What Car? Q&A - Are Land Rover Freelanders unreliable?

Q: I'm thinking of buying a two-year-old Land Rover Freelander, but every time I mention it to a friend, he tells me that it is not a good vehicle to buy because it is not very reliable. Is this true?
Kae Eddings

A: Land Rover vows to have improved quality on new products such as its the new Discovery. Hopefully, this will apply to the all-new Freelander, which will be unveiled at the British Motor Show in June, but older models can suffer, so unfortunately, your friend is right.

Common faults on the Freelander include suspension failures, blown head gaskets, and failed power steering and immobilisers. Watch out for water leaks as well.

All in all, the Freelander was the fifth-least-dependable car in our annual reliability survey. For every 100 Freelanders, 55 had something go wrong. Owners also confirm that they're unhappy in our JD Power Customer Satisfaction survey, with Land Rover coming 29th out of a field of 32.

If you're still interested in the Freelander, we'd strongly recommend that you insist that the dealer provides extra warranty protection for when the remaining year of the car's existing warranty has run out. Aim to get two years of added protection so that when things go wrong, you're not left footing the bills (and check the warranty's small print to make sure it's not full of exclusions).

You should also check any car's service record, or any receipts left by the previous owner, to see that there is no history of faults. You could also consider buying an independent inspection of the car before you buy, from companies such as DEKRA (www.dekra.com, tel 0800 043 0999) or the RAC (www.rac.co.uk, tel 0800 975 5867)

The Nissan X-Trail, Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 are 4x4s of similar size and should be more reliable. Owners in the JD Power survey also report that they're very happy with Korean 4x4s, such as the Kia Sorento and Hyundai Sante Fe.