USED CARS
James Ruppert
KICKING TYRES
Why wait for a flash new Freelander when you can get an old one for £1500?
I got very excited when Autocar’s news team told me that Land Rover was reviving the Freelander (albeit as an expensive Chinese EV), but the truth is the small, square, mostly 4x4 bus never really went away, because the beautiful British used car market serves up some truly wonderful originals.
There are some crackers around, and I rather like the look of this 1.8 SE from 2005. It’s a four-door model that has the benefit of being unaffected by the London ULEZ. The mileage isn’t over the top, at 85,000, it’s tidy looking and it’s dealer-supplied, with a year’s worth of MOT. ‘Two keys’ is always good to see and there’s a service history. The asking price of £1995 seems entirely reasonable to me for such a practical proposition.