dennij wrote:

I am currently doing 1,000 miles a week in my 117,000 mile 2007 HSE. I never get into my FL2 wondering if it will make the journey, I sit on the motorway at 70 ideally with cruise on and the miles just go by. Have I had any issues since owning it, yes of course, gearbox, diff and wheel bearing. Gearbox was done under warranty, diff by Austen at Bell Engineering and wheel bearing by a local independent LR garage.

Gearbox was the only time the car ever let me down but it hasn't caused me to worry every time I start the car up, I feel confident it will do what I want/expect it to do. I've had other cars over the years that have also let me down and I ended up getting rid of as I lost confidence in them.

Would I change it for something else, yes I'd have the Discovery Sport (not everyone's cup of tea I know) but it would offer me better economy and lower VED but I can't afford it so I am happy to keep the FL2 for a few more years yet.

What a well put post 'confidence' is everything I think. If it wasn't so bad it'd be funny.

🐑
Freelander 2 HSE auto 2014 ( Florrie ) ..... Try again.
Freelander 2 GS 2012...... Gone.

Actually, I should have said... one of the reasons for my 5k budget was to allow 1k for repairs where needed.

The problem is that I don't really have any idea of how much "things that might go wrong" would cost, and therefore where that budgeting is sensible.


On the D2 front, that's interesting - done a little bit of reading around and the chassis problems you highlight seem to be quite endemic! It sees that it is pretty obvious from visual inspection if the car has an issue with its chassis?

On the subject of "5k being too cheap" for a D3... is that really true? On disco3.co.uk, there seem to be a few lower spec'ed ones for around that price. On the face of it, they seem "honest" vehicles. I.e. full service history at 100-150k miles.

Thanks again!

A £5k D3 is going to be orders of magnitude more expensive to keep on the road than a Freely2 for similar money - the complexity is simply of a different order and almost everything on a D3 will be more costly so a budget of only £1k is not likely to be enough to even get it past one Mot test. If one wants something rugged with bigger boots than a Freely2 then a D2 or a Defender would be a far better buy.
A £4k or £5k Freely2 should be much like mine - a super comfy road car, great tow car for boats, great for field/ flood/beach/ slipway work, wonderful vehicle in snow - did the errands for the village in the recent Beast from the East snow. By far the best car I have ever owned and although it is now only worth about £4k, Je ne regret rien!

There seems to be too much focus on "what if" regarding your questions. The problem is, and this is true for any car, it's impossible to say what may happen to the FL2 or D3 that you may eventually buy. You could end up getting either within your £5k budget and have no problems whatsoever, or could buy one that seems to throw up an issue every 5,000 miles.

Even the known issues on this forum haven't affected everyone on here. All you can really do is have a good read of the comments so far and take that knowledge with you when you go to view. Stop concentrating on the negative issues raised on forums such as these as they are predominantly there to flag up issues people have had and how to resolve them, there isn't a car forum I know of that is full of posts saying how amazing and reliable a car is.

Also, consider just how many people post both on here and the D3 forum who still have either of those vehicles in their possession despite what grumbles they may have had with them. If either car really was as bad as the impression you have then forums such as these wouldn't exist as no one would want to hang on their vehicle. Ultimately the choice is yours and I would say you have done the right thing by doing some research prior to buying, whatever you decide, keep us all posted.

Another well-considered post, dennij. Thank you. I'm enjoying this thread! Currently enjoying:
2011 Freelander 2 TD4 XS (SOLD)
2013 BMW X3 20D M-Sport Auto
2007 Jaguar XK 4.2 Coupe

Go to the CarGurus web site and you will find a lot of FL2's via it:

https://www.cargurus.co.uk/ FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current