May be easy for the hand bag to knock the switch on/off when doing 70?  2010 HSE Galway Green auto GONE

I thought Accidental switch on, but it turns off over 30mph ( or what ever speed) Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

I know it was a while ago, but what if we all decided to post replies saying that the Freely is great, and casting doubts on the posts. Possibly ask Marshalls for any comment? They may not be wawre of the post?  Indus Silver
GS TD4
Private Parts

I'm sorry if i'm wrong Arcane, but i did wonder if that first post was just to raise awareness of the Website.

Seemed a strange first post for someone buying a car.  Don't put petrol in a diesel. They don't run well.

Load of if you ask me. Even if there was a problem it wouldnt be too difficult to find.

Cant they just disconnect the hill descent if they are that worried anyway ? Its not like most people use it.

I agree, couldn´t you even take out the HDC fuse out?? I know it shouldn´t be done... but if you are SO scared of driving the car, for fear that it would kill you, I would do something logical like that. Still, I think HDC will never engage at 70 mph. 2008 Freelander 2 Td4 HSE Buckingham Blue
2006 Range Rover Td6 HSE Zermatt Silver
*Gone* 2004 Defender Td5 Java Black
*Gone* 1996 Defender Tdi White
*Gone* 2000 Freelander 1.8 HSE Blue
*Gone* 1998 Range Rover Vogue

Boxer wrote:

I'm sorry if i'm wrong Arcane, but i did wonder if that first post was just to raise awareness of the Website.

Seemed a strange first post for someone buying a car.

Mercs once had a problem where the brake assist activated randomly violently braking the car even at motorway speeds, so dont rule anything out  At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

Hi everyone.
Thanks for all your opinions on this most interesting topic.
May I first say that there is certainly no conspiracy here, my wife and I have just started looking for a good, reliable, efficient vehicle that does it all for someone who will travel long distances on road, some rough, unsealed bad weather tracks, not carrying too much weight, but in comfort and safety. Had to be diesel due to my work on gas fields, and we didn't want to rule anything out, to begin with.
We took it, and other vehicles on test drives, and loved the feel of the FL2.
So... back home, doing the "homework" on the cars we looked at, we naturally asked the queston "problems with ....? - put in name of each vehicle we considered".
Here in Australia, the local parts guys said they are great cars, and the the reviews from Car Advice were excellent.
I agree with the post that things like this can happen, we just wanted to know if it was a "freak" or something that everyone says " oh, that.... " about the problem.
We just found that article, and thought we'd throw it out to the people that would know- folks like yourselves that actually drive and take an interest in these (seemingly to us) great vehicles.
It was the best vehicle we have driven so far, but I need to know if service, parts, etc. are going to kill the joy if I buy one!!!!
Many thanks to all who have taken the time to reply.
Arcane1 and wife.

I have no reason to believe this story - or to disbelieve it either - but let's put some perspective on it. Taking only the Freely 2 into account, there must be some million plus on the road now. Add in the other models in the family and we have...umm.. a very big sample size. To have one fail like this is, I'd suggest, damn good odds: I personally know two drivers, both with the same model of a popular mid-range executive car, that have experienced a total power loss whilst driving. One was doing an enthusiastic run down a motorway (freeway / autobahn) at the time and I can't imagine how frightening it must have been.

Pretty much any car these days is at the mercy of computer failure / glitch and we all rely on the engineers to model their algorithm correctly, program with good processes and test extensively. While the HDC should isolate safe in any gear past 1st, that relies on a switch (which could fail). I assume it also goes off-line at speeds greater than a defined limit (again, this monitoring feedback could fail). The point is: these systems can all fail but to lose the lot and be traveling fast at the time is, of course, statistically very remote.

My. Buyer: take the Freelander - or any other car with a microprocessor - and of course you're trusting the engineers to have done their job.
You're also trusting the grunt at the tyre-garage to be paying attention when he tightens your wheel-nuts (lug nuts to our American friends). You pays your money, you takes your choice!

Happy driving! SE on an 07 plate

Hi Arcane, I'm a first time Land Rover buyer after 40 odd years of car ownership and my Freelander 2 replaced a Subaru Outback H6, an excellent car, 12 months ago. I would have no hesitation in buying another Freelander and, whilst I'm loath to tempt providence, mine has done exactly what it says on the tin with no type of mechanical or electrical problem after 27000 kms. I've not actually gone rock crawling in it, but it's copped its' fair share of sand, dust, tracks, gravel roads and fire access tracks in comfort and security. If you like the car buy it and, on my experience, you'll be glad you did. One word of caution, choose your dealer with some care - as I suspect with every make - some are better than others.
Whatever you choose, good luck!

Never heard of that problem. Have had no real problems with the car and it's soooooo nice.

The only thing that does bother me is that I should have gone automatic instead of manual. Not that the manual isn't great but the auto is fantastic...

So if you can spare the cost, go automatic!

Another thing you should worry about and is most important is your choise of dealer. I did not choose the one who gave me the best price but I choose the one who gave me the best feeling and negotiated a price as close as possible to the cheapest one.

In fact I think for my personal finance I payed even less then the cheapest which would have been 500 euros less. I got a 2nd Experience Day (for my wife) out of the one I bought it from worth 380 euros, which I had to pay at the first. After taxes that 500 euros would actually cost me about 250 euros for that 2nd LR ED. And since there's a crisis going on and since they pre-order the available places for that LR ED, they weren't that tough to convince, as it wouldn't cost them anything more then alrready budgetted on their operations.

Also it's easier to get 500 euros worth of gear then 500 euros of the price since the gear doesn't cost them 500 euros and they can drop the fitting cost as they have to pay their employees anyway if you get that gear fitted or not.

Be creative!

Arcane1 wrote:

It was the best vehicle we have driven so far, but I need to know if service, parts, etc. are going to kill the joy if I buy one!!!!

 2007 Freelander 2 HSE TD4 Manual with Premium Pack & Moonroof.
Stornoway Grey with Ebony Black Pleather, Clear Indicators, Body Side Mouldings etc.

fantastic reply Sandhurst  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis