The Test Drive - buying pointers now sought ..

[s.stirley]

Finally got the wife down to a dealer yesterday to get a drive of a Freelander. It will be our main car (and towcar) so need to be sure she can drive it (she's too little to drive my current Rover Vitesse !) She loved it, which is great as I do too !

They didn't have a diesel one we could drive, they seem to sell real fast and the one we were possibly interesting in buying had been sold in 2 days ! we had a go in a 1.8 petrol model that was a possible, but although it was a decent enough car on its own - that engine really isn't up to towing. You could feel the power drain off when the aircon cut in even ! no way it would even tow a trailer :)

I'm happy though, search can really begin in earnest now. Anyone got any buying pointers to share ? I'm comfortable checking all of the mechanical things myself, but is there anything that fails often which should be paid attention too ?

Cheers, Simon

[Lighting90]

I am suprised that you have not had any responses yet, would have thoughts everyone would have been able to tell you things...

Well here is my list for you.
Front wings, with them been plastic, check for cracking paint or signs of a respray, as these might be signs of a bump. I am told that original factory painted wings don't suffer from cracking paint. But I am sure someone will prove me wrong on that one.
Check for u/s damage, esp the exhaust, cats are expensive to replace.
Rear wheels scrubbing, new tyres on the rear, might be a sign that it has been hidden.
The rear door electric window, seems a few have become stuck in the closed postition. So a good play with all electrics seems to be the best thing.
The heater controls, a common fault is to loose the first and second speeds, (this is also happening on other vehicles as well that share the same switch, i.e. Rovers and Fords.)
The rest are the normal mechanical checks, steering joints etc.
I think I haven't told you anything new above though....

[s.stirley]

Thanks !

Went to see one last night, XDi spec .. was the first TDi I'd driven, and I must say it was very nice. Much more tolerant of the gear you've selected (I've been driving big V6 saloons, so kinda used to sticking it in any old gear !) and certainly had some real grunt when the turbo was spinning well. Very impressed. 90k miles on the clock with LR FSH, didn't feel like it had done 20k even .. so mileage may not be an issue it seems.

However I was under the impression that XDi spec had all of the toys, but this didn't have ABS etc. I really wanted that since it's supposed to be an 'upgrade' to the current car, so it left me a bit robbed. Presumably it was an option, I'll have to remember to ask that in future - fairly sure all the XEDi spec _do_ have ABS etc and most of the cars out there are XEDi it seems. May just have to spend a little more money .. ho hum ..

Hoping to see some more tonight / tomorrow.

Cheers, Simon.

[Lighting90]

Remember, it is a buyers market, so be picky and get what you want, as it will appear, and most likely several will all at the same time... :p

[s.stirley]

Still very few early (<10k pounds) diesels about though. Ended up doing 70 miles over to Oxford to look at one on Satuday. We both loved it, so we bought it ...

Need a towbar now, best deal I've seen is from www.uktowbars.co.uk for one made by 'Anker'. Must be OK as they are all type approved now and the LR's all have anchor points already on don't they ? I've seen the fitting instructions for the OE towbar and it's a simple bolt up job.

Cheers, Si

[darrenptalbot]

Si

Another good place to look for one is on ebay.

There is a guy who regularly advertises for all types of Landy, inc the Freelander


:p

[darrenptalbot]

Here's one!

Ebay towbar (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2418627658&category=31348)

[s.stirley]

Thanks .. I have my eye on e-bay also :)

69.95 including delivery from UK towbars though, going to struggle to beat that with e-bay even ! I have all the electrics, ball, plates etc that I need already so I only need the bar ..

Cheers

[Lighting90]

try towsure, www.towsure.co.uk, at least worth a visit to compare prices. :p

[s.stirley]

93 quid :(

[Lighting90]

Is that £93 for any particular tow bar?
You said you had the plate and everything, would not a stanard Eu approved one fit? They normally less than £10...

[s.stirley]

Thats the bar they list for the freelander .. cheapest fixed bar type, others like the fancy eclipse are a LOT more.

Not sure what you mean by simple EU approved .. the bar is basically a box section to fit the existing mounts across the rear bumper rail at the back and have the arm to provide the ball mounting plate. 70 quid from UK towbars is pretty reasonable, the Witter I had to buy for our MPV in an emergency was 146 quid !

Si

[Lighting90]

Wow, expensive tow bars, makes me glad I have a defender... it just has a simple vertical plate, with a standard EU tow ball fitted direct to the plate, no fancy swan necks or anything like that. (and I got it for free, mainly because they are so cheap.)

[s.stirley]

Ah yes, I think Discos have the drop-plate etc already there too. Pretty standard Land Rover item I guess.

The bar kills the exit angle a bit on the Freelander so I think I'll have to carefully fit lots of the bits so it can be removed in a few minutes simply.