No Lieing Spottyelephant, an FL2 will be easier to drive in city than your RX 8, and the footprint of the car (basically the area it takes on the road) isn't hugely bigger than say a 3 series estate so parking isn't hard work. Mine: 2012 Golf GTI Edition 35
Family's: 2009 Freelander 2 HSE TD4 Auto, Stornoway

Yorkshire - God's County

EYorkshire wrote:

The gearbox vibration, that a manual also, yes?

Nope, Auto. 5 on this site. Oh and when I took the car back to the dealer, the Sales manager was suddenly aware of two others that had similar issues...  Hi Darling, I'll be home in 10 mins. If I'm not back, please read this message again...

regarding your parking comment - I too had this worry having driven cars all my life. The FL2 looks bulky but is an absolute breeze to park, excellent all round visibility and front and rear sensors help enormously! 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

Just an update, I took it to M J Fews today and it has been confirmed the rear diff' needed is the most expensive one so i'm looking at £1500+ to supply and fit. On further discussions with the service manager I rang Customer Services and explained my position. Long story short i've to wait until tomorrow for a call back, obviously CS needs to check out my claim that on three seperate occasions this noise that is now unmistakable has been there grumbling away for some time and was investigated on three occasions with no fault found, at a time when my warranty was still intact I might add.

Here's hoping for some assistance.......

Back to the OP's original question, other than this damn diff' i've had my car approx 20 months? put 40,000 miles on it and apart from services/tyres and rear/front pads it's been 1st class. It has 61,500 on it now. Had it not been for the diff' I would have to say it's been a great car and remarkably reliable, one of the nicest cars on the motorway, supple and quiet ride, nice comfy seats/driving position, great for my dogs/shooting, economical for what it is and very capable in the snow/muddy fields.

To clarify, there aren't two diff's.....one is recon' the other new, that's where the difference in value is. Reference my discussion with LR basically it boiled down to my not being eligible under a 'loyalty points scoring system' which put into perspective means that as I didn't buy my car direct from LR and my last servcie was carried out by a non LR garage there is no help available.....nada! thank you so very much LR. Sadly they don't even dispute the fact that on two seperate occasions the same LR garage failed to realise my complaints about noises in the rear were actually the diff' starting to fail, it boils down to my not going back to the very garage who couldn't hear a noise, (on two occasions), for my last service as the reason for being uneligible?! After accepting there was no help available I get told unless I want to pay £1200+ plus fitting for a 'new' unit they simply cannot give me a date on a recon' unit 'you'll just have to wait, sorry'......10 minutes later T H White at Swindon had me one on order from France and will be here next week?!

I've gone from hopeful to annoyed to dissapointed to disbelief and back again, I don't think i'll be able to rest easy until the diff' is actually in situ' and running properly. Now I just have to hope the thing holds out for a few hundred miles.

Dunk wrote:

I've gone from hopeful to annoyed to dissapointed to disbelief and back again, I don't think i'll be able to rest easy until the diff' is actually in situ' and running properly. Now I just have to hope the thing holds out for a few hundred miles.

And it is for that reason, Land Rovers completely customer service (not including the dealership, Marshall Cambridge, I will always make that clear) that I will never buy another Land Rover product again.

I am astounded by the way that they deal with their customers. I wrote a letter detailing the complete situation relating to my car to Customer Services and they called and to cut a long conversation short said tough .

The answer to your question, should you buy one. I have been looking at this forum with a different pair of glasses on and I really hope that Land Rover take 5 or 10 minutes to come down off their pedestal to look. There are so many posts relating to things not working, warning lights, rattles, mechanical issues etc. it is a bit of a joke. The car was released in 2006, 4 years down the line there are the kind of Quality issues still happening that shouldn't be there, on brand new cars.

As I said before, there is a lot to like about the Freelander, but be sure that you are prepared to put up with a bit of work... Hi Darling, I'll be home in 10 mins. If I'm not back, please read this message again...

We have had our TD4 now for 18 months and have had no issues at all. Ok its been in the hands of the Missus most of the time but we have done many a trip to Wales and Scotland and its never missed a beat. I also use it on my 220 mile weekly commute on occasion, particually in recent weather and it is as happy doing 90 down the M40 as it is on the school run up here in the peaks.

I too was asking the questions you are having always had BMWs and was worried. I would buy one again without a shaddow of a doubt  The missus - SD4 HSE - Black - 2012
Me - BMW 330d Saloon - Black - 2011