Well to put the icing on the cake, I drove my 2002 SE Freelander to the Ford dealership .... yes... in hopes of finally trading her in for a 2008 Ford Escape...
Well was I dreaming or what. The appraiser took my car out for a spin and returned the key with a "NO WAY" we would accept your car, and by the way, did you drive here in that same car? You guys are brave!,... they said
The second dealer drove the car, about 15 min later, same resopnse... "NO WAY" we are not accepting Land Rover cars. The last Land Rover we took in as a trade, took more than 8 month's to get rid of.
Finally ... with my hopes smashed.... the 3rd attempt at a trade-in resulted in a visual only refusal:
"Is that your car out there", I said "yes, why?", well they said "We don't accept Land Rovers as trade-in no matter the year and model".
Crash and burn... guess this Freelander car is like getting ******; I need to learn to live with it. The highest bid so far for her was $2500 USD firm.... heck for a $35K Car back in in 2002, and she looks as good as new still.
The only problem is .... A new Jatco transmissionm costs $8k to replace at the LR dealer. A rebuilt Jatco one will run me about $2.5K + install (1K) = 3.5K replace and return the core.
If all I can get is $2.5K for my Freelander and the registration is good until December, I will drive until the Jatco finally fails. When the Jatco box finally collapses I will sell for parts on Ebay. I can probably get more by taking her apart than keeping this Modern Edsel together... and yes she still leaks coolant, and the Aircon will actually blow this into one's face when driving, the car now spits at me !
I wonder if TATA knows what they are getting themselves into.................
Well was I dreaming or what. The appraiser took my car out for a spin and returned the key with a "NO WAY" we would accept your car, and by the way, did you drive here in that same car? You guys are brave!,... they said
The second dealer drove the car, about 15 min later, same resopnse... "NO WAY" we are not accepting Land Rover cars. The last Land Rover we took in as a trade, took more than 8 month's to get rid of.
Finally ... with my hopes smashed.... the 3rd attempt at a trade-in resulted in a visual only refusal:
"Is that your car out there", I said "yes, why?", well they said "We don't accept Land Rovers as trade-in no matter the year and model".
Crash and burn... guess this Freelander car is like getting ******; I need to learn to live with it. The highest bid so far for her was $2500 USD firm.... heck for a $35K Car back in in 2002, and she looks as good as new still.
The only problem is .... A new Jatco transmissionm costs $8k to replace at the LR dealer. A rebuilt Jatco one will run me about $2.5K + install (1K) = 3.5K replace and return the core.
If all I can get is $2.5K for my Freelander and the registration is good until December, I will drive until the Jatco finally fails. When the Jatco box finally collapses I will sell for parts on Ebay. I can probably get more by taking her apart than keeping this Modern Edsel together... and yes she still leaks coolant, and the Aircon will actually blow this into one's face when driving, the car now spits at me !
I wonder if TATA knows what they are getting themselves into.................