look at. It is a very good indicator of how a vehicle has been looked after. Try an avoid vehicles that fail MOT's along with a list of advisories too, where it passes within a few days, but only the failures were fixed. Those advisories will become failures over time and shows the owners only do the bare minimum just to scrape a pass and don't look after their cars.
Failures for silly things like headlight beam too low/high, windscreen washers, or no screen wash, bulb out , worn or damaged tyres - these types of things don't worry me - UNLESS it seems to be a recurring theme.
I remember seeing an advisory of "Nail in n/s/r tyre for 3 years in a row on one vehicles MOT. Needless to say, if someone's going to do three years of driving with a nail in tyre, then what else are they neglecting ?

But my train of thought is, if it's done this many miles and has been looked after, why should it suddenly fail.

We bought one at 175k miles and were expecting to pay some $ getting her right. Full fluids servicing (gear box, ptu, haldex, steering etc), rear shocks, Cambelt and water pump, handful of sensors (couple are bad, rest preventative maintenance). Still a few surprises - handbrake, driveshafts... but we still recon we're ahead of the game as got her for a good price.

We're at the stage where we trust her 100% and I've learnt a hell of a lot in the process. If she got written off tomorrow I'd get another.

Lot of stuff you can diy without much headache if you're that way inclined. Ton of help on here.

Read up on haldex problems, steering rack problems, torque converter shudder, rear diff sounds... the big $ repair ones... so you know what to look out for when test driving.

I bought (won on ebay for £2k) a Rimini red TD4 SE with 119k miles, last summer with a misfire. Turns out the moron who had been working on it managed to drop a nut in to the intake, which found its way to No2 cylinder, making a mess of the piston and cylinder head. I repaired the head as best I could, and fitted a replacement piston. After a lot of messing, I've managed to get him drivable, but there's still a misfire, and some roughness when starting from cold.

Other issues was a noisy rear diff, which then seized sold while driving at 40 MPH (due to there being no oil in it), which wasn't pleasant.
Rear diff was replaced with a rebuilt low miles Evoque diff.

The only other issue was the brakes, which were absolutely shot, so I replaced everything except the backplates and parking brake cables.

I've also put him through an MOT and is now being used daily.

Currently he owes me just under £3k, so I don't think I've done to bad. I couldn't have bought a really nice condition SE with 120k on the clock, with new brakes, rear diff and serviced Haldex for what he's cost me, so I'm happy.

He drives nicely too, which is a bonus. Hyundai Ioniq 5 Ultimate. The family car.
2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Gone.
2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE. Gone.
Audi A5 convertible, my daily driver.
1972 Hillman Avenger GT, the project.

No we did the same thing....bought a 13MY with 110,000 miles on....more risky as it was more expensive but it’s been great!

Look for all important service history.... advice re MOT history is excellent .... you can see whether it was run on a shoestring or not.... my advice is look at the tyres.... are they a good make, do they all match? Persons on a budget buy cheap tyres and don’t care what they fit..... I love a car that has a matching set of premium tyres all round... it’s a good marker as to whether the car has been looked after or not!

Silly things will need replacing but the engine is fairly bulletproof.... expect door lock motors, rear tailgate switches etc will go wrong....
Wheel bearings etc are fairly inexpensive and an easy replacement...
Do it they are an awesome car for the money!

I bought a 2010 td4e HSE last August for £4.5 k, 150k miles. Not much service history, but company owned. New matching boots all round and pretty tidy overall. Spent around £300 changing all fluids, filters, cam belt and ancillary bits. No other issues apparent after 7 months of ownership and 4k miles. Loving the car. It was ( and is ) a risk. Lots and lots of car for the money, also quite a few expensive things that COULD go wrong. My advice is if you are handy with the spanners, go for it. I have no regrets.

My wife's Fl2 maybe coming up for sale soon , 2007 Td4 Gs manual in black . It's got the optional panoramic roof and factory tinted rear windows. We've owned it nearly 8 years and it's been fantastic , anything that's wanted doing it's been done with quality parts .






Mark 2009 FL2 TD4 SE (Sadly gone)
2007 FL2 TD4 GS (The wifes , gone after 8 great years)
2012 FL2 SD4 SPORT LE(Gone and missing it)
2015 DISCOVERY SPORT 2.2SD4 HSE (Now gone)
2014 Ford Bmax 1.0 ecoboost ( Gone but what next )
2014 Ford Focus 2.0tdci Zetec S (Gone,but what a car)
2020 Ford Fiesta ActiveX 1.0 Ecoboost
2024 Skoda Kodiaq 1.5 Tsi SEL

Hi Mark, I might be interested in this, but can't reply to your message as I'm a new member. Please can you PM your telephone number or email address. Thanks

Thanks to everyone for your help. A Freelander does look like the perfect car for us and with your advice, I hope we can find a good one.

Thanks again.

It's been interesting reading this as I'll be looking for an FL2 in the near future well end of June anyway. Some good info here to file away in my 'Try not to get ripped off when buying my next car' file.