Hi!
I'm a proud new owner of a Freemont from Finland. Sorry that my German is somewhat rusty, so I'll stick to English. I can understand German a bit, but you really don't want me trying to write anything..
I have a history with Italian cars and when it came the time to find a bigger family transporter I got a Freemont. I previously drove a -09 Lancia Delta 1,6 MJet and the Mrs. had a 159 Alfa. The Mrs. will most likely do most of the driving with the Freemont and I'll take the Alfa. As a summer car I have a -77 128 Fiat with a tampered 1,6 l and a 5 speed. I work as a hydraulics engineer and do a bit of traveling on sites. The Mrs. is at home with our 1, 3, and 5 year old kids for now. My mother in law lives about 40 km away and doesn't have a drivers license. She also visits us regularly with my wifes nephew and niece. So picking them up from a train/bus has been a bit tricky and impossible if I'm away.
So far I've driven like 100 km with the Freemont, so don't have a real good feel of the car, but so far I like it and it seems to suit our transportation needs pretty well.
I was out on the market for a 7 seater for quite a while. I like cars and driving, so my cars have to offer something else besides just basic transport. I guess that is why I've drifted to Italian cars. We test drove one Peugeot 5008, but didn't like it at all. I was also looking at S-max Fords, especially the 2,5 T versions, but those are somewhat rare with 7 seats and a Titanium trim level. Also somewhat expensive to buy and drive so I would have had to settle for like an -06/-07 with about 250 k on the clock. I also looked at the Eurovans, but those weren't imported after 2008, so those are pretty old and also hard to come buy since not many were sold to begin with. Most cars around here have very basic trim levels because of the taxation, so its hard to find anything with any extras. I was also looking at C4 Grand Picassos, but most are with the DV6 diesel and BMP6 box. Both a bit suspicious choices. Also most are with the most basic trim. C-Crosser/4007 was also an option, but those are a bit smallish. Did take a look at a Doblo and Scudo + relatives, but didn't like the ride of these modified vans. VW was not an option due to many problems. Grand Scenic also has a pretty unreliable reputation. Grand Voyager would have just massive space, but again rather expensive to buy and run. Fuel consumption and mass is used to calculate an annual tax, so that makes the big Voyager rather expensive to own. Journeys would have been cheap, but the horrible interior is a pretty strong turn off.
After all this I got a Freemont. The ride is comfortable and the Urban trim level has pretty much all that I want. Tow capacity is just ridiculous, but I can live with that. Sure a car like this would be nice with an automatic gearbox, but I can live with a manual and the Mrs. has never driven an auto. There aren't a lot of Freemonts around, so there isn't a lot to choose from. Almost all are 140 hp 4x2 Urbans.
The Freemont I got is in pretty normal condition for a 5 year old car. Not flawless, but generally clean. Brakes will need a complete overhaul pretty soon, but that isn't a problem. It seems that parts for this aren't as easy to come by as for many other models. I can pretty much do all service work and repairs myself, so I try to keeps some parts in stock and service the car before anything breaks down completely. Any good clues what might be the weak points of this? A-arms? I have a burnt headlight bulb (hopefully) and wit hthat I already hit a wall. It seems these have two bulb types and there is no info on what is where. I guess I'll just have to take the old one out first.