Used Freelander

Think the TD4 Freelander is a good car.Till 2001 there was a problem with the IRD unit,but after that it should be fixed.I've a 1998 diesel with the Perkins engine in it. Has done 160.000 km's so far.IRD has been replaced under warranty in

On or around Wed, 15 Dec 2004 09:06:25 +0100, "Woodstock" enlightened us thusly:

the BMW "TD4" [1] appears to the engine-of-choice, although there's not a lot wrong with the previous TD which IIRC was an update on the Perkins Prima

The one to avoid is the 1.8 petrol. Poor economy and a crappy engine, prone to head problems IIRC.

The V6 one is supposed to be quite nice and fairly fast, but drinks petrol like it's going out of fashion.

Oh, goodness, no. I wouldn't describe the Freelander as "gently aging". IMHO, it goes completely geriatric as soon as the warranty expires. The TD4 engine may be a good one, but be prepared for lots of other expensive things to go wrong. In our case, this included IRD (Intermediate Reduction Drive - the 4wd bit), CCU (Central Control Unit controlling electrical equipment such as windows/rear door, catalytic convertor (as well as the cylinder head going - but it was a petrol). And the rear tyres don't last very long. In the 18 months after the warranty expired, ours cost a fortune - to the extent that we won't have another.

Think you're talking about early (before 2001) petrol car. As I mentioned IRD units on these cars last for 40000-120000 miles.Most of the time they are being replaced under warranty. The early IRD units also cause the rear tires to wear unevenly (which will give you a lot of noise) and rapidly. Catalytic convertor going might be caused by blown cylinderheadgasket / damaged cylinder linings,resulting in heavy oil use.Defective CCU units are not common.

Yes, but only just; it was a 2001 Model, but registered late 2000.

It was just getting to "end of life" at 72,000 miles. We drove it very gingerly to the dealers and p/x'd it instead of replacing it.