A New Car

With great sadness, we've sold our Freelander.  It was a great car, with superb handling on our potholed, switchback, single-track roads, a great driving position, and the comfort of knowing that, when we were out in bad weather, we were in a vehicle that could take almost anything the elements felt like throwing at it.

Land Rovers have a poor reputation for reliability.  In our experience, this is totally unjustified.  In the six years we owned the Freelander, the worst that happened was a faulty electric window.  So it was a great car, until we started to look at the economics.  We don't use a car much preferring, whenever possible, to walk, so the £460 annual road tax and high insurance had to be added to the 32 miles per gallon of diesel and the high cost of parts.

As a Coastguard, it did have its uses, particularly when the team was practising off-road driving and the CG Toyota HiLux got stuck.  The Freelander pulled it out, several times.  But we couldn't justify keeping the Freelander once the Coastguard days were over.

So we sold it and, at the risk of our street credibility, bought a Hyundai i10.  It's a super little car, reminding us of our days when we drove a Mini 850.  It does 60+ to the gallon, and the road tax is £20. Whether it will last on these roads remains to be seen.