The woman spake unto me and did offer me the Freelander and I did take it....

The woman concerned was my sister, and the Freelander concerned is a delightful 2001 example in...er...."less-than-concours" condition! She and her hubby have just bought a 2012 one and as I'm currently without a tow car, they've "donated" it to me.

...although, as that well known saying goes... "there's no such thing as a free car"!

you have crossed to the dark side young padawan but the perfect trade in for an xy

Not intentionally, but until Mrs. Avocet is well enough to drive again and go shopping for a new car, this is going to be our tow vehicle! Always dangerous to draw comparisons from such a small sample size, but I'm surprised, (for a 17+ year old vehicle that has never been garaged and maintained on a shoestring) how commendably rust-free it is. Better than the Exy in that regard. It's heavier and slower than the Exy (110 bhp) but the engine is sweet as a nut (it's the 2 litre BMW diesel) despite showing little sign of having been properly serviced. Running gear is quite knock-free, despite coming up to 150,000 miles but the rear diff is trying to climb into the back seat on each gear change. I was amused to see that "rear diff mounting rubbers deteriorating" has been an advisory on its last 7 MOTs...(!) The permanent 4WD is harsh - despite having had a new viscous coupling a couple of years ago, but the ride is quite nice. Almost every door has either a window, door lock (or both) that don't work, and I think there's a wheel bearing on its way out. On the whole though, a better vehicle than I expected.

I would avoid any accident with it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShVJju3Zq0o

https://www.euroncap.com/en/ratings-rew ... nder/15573

look at the drivers door.

Land Rovers where famous for their soft body at that time.

Yes, 1 star less than the X-Trail of the same era. Dynamically, on the road, it's not as good as the Exy, but I must admit I've been impressed by its durability!

For fun, I had a look at the number of used Freelanders for sale in Canada on a popular used site. The answer was 3. They literally no longer exist on the roads here. Hopefully, you have good access to parts and used ones at scrap yards. Meanwhile, there are still thousands of x trails on the road which are all 2005 or 2006 T30 models. Admittedly time and accidents are taking their toll on the X trails as well.

Nice car, I was looking for one for a while it was a tussle between an xtrail or freelander then i looked into it more and found out the things that are never checked and most people dont even know about like changing tyres or just adding one new one for instance. have a look here they have some good advice on everything freelander https://www.freelanderspecialist.com/

I went for the xtrail and love it

edit; if nothing else, read this https://www.freelanderspecialist.com/drivetrain/check-your-tyres

Plenty still around here in the UK. The Freelander 1 had a poor reputation for reliability and build quality, but I can only speak as I find. By 12 years old and 125,000 miles I had already had to do a bit of welding on our X-Trail. This "Freeloader" is 18 years old this year and has 150,000 miles on it, but has never been welded. These fora have plenty of threads on them with scary photos of rotten rear suspension turrets on elderly X-Trails! As far as I'm aware, this one is on its original brakes, whereas I think some corners of our X-Trail were on their THIRD caliper rebuild. As for the engine, the timing and vacuum pump chain failures on the Nissan engine are famous, but this one's engine (despite higher mileage and significant neglect), appears to be sweet as a nut! On the other hand, the 4WD system on our Exy was faultless whereas this Landy has already had one VCU and I suspect its second one is on the way out. Similarly, our Exy was (apart from the tailgate wiring harness failure) electrically perfect, and this Landy has either a window or lock fault on virtually ever door. As I said earlier, it's difficult to form any kind of reliable opinion on just 2 cars.

Thanks - a very useful site! The Exy has similar tyre size issues. Nissan recommend swapping them front-to rear every 3000 miles! The saving grace on the Exy, is the ability to electronically decouple the axles most of the time. I haven't tried the Freeloader off road yet, but I think (on paper at least) I prefer the Exy's 4WD system. BOTH, however, are cost-reducing "fudges" because both manufacturers were too stingy to fit a "proper" centre diff like the larger 4x4s. Irritatingly, it had a new VCU a couple of years ago, but I think this one might be starting to seize too. (And yes it's n the same make and size of tyre all round).