looking at buying a freeby

[starlo]

hi new to this land rovering. all tho i have bought far to many mags...  anyway looking at mayby getting a td4 3 door. with about 5 g to spend....     you thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated, i will have to use it to get to work so reliability is important {land rover speaking of course}.......    thanks for your imput  :shock:

[andyb]

TD4 engine is probably the best of the bunch. With 5k to spend I'd say that (in the current climate) the 2nd hand Freelander market will be your oyster :)

[carbore]

You should have pleasnty of choice...but.....

Why a 3 door, they have no advantages over the five door unless you really like/want to take the back off and have a big sun roof. Ok the three door is often cheaper, but thats cos people diddnt like the hassle of getting in.

If you dont use rear seats consider a commercial, the big problme with 3/5 doors is the rear seats dont fold up very well so a lot of space is wasted so if you want space a commercial is the way to go.

Obviouly all of the above is opinion but worth thinking about.

[ChrisV8]

as a pointer to current market, mates daughter just traded her x plate td4 5 door in and got precisely £2k for it so be prepared for a hard haggle you are in the driving seat  :lol: :lol:

[V8MoneyPit]

We prefer the look of the 3 door, so we've had 2 of them! However, Carbore is quite right. It is a compete pain to get in and out of the back.

I don't know about the 5 door, but the seats in the 3 door fold down and then forwards so they give a flat floor right up to the front edge of the rear seats (if that makes sense!). We've always found plenty of space in there. But you have to climb in the back to put them back down again!

For £5k, you should have plenty of choice. For a TD4, I'd expect you to get up to a 53 or 54 plate with low mileage and an immaculate service history. Or even a slightly later one with higher mileage.

[Llanigraham]

3 or 5 door, the space in the "boot" is exactly the same. The difference is you can unfold the seats easier in a 5 door.
Would certainly suggest looking at a Td4.

[schuee]

I have a commercial TD4, and have fitted a 2 man folding down seat, I can remove when needed so have a large amount of space when required.As Llanigraham pointed out the boot is exactly the same for a 3 or 5 door, I think I would go for the 5-door purely of the ease of getting in and out, post the pics if you get one mate  :)

Cheers

Keith

[carbore]

Id be interested in seeing it and knowing if you can do that conversion on a 5 door.

The seat arrangement is a pain as  I think a lot of space is wasted (about1.5ft) by the folding up up the seats. Newer models get round this by a better folding arrangement.  Once the baby is bigger I may be tempted for this as we use our freeby for a lot of lugging, hence me considering a pickup or disco3 as well (to replace the wifes golf that I have ended up with!)

[Llanigraham]

A lot of the 3 doors had rear seating for 2 people only, with a shaped area between them for a cubby box. They also only had 2 rear seat belts. The backrest on these was one piece so couldn't be divided on folding, whereas the later 5 doors have a split rear seat, so that you can fold either 1/3rd or 2/3rd's.

[V8MoneyPit]

Our first 3 dr had the cubby box in the middle. Our current one has a 40/60 split and folds right up behind the front seats. I would guess it puts the base at about 10-12 inches from the backs of the front seats. Given the packaging of the Freelander platform, I would say this is about as good a solution as they could have achieved.

[barmiebrumie]

Hi,
    My wife is on her 2nd TD4 & Love's them, She will be selling it very soon if you are interested, it's a 2002 on a 52 plate, 100k on the clock, 5 door , dark green met paint, alloy's Aircon, elec window's, c/locking etc etc & still drives suburb,


Would be looking in the region of £3.500 for a quick sale

pm me if you want to have a look or just test on out


John

[schuee]

This is the URL of the company I purchased the seat for my Freelander,

http://www.scotseats.co.uk/commercialseats.htm

Cheers

Keith