Hi all,

Have lurked on these forums doing occasionaly browsing for a few months and have decided at last to registered and post as hopefully in the next 6 months, my partner and I will be looking to get a FL2.

We half toyed around with the idea about 6 months ago and was on the verge of buying one when we got cold feet, luckily for us it was the right decision at the time as my partner lost her job the following week and as it would have been on finance the outlook would have been grim.

We live between Nottingham and Mansfield and reguarly take part in shoots and beating over in Derbyshire and sadly my lovely sporty Clio GT is dicing with death (well, the undertray and exhausts are) every time we take it off perfectly level tarmac. As we have a Springer, shortly to be two and eventually millions given her way we decided on a 4x4 to replace my car. We're both young (25), love the outdoors and outdoor activities (Mountain biking, climbing, walking, beating and gun dog work) so a FL2 seems idea.

To cut to the chase, we have a few questions we'd like some help with:

1. Wheres a good dealer within say 80 miles, we've been to Stratstone in Nottingham and they seemed nice enough but as with any dealership, they want your money so will be nice up front

2. Whats LR Finance like? Do they do it on used cars or new only? We'd probably have about 10k to put down including p/x and a small deposit, whats the best option?

3. Where can we get a decent test drive. My partner really wants to explore the limits of offroading in a FL2 before putting money down on one as shes never driven a 4x4 offroad. I've driven various defenders and discos so know what to expect. When we were last looking, the "test drive" consisted of 10 minutes down a dual carriageway, round a roundabout and back, hardly testing the limits.

4. Real world fuel economy, I know someone is going to say "If you're worrying about economy, dont get a Land Rover blah blah blah" but its always an important point to consider. Definitly not going for an eD4 or an SD4 so whats reasonable to expect from a TD4 (manual probably but if autos aren't as bad as they're made out to be...) Most trips will be about 20 miles of twisty country B-roads with the occasional 30 min slog down the M1 added on top, with a small splattering of muddy fields and inclines at the end.

hi q1 and two is difficult to answer somebody near you will help soon enough if you are realy interested i a freelander ask the dealer for a 24 hour test drive providing u meet the critera they should lend you one for 24 hrs stratstones bury did with me if all goes ok ask them for a free 1/2 day off roading voucher cause you would like to see cars capabilites off road if you are going for pre owned either make sure it has the balance of any warranty left if it is about to come out of warranty you need a after warranty from land rover and make sure it has a full service history from a dealership we are all very helpfull on the web site so dont be shy of asking questions ps fuel economy if this is important to you the manual is better than the auto if you are doing a lot of serious off roading auto is proberbly better my 2011 td4xs manual around town 33 to 35 mpg on a run 42 easy pre 2011 my models and autos slightly worse consumption,

stewart rainy-city
xs

Last edited by dunroof on 17th Feb 2013 8:47 am. Edited 1 time in total

hi there, 1) buy one it will be ideal for your lifestyle but the boot space is about 2 spaniels worth, not much more, guns will have to go on the back seat. You can get very nice load space liner for about £50on e-bay which protects all the boot floor seatback and walls plus adrop down fabric flap to save the bumper from those little paws. 2) can't recommend a dealer, but if you buy from a main dealer you will pay more than non franchise but the car will be offered with a full 12 month warranty . 3) landrover dealers will offer finance, and gap insurance on second hand cars. I paid cash no part-ex and there is no real purchase price benefit once a price has been agreed,as far as part ex goes all dealers will give you something, but probably best selling private if you can then . In August I paid £16,700 for a may 09 GS Auto with 30k on the clock just to give you some idea. 4) Auto v Manual you will by now be sick of the bickering on this forum about which is best, on the sort of runs you say you do think about 34/35mpg Auto if you are Mr Normal based on my experience, probably more in a manual. off road auto has advantages for casual drivers like me 5) to get some offroad time in one you have two options pay Land Rover experience £300 for 1/2 a day, or convince a dealer you are deadly serious about buying one and ask for a Free Voucher understandably they may be reluctant. I think if you read all the Land Rover experience threads you will see everyone agrees that the car will be very very capable off road in all situations a sane person would want
Good Luck. 2009 GS Auto Zermatt Silver - Sold June 21 after 10 years of ownership

2016 Subaru Outback SE 2.0 diesel SE Premium Lineartronic Sold 2024 after 8 years and 80k miles . Best Car I ever owned !

2023 Toyota Hilux invincible X 2.8 Auto .

i get around 31 mpg on average from my 57 reg td4 SE manual,

Welcome

You'll love a FL2!

Good plan to buy in about 6 months as you get better deals in the Summer (on purchases obviuosly trade ins aren't quite as good in the summer. There should be plenty of stock to sift through then too.

Can't recomend a dealer in your area - but have a look in the dealership feedback section on here.

Dealers pockets are so bloated at the moment with the best sales in years..so it won't really hurt them to offer you an off road experience...perhaps play tactfully and just try and drop the idea into their brain without formally asking.

Finance deals on new or old vary continually you may find a new car at the right time might be more affordable than you thought with the right deal (discount and 0% have previously been used by me )

See if you can try and manual and an auto to which you prefer..unless you do real high miles the extra fuel used of an auto doesn't make that much diference compared with the cost of the car.

With a Land Rover..buy in the summer and sell in the winter.

Richard

Last edited by dunroof on 17th Feb 2013 8:46 am. Edited 1 time in total

Was talking to someone today at LRE Rockingham who spoke well of Gordon Lamb in Chesterfield. Also Marshalls have a reasonable reputation and are at Melton Mowbray, Peterborough, Lincoln. Cambridge and Bedford. Sturgess Leicester are also quite well regarded. Stratstone do not generally have a good reputation on here but may be OK locally.

For a good test drive you need to get yourself a 1/2 day LRE Voucher from either Land Rover or a Dealer. Most Dealers will offer them if you do a test drive or Land Rover Administration on 0800 110 110 can often be persuaded to give you one if you call and express an interest in a brouchure/test drive and possible purchase.

My TD4 11MY manual is currently averaging 37 mpg on mostly A/B roads and a fair amount of humping and dumping.

With 2 of you plus 2 dogs you will probably need to utilise the rear seats for your luggage or invest in a roof box.

After three discos I wanted a change so looked at FL2,also never considered auto but was told by my mates to give one a test. I ended up at main dealers at Chesterfield and bought se auto cheaper than car supermarket and lower spec.It will sit on the M1 at 70 and return 41mpg.The price was a fair bit less than the 20k+ you may have been led to belive,the whole experience was quite good (but then they want your money)And the springer likes it too but then he knows he is going shooting,had the FR2 for 6 months now with no regrets and yes I do love the auto so all I can say is take out both for a test run good look

Shall definitely try to wangle a LRE half day, have only heard good things about them (except the price)

Dealer wise, our parents live in Kings Lynn and Southampton so anywhere round there would be good to know too.

@dunroof, its certainly going to probably cost more than my current car and we're aware of that. How much though is anyones guess. My car will get 35mpg if I cross my fingers whilst going down the motorway, driven "properly" its low 20's As its essentially a top spec Clio, with the engine from a RenaultSport Twingo and the suspension and setup from a RenaultSport Clio, when something goes wrong ultimately its not going to be cheap It's also sitting in the VED band beneath the TD4 (just I might add, if they mix it up again I fear it wont be good) so not a million miles cheaper, although significant less than a Disco

Marshalls Peterborough and Cambridge are relatively close to Kings Lynn. I've bought 2 Freelander 2's from Peterborough and have no complaints over the service from them.

On a recent trip down the M1 from Northampton to Twickenham I averaged 40 mpg with 4 adults up driving at a steady 65 except through the road works (there were miles of them) at 50. Return jounrey was 39 mpg so must have been uphill or I might have been going slightly faster.

Can thoroughly recommend LRE at Rockingham Castle, near Corby. Was there today and the tracks were nice and muddy and a good test of the vehicles and drivers abililty. Have to admit I was in a Range Rover TDV8 SE with 295 miles on the clock and loved it but can't afford one so for now I'll be sticking to my MY11 Manual TD4 XS and its £165 road tax.

hi gingerlord

i have a 07 SE manual and getting high 30's to mid 40's on a long run and around 34mpg in town, can't comment on the LR dealers in your area, but the one bit of advice i would give is to get a Dog Crate / transit box, espically if your out beating and shooting,

Our previous car was a X-Traill with so called wipe able floor and sides, but after a few outing with Sprocket ( That's him in the photo) The plastic got so dirty it was all but impossible to get the muck off it

Click image to enlarge

Hi Ginger. I see you have posted in 2 places! I live near Bingham and have started using Duckworths at Market Rasen, site sponsors and small enough to care. They have another branch at Boston and always seem to have FL2s in stock. As you can see below, mine is an 08 manual. Running (real) MPG figures are also below: 10MY (Sept 09) TD4 HSE Auto in Stornoway Grey (Now Gone)

08 FL2 TD4 SE Manual in Rimini Red (Now Gone)

I've just bought one and love it

I went to a few dealers while i was dealing with Stratstones as they were messing me about a bit moving the car from Bury to Doncaster (took about 10 days to get from one site to another)

Tried the other dealer at Boston but their cars were dearer and the part ex price they offered me was about 3k less than i got at Stratstone and there was no budging on price with them. I persevered with Stratstone as their price was the best i could find and they were the most generous with the p/x price and i'm over the moon with it

Good luck in your search. 59 TD4e XS in galway green

@toeknee. We'll definitely be getting a crate as the first thing for it. Either a Lintran one or a TransK9. Lots of people we go beating with have the TransK9 ones but as Lintran is closer to us, we will probably go with them as its cheaper and wont have to get the £48 delivery charge.

One guy has a TransK9 one in the back of his Disco2, manages to fit his 5 cockers, our springer and a Lab at a push in it.

Edit: Hows the visibility out the back with it in, I know they have "air vents" in the back but never too sure whether it would actually make it useful enough to use the rear view. The aforementioned guy has some much crap in the back of his its filled to the roof anyway