It's not a manufacturing fault, it's a design fault AFAIK.

The Freelander is far from a "premium car", it's aimed at the "lower
end" of Land Rover's potential customer base. Not that their top of the
range cars don't have problems of their own !

You'd have a hard time justifying a position that design faults should
be covered by warranty beyond the 3 year period. Most, if not all,
vehicles have design faults that result in component failure eventually.
The use of steel in a vehicle could be seen as a design fault in
countries that insist in spreading half the earths salt supply on the
roads each year. Vehicle manufacturers still insist on using steel pipes,
chassis, bodywork, suspension without suitable treatment and it is known
that those components will corrode and fail over time.

The 1.8 Freelander engine was a lemon, within 18 months of the first
Freelander hitting the streets it was well known that the engine had
problems and Land Rover made a number of changes to the design in an
attempt to improve it's reliability. The changes improved things but
didn't cure the underlying problem. The engine is badly underpowered for
the weight of the vehicle and I suspect that is at the heart of the
problems.

It comes as one of a long list of Land Rover engines that have proved to
have "issues". The 3.9(4.0), 4.2 and 4.6 V8 petrol engines have real
problems with many of them only lasting 60000-80000 miles. The TD5 uses
plastic dowels to locate the cylinder head and these are now failing to
hold the head in position making TD5 head gasket replacements a daily
chore for many Land Rover garages. They are also starting to experience
problems with the oil cooler leaching oil into the coolant system.

In my case I was one of the lucky ones - I bought one of the first
Freelander 1.8s and managed to get 80,000 miles out of it before the
engine gave up and was replaced under warranty. I sold the vehicle 6
months later before any further problems could develop. My advice to
anyone with one of these engines is simple... unless you are prepared to
foot the bill for replacing the engine then get rid of it before it
starts showing symptoms. If it has already started then replace the head
and associated gaskets, clean out the waterways and sell it (preferably
to a franchised dealer). Anyone considering buying a 1.8 Freelander...
don't, after all, it may have just had all it's gaskets changed to cover
up a problem :-)

It's only fair to say though that having covered the best part of 100000
miles in my Freelander in 4 years, it still rates as one of the most
enjoyable cars to drive (albeit a bit slow) that I've had and never left
me stranded at the side of the motorway.

cheers

Dave W.
http://www.yorkshireoffroadclub.net/