This is the end of the road for our Freelander 2 as we have now part exchanged it.

After 18 months of ownership and a car that wasjust 22 months old, we were both extremely disappointed with the whole Land Rover product and also the brand. This was our first and last Land Rover.

We originally bought our Freelander 2 as my wife’s main car for work, as she was visiting some sites where there are unmade/rough roads and also to ensure that come winter we wouldn’t be stranded. However, having now driven a Ford Kuga we both feel that it will cope with unmade roads and to a certain degree some snow. If the snows that bad, the schools will be closed and we wouldn’t be going to work anyway.

In our opinion, our Freelander 2 was not built to a very high standard, the interior was looking very old fashioned now compared to rivals, the interior trim and plastics were not the best quality, the fuel economy even on our TD4_e model was appalling, the road tax increased from £175 last year to £200 this year and our local Land Rover dealer was beyond useless. We are still waiting for a call back from them on a part exchange valuation against a Range Rover Sport we test drove over 3 weeks ago!

My wife has been the main user of the car over the last 22 months and in that time she has clocked up 20,000 miles, which have been a mixture on motorway, A roads and town driving. One of her main reasons for wanting the car gone is the crap fuel economy. One of the reasons we went for a manual and a TD4_e model was for the claimed better fuel economy. For instance she regularly goes to Manchester, so to ensure that she doesn’t run out of fuel she fills up before she leaves, then fills up again to come home and then has to fill up yet again just to be able to get to work. The best mpg she has managed on that run is 35mpg, that’s on cruise control (where possible) and no air-con. Her issue is not the cost, but the fact that she constantly feels that’s she at the petrol station.

My wife has also commented to me on the poor quality of the cabin trim and also the paintwork, but one of the things that she was particular vocal about is how many times stones etc. have flown up and hit the windscreen. We’ve had Autoglass out 4 times to repair 7 stone chips. We’ve never had to repair stone chips on the windscreens on any of our other previous cars. What is it about this car/Freelander 2’s that they attract stone chips?

For a car that cost over £20,000, I find it hard to understand how Land Rover can produce such a poor product.

We now have a Ford Kuga Titanium and we are both very impressed with both how modern the interior is, how well it drives, how much kit you get as standard and also how good it looks. If the likes of Ford can up their game and produce a quality product why can’t Land Rover?

Andy Freelander 2, GS, TD4_e in Stornaway Grey.

sorry you have had a bad experience with your Freelander Andy, and I would certainly agree that Landrover need to get their act together.

I feel Landrover are losing the place and turning out vehicles well below the expected standard.

and customers like yourself will vote with their feet

hope your Kuga meets your expectations.

Iain

I got my TD4e partly because of the claimed "Best Ever Landrover for Fuel Ecconomy" thinking it would be even better than my MG ZR-Express Van, now I use the MG sometimes simply to save fuel costs

LR are doing what BMW do & simply letting the badge sell products that arn't up to the Premium part of the so called Premium Brand. (Past) Freelander 2 HSE 2010 MY In Rimini Red.
(Past) RR Evoque Dynamic Lux Si4 In Firenze Red.
(Past) RR Evouque Pure Tech in Barollo Black with bespoke Firenze Red colour coding.
(Present) Freelander Metropolis 2015 MY In Santorini Black with Ivory Premium Leather.

It's never nice when someone has a bad experience. Yes, Landrover need to improve a few things, and the dealers should be going out of their way to improve customer satisfaction, especially when we are paying top money for the brand.

Isn't it strange how cars can differ so much? I get 32-35mpg running around and 40-45 mpg on the motorway from my 2008 HSE.
One final thought, if the low mpg figures were such an issue, why were you looking at a Range Rover Sport?

I'm probably going to buy a RRSport next, my thinking is that if I can accept 35mpg in the Freelander after 40mpg in my previous Jag, then I can accept 30mpg from a RRSport. It then doesn't seem quite so bad if you take it down in stages.

Enjoy the Ford and I hope the Kuga works better for you.  Poke it, Poke it, make it do it again!!

Gone - 2008 Freel2 HSE Santorini Black
Hello - 2010 RRS TDV6 3.0 HSE Santorini Black

Must admit the last vehicle I would look at if I were considering fuel economy is a LR of any model.

 2002 Honda VFR800
2002 Toyota Celica 140 Silver (mid life crisis - again!)
2007 FL2 GS Manual Army Reconnaissance Green + freel2.com sticker
2004 Toyota Celica 140 Black - Gone
2000 Toyota Celica 140 Silver - Gone
1998 Toyota Celica ST Pearl Green - Gone
1996 Nissan Primera 1.6 - Gone
1994 Rover Montego 1.6 Auto - Gone

Andy
Sorry to hear of your experince ! mine isnt great iether. I actually havent experinced poor build quality as such and I like the car but the Dealerships have let me down big time and L/R customer service was a horrendous experince. I must add I havent rung them for a while but mines still back at L/R yet again and been told they need it even longer investigating these faults , ( EGR fault , Fan speed increasing with wash wipe ! steering locked dsiplayed on speedo whilst driving and the car not starting at random ! signal to interior motion sensor missing and recirc vent !) all these just since the service and the last lot of faults rectyfied 4 weeks ago ! so depending on the outcome I may be calling them yet again.
The compnent reliability seems very poor ! cheap I suppose.
The dissapointment is that I have had X-type Jags previous and they have been exceptional, so why are L/R that poor ! I feel that had the dealer and L/R customer services taken me a little more seriously at the beginning I wouldnt be where I am today with a piece of junk !
My MPG used to be very poor 26 ish but now days easily get 37-38 on a steady run and mines auto ! now the auto box finally works properly after 2.5 years of always pulling away in 2nd ! Went in so many times for hesitation/bogging down but they never noticed it pulls away in 2nd unless you select command shift and select 1st gear ! Thats partly why I am so disillushoned !
Keep me posted how the Kuga goes as thats my next choice if i cant get mine resolved. I have had numerous fords and my wife has and the service

A FULL TANK EACH WAY-Essex to Manchester I think your missus must be detouring to her fancy fella in Scotland

Oh well another disalutioned LR owner, enjoy the Ford  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

I think you were mis sold your land rover. Land rovers are not economical, and anyone who has bought one because of the mpg has the wrong car. They are work horses!

Land rovers build quality has always been crap too, so I don't know what you expected! You either love them or hate them, but good luck with the ford!

+1 landy  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

Junior wrote:

A FULL TANK EACH WAY-Essex to Manchester I think your missus must be detouring to her fancy fella in Scotland

I drove from the bottom of the A1 to Sunderland and used didn't use anywhere near a full tank.

I agree there must be a 'fancy fella' or she likes driving the FL mor ethan she admits  2002 Honda VFR800
2002 Toyota Celica 140 Silver (mid life crisis - again!)
2007 FL2 GS Manual Army Reconnaissance Green + freel2.com sticker
2004 Toyota Celica 140 Black - Gone
2000 Toyota Celica 140 Silver - Gone
1998 Toyota Celica ST Pearl Green - Gone
1996 Nissan Primera 1.6 - Gone
1994 Rover Montego 1.6 Auto - Gone

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF8&...me=19%3A11 MY 09 GS manual in Lago Grey, Wood Co arm rest and side bumper strips - now sold.

MY 15 SD4 SE Auto Orkney Grey with colour coded Bumper Door Mouldings

tenet wrote:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF8&f=d&dirflg=r&hl=en-GB&saddr=chelmsford&daddr=manchester&ttype=dep&date=1%2F8%2F11&time=19%3A11

Okay, so you hate your Freelander. But, how can you be sure that the Kuga is any better, or even as good as the Freelander?

I thought I'd check the Which Magazine Autumn 2011 Car Survey.

Out of 36 4x4's, there were some interesting findings, of which these are just a small sample:


No1: Land Rover Discovery 4, sample size 48, satisfaction score 95.7%

No 11: Land Rover Freelander 2, sample size 300, customer score 87.8%

No 16: Ford Kuga, sample size 81, customer score 85.8%

No 34: VW Touareg ('03-'10), sample size 47, customer score 74.8% "Dismal reliability is the old Touareg's chief failing".

No 36: Land Rover Freelander 1, sample size 128, customer score 67.6%!


Incidentally, BMW (everyone's idea of a quality car, never quite sure why) came in at numbers 28, 29, 30 and 35.

The evidence shows that you might actually be better off trading from a Kuga to a Freelander!

Tigger.

Last edited by Tigger on 1st Aug 2011 8:38 pm. Edited 2 times in total

well tigger they didnt include mine in the batch ! that would of really tipped the scales