Faults:

This week the IRD failed at 60,000 kms. Landrover are arguing its out of warranty. Seems unreasonable. Transmission noise has been awful since day 1. Also when selecting reverse gear will jump out of reverse as you start to pull away.

Sun roof failed at 3.5 years.

General Comments:

I'd be grateful to know how long an IRD should last and what symptoms indicate it is failing.

Faults:

The car failed to start when we went to pick it up from the dealer... not a good start.

The hill descent failed.

The exhaust system and catalytic converter completely failed.

Oil and water mixing throughout.

Sunroof leaking causing water to catch in the roof lining.

Back door seals leak.

Sun roof gear winders broke.

All this within six months of purchasing the car from a large dealer. The after-sales care has been awful and we are left with a bill for over £4000 for a complete new engine and catalytic converter.

General Comments:

The car has been a complete disaster from the day we purchased it.

Faults:

Roof rack fissured after 1 winter.

Guarantee finished at 60000kms. No other problems during guarantee period.

Steering column play at 80000kms.

Clutch control circuit leaked out at 86000kms.

IRD melted down at 107000kms, damaging gearbox, axle and rear differential. Land Rover refused to pay one cent of the 5000 euro bill.

General Comments:

Car comes out of the service centre dirtier than when it went in.

Hats off to Grenoble service centre for giving an unsolicited 10% reduction on the rear differential.

No thanks to Montpellier service centre who didn't give way on a single cent of the 4000 euro bill and didn't even detect the problem with the rear diff (replaced 300kms later by Grenoble).

No thanks to the French Land Rover After-Sales Service. Very, very long wait times when you need assistance.

Clearly well-versed on soft-skills, but behind it all you know that there first priority is to find every justification not to satisfy the customer.

Faults:

1) Excessive tyre wear.

2) Air conditioning

3) 4x Number plate bulbs

4) Soft-back Zips.

General Comments:

For all the bad press that the freelander gets it is actually a very enjoyable car. I appreciate that the diesel is under powered, but what other 4x4 delivers 35mpg+ economy.

I have only had a few niggles, for example, the poor heater and excessive road/axle noise.

The real issues, for me, are main dealer servicing costs and frequent tyre replacement. I know that for every 10,000 miles I will have a 700GBP bill too expensive for the family user!

Faults:

Very little has gone wrong.

There was an incident where the Fuel Cutoff switch would engage for no reason

Reverse gear is a pain to find.

CD player will turn the volume up for no reason.

General Comments:

The car is comfortable to drive.

Expensive to service and keep on the road (Insurance particularly).

Not a bad car, but I do not think I would buy another purely because of the ownership costs.

Faults:

Head gasket blew at 42,000, necessitating a new engine!

Switch on rear window failed repeatedly after 20,000 miles meaning it would randomly wind down. Meaning I could never set the alarm!

Drivers' side window makes a grating noise, and never stays fixed.

Clutch went after 15,000.

Original tyres lasted less than 12 months and 12,000 miles!

Plus si many smaller faults I can't keep up with them all!

General Comments:

Having come from a Civic Coupe which went wrong only once in three years (and that was an electric window switch needing replacing), this was something of a shock.

It's somewhat less reliable than my Mark 5 Cortina, and somewhat slower too. Although it's a lease car, and they've had to pay for the bi-weekly major maintenance it seems to have needed, I still felt it didn't merit more than a "1" for running costs because it drinks more petrol than a 747. Any motorway driving at anything over 70 mph, and you can almost watch the petrol gauge drop.

The last straw came when the head gasket blew up eight weeks after a service, necessitating a new engine. At first I thought the engine was on fire, and actually stood there praying the car would explode.

I would never recommend one of these to a friend, unless they were in a "Brewsters' Millions" situation and had to get rid of a large amount of money in a short space of time.