Freelander TD4

[taylor.paul]

Hi all thinking of buying a 2000-03 TD4, to tow my Ace nightstar, any comments would be gratefully recieved, are they under powered or do they live up to the Land Rover badge, has to be this sort of size for the wife to drive.

Thanks

Paul

 

[Damian]

Paul, I personally have no direct knowledge of the Land Rover but looking through the search function I found this:

Danny

18 Sep 2008 10:06 PM Hi Steve

If you look on any motorway you will see lots of Freelanders towing allsorts of caravans, many people on this forum own them and rate them and talk about them. It all depends on how much money you are willing to spend etc.

I owned a TD4 for about 9 months and towed many miles with it, only trouble was that it spent much of its time not towing back at the dealer being either repaired or faults rectified.

Driving the Freelander solo was a pleasure but with the caravan on the back it felt a bit frail and maybe under powered. Our caravan at that time was a Bailey Ranger so it was well within its towing capabilities.

In the end we had so many problems that Landrover bought the car back off us and we bought a Kia Sorento, now that is one hell of a towcar.............

Also, the Land Rover comes last in reliability tables published by various agencies.

 

[taylor.paul]

Thanks

any thoughts on an alternative!!

Paul

 

[JD6620]

Paul I have been towing with a Freelander for the past eight years, my thoughs about them are as follows. A very comfortable car to drive and economical considering the size, about 37mpg solo. Yes they have a reputation as being unreliable, but all cars have faults. In eight years I have only been recovered once, and that turned out to be a loose clip on the turbo hose which had popped off. As for towing, acceleration is best described as sluggish, but once upto 50-60mph will cruise along q

 

[Ian_374396739]

I has a 3 door TD4 on an 02 plate, even solo was pretty poor performance so much so we nearly sold it until Land Rover specialist in Laurencekirk suggested remapping- Brilliant could then keep up with Ford Focus 18tdci solo and tow an Abbey 420 Gts Vogue to and above 60 on all but the steepest hills in 5th along with improved mpg - look in to

 

[JD6620]

whoops pressed the wrong key. To continue, at 50-60mph will cruise along quite happily. You can get more power by using a tuning box but I have no experience of these. When I change car next I think I will look at the Kia Sorento, all the reports are good on them, if you can live with the fuel economy.

 

[RogerP]

Hi Paul

Although I've owned two Freelanders we never towed with them. I wont dispute anything thats been said.

They can be unreliable but we never had any problems (and I know of at least 4 other owners who say the same).

Solo they can be a good car I had auto's and drive in city traffic and was getting 28-30mpg , my mate gets about 36-38 from an auto but he drives like a granny.

If you are looking at similar sized SUVs then look at Kia Sportage , Hyundai Tucson , Honda CRV or RAV4 all physically about the same size , but you would need to check their suitablilty for your van (the Tucson has a low tow weight I believe)

Something to think about is the Freebie is actually quite a small car , my wifes Focus is actually bigger.

If you can goup in size consider the Hyundai Santa Fe (first model) often over looked but a very good car and had excellent mpg for its size.

Good luck , shop around and dont discount anything until you've test driven them.

 

[parker1158]

Hi

Don't normally reply to these type of threads but I have literally just come off the phone to a friend who has one.

He has an 04 reg one, he purchased it about two years ago. When he first had it two major repairs were done under the warranty-a gearbox (The result of a minor fault on the propshaft that went undiagnosed) and a set of injectors, since then he has had two years trouble free motoring. He tows a caravan, a massive twin axle, with a Maverick but last year had cause to use the Landrover and he reckoned it coped reasonably well albeit a bit sluggish.

But, and heres the crunch, this weekend he decided to have a look around with a view to PX it for something newer, he visited five main dealers, three said they would not take a Freelander at any price and the other two reluctantly made an offers but well below trade. As the day unfolded and he realised there was issue he asked and was told, deserved or not they have a poor reputation and as it was of an age where they would sell it on as opposed to retailing it they had to take this into account and it would seem the trade value them very low and at auction they fetch pennies.

As an aside he wanted to swap it for a Honda CRV diesel, he borrowed mine the other week and he and his wife fell in love with it.