Considering buying a pre-owned Freelander

[Carlos]

Hi:
As the title says. I'm consideing buying a pre-owned Freelander. I'm actually planning on looking at a local '03 HSE, an '04 HSE and lastly an '04 SE3(the convertible one). I know this topic has been covered a lot, but wanted to inform myself prior to hitting the dealers. What should I look for? Is it true that they must use only Synth oil? Any opinion greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[KevinNY]

Sticking a fork in your eye is much cheaper and will feel better eventually, unlike owning a used freebie.

[TerryS]

We just got rid of an '03. If you shop at a LR dealer, pay no more for an HSE than you would an SE. Pay no more than mid sixes for an '03, mid to upper sevens for an '04. The only issues we had in 80K were primarily dealer ignorance. In fairness, they bent over backwards (except offering a decent trade in) to work it out. Owning it was fun, but so is owning a wooden boat. It is a capable car. We bought ours new, and I do not remember ever owning a car that had a lower trade in. Abysmal is the word that comes to mind. Open heart surgery is less complicated than getting at the oil filter. We ran Synthetic, but I have no idea if there is a technical reason not to use dino.

[6.0f2504x4]

I would have to say that you should really pass on any of the Freelanders. We have only owned one for a week and it has given us more trouble already than any other vehicle I have ever owned. For a V6 the engine is very noisey, it continuously has something wrong with it, and parts are 5 times as high as any other brand I have ever owned. Just last night the stupid Service Engine Soon light came on again for the 5th time. I have already had to replace all the vacuum hoses, there is that rattling in the intake which I assume signifies it is time for a new one of those. The VIS motors are constantly throwing codes, and the turd barely gets 13 mpg. Not to mention all the wierd electrical problems that I am beginning to notice, for some reason all the dash lights go out whenever you hit the brakes, doesn't seem normal to me. And of course the sunroof is starting to click when you open or close it. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Learn from our mistakes, if you want to put your self through less pain and waste the same amount of money go buy a $10,000 life sized glass statue of a midget and try to fit it up your rectum.

[6.0f2504x4]

Oh and by the way we test drove 3 of these before my wife had to have the one we have now, and the other two both had wierd rear end noises. That is one thing I would look out for, for sure. All the other problems seem to be inevitable, at least make sure the rear diff isn't going out when you buy it. Also all the ones we test drove were 60,000 miles and below on the ODO. Oh and if you can pull the cover off the engine, look to see if the vacuum hoses are cracked or rigged up. They tend to break at the connectors, especially the T for the PCV line. Ours was "fixed" with electrical tape. I didn't notice this until I pulled it all apart after we got home because I started to hear a vacuum leak after the Service Engine Soon Light came on. GOODLUCK and if you like to spend lots of money, you might as well go ahead and get it, of course you might want to buy a back up vehicle to drive when the Freelander is having problems.

I might be biased though, my wifes prior vehicle was a 2003 Toyota Corrolla, it was actually reliable and got 30+++ MPG. If not for that stupid deer that ran out in front of her I would not be dealing with this STUPID Freelander.