I've been looking for my first freelander for a while now. My fathers friend is trading His in and has been offered 9k by Land Rover , he has offered it to me for the same price. It's a 2007 hse stornoway grey 50k.

I went to have a look at it today and while it has full service history it is a bit rough ! Lots of scratches to various panels , scuffs on the rear bumper which has had a bad repair job , rust around the boot handle , door handle missing , split on the side of the drivers leather seat and a windscreen chip in view of the driver.

Mechanically its sound and if there was anything wrong with it he would tell me.

I can't find another hse with that mileage for less than 12k so to me even if I spent 2k bring it up to standard I've still got a fairly cheap car.

Just wanted some opinions on what you guys would do ? Does it seem like a good buy ?

( also to much reading of this forum and I've got the bug so I'd probably be putting on the facelift bumper , colour coding , spoiler so it would be going into a spray shop anyway. )

Sounds ok to me especially if it as mechanically sound as you say although might be worth getting a 2nd opinion on that side.

as for the scratches and scuffs, if its going in for a facelift and other spray bits, then just get them to mop the car and get as many scratches out as possible so then the bodywork will be sorted. (I would suggest about £1000 to do the facelift, spray work and a polish)

the door handle is a cheap fix, plenty around on auction sites, and the body shop will be able to fit it easily if you cant.

the seat base is something that's been covered lots in this forum, and is relatively easy to remove/replace.

so if you budget for £2000 to do all the work you want, which will improve the looks and freshen it up, you have yourself an £11k HSE with very low mileage

You'll probably need a new windscreen too as a chip in the line of sight of the driver is an MoT fail.

But at that price it sounds like a good bet so long as it is in good condition.

Cheers guys. needed that bit of reassurance!

I figured the windscreen would need replacing and that to get it up to standard I'd need to budget 2k.

I'm going back for a second look next week and I'll take someone that can have a good look. Although the guy selling it is a very good friend of my dads and I'm sure he'd tell me if it had the slightest thing wrong with it ( at the end of the day its probably easier for him to trade it in for the same price than sell to me so I'm sure he'd prefer to put me off by naming faults !)

if the windscreen chip isn't too bad, and there is plenty of MOT left on it, buy it (subject to being careful as above etc) and then claim on the windscreen through insurance.

This post has been edited by the site administration team
or even better, get him to fix it before selling and don't commit fraud

Yeah I think that's what I'll do. My excess is £60 although I'm not sure if they charge more for the hse as it has the heated windscreen. Hope not !

windscreen get him to claim on his insurance, £80 ish

door handle, is it a tungsten coloured one? (grey) or colour coded? or just plain black plastic, I might have a spare grey tungsten one)

driver side split is quite common, you sit in the bolster crushes and the fake leather side splits, new cover or possible get one from breakers yard... might be worth changing the foam inserts at same time, to gain nice fresh feel (mav71 posted a guide to this)

scratches that can't be felt with a finger nail should polish out, any deeper then you in to respraying territory Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

If the door handle is missing and the owner doesnt appear to be bothered about that, check nothing else is missing, such as a spare wheel or emergency inflation kit, jack, wheel key, any bits of interior trim like the covers for the aux sockets etc if you have to buy those too to make it right/look decent, the price is going up and up.

I'll give it a proper look over next week but as far as i could see today everything looked okay apart from the things mentioned above . I should add that although i said door handle its actually only the smaller half thats missing , the larger part which opens the door is still there .


Thanks everyone for your input . I've always joined forums for all cars i've owned , this one definitely seems the friendliest so far

RogB wrote:

if the windscreen chip isn't too bad, and there is plenty of MOT left on it, buy it (subject to being careful as above etc) and then claim on the windscreen through insurance.

This post has been edited by the site administration team
or even better, get him to fix it before selling and don't commit fraud

yeh fair point, sorry

Rosscopecotrain wrote:

I should add that although i said door handle its actually only the smaller half thats missing , the larger part which opens the door is still there .

RogB wrote:

if the windscreen chip isn't too bad, and there is plenty of MOT left on it, buy it (subject to being careful as above etc) and then claim on the windscreen through insurance.

This post has been edited by the site administration team
or even better, get him to fix it before selling and don't commit fraud

Yep , Fair point again . I'll see if he'll get it done on his and if needs be i'll pay the excess.


NPINKS - Its just the standard black plastic one . I know you can get the covers already colour coded but does anyone sell the whole handle colour coded ?

PAB - Yes , It is the passenger side door so sounds like you are right. Fair bit cheaper than buying a new handle i guess although may get colour coded ones if they're about

In my experience a "full service history" means that it has had some oil and filter changes. Our FL2s have had full service LR service history but apart from the oil and filter change there is very little done that actually makes your car likely to be more reliable. We have had big problems despite the history. The main benefit (especially if done by LR) is actually with resale value. I would budget for a warranty. 50k is a low mileage but problems seem to occur at any mileage and these vehicles are expensive to fix. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

Yes LR can sell the full colour coded handles, I swapped my old Fl2 tungsten ones for Alaska White ones, very easy job to do with the right instructions

Ask Sponsor Dan@ Duckworths for a price  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

dorsetfreelander wrote:

In my experience a "full service history" means that it has had some oil and filter changes. Our FL2s have had full service LR service history but apart from the oil and filter change there is very little done that actually makes your car likely to be more reliable. We have had big problems despite the history. The main benefit (especially if done by LR) is actually with resale value. I would budget for a warranty. 50k is a low mileage but problems seem to occur at any mileage and these vehicles are expensive to fix.

Do you mean purchasing a warranty with LR or with a company like warranty direct ? If it's the latter I've heard that most of the time they won't even pay out anyway. I've had manufacturer warranty on my last two cars and yes it's reassuring to have but I think with this one I'm gonna cross my fingers and hope nothing goes wrong !


NPINKS - thanks for the info. I'll contact them when the time comes