Does anyone have a Freetrack?

mike55

Active Member
May 31, 2010
25
0
Tow bar and towing limit

I have a removeable tow bar I purchased from Seat and it works well. As already stated the tow limit on the literature states 1400KG. I have read that Seat upgraded the Freetrack in about April 2008 so its limits were increased to 1650KG. The problem I have had is finding out when it was manufactured. Seat tell me they don't have the info as mine, one of the last 3 to be sold was originally ordered for the French market in RH drive mode. Have not got any further with info. In reality if you stick to the recommended max towing limit of 85% of the kerb weight it is slightly under the 1400KG limit anyway.

This car makes a very good tow vehicle with the diesel engine. 4WD makes a big difference when the conditions get slippy with all that weight on the back end.
 

ritch_b

Active Member
Jul 27, 2012
131
1
Oop north
Newbie ahoy...

Well, it's been a while since the last post here, so I thought I'd stick my proverbial oar in.

After nine years of Audi 80 TDi ownership, and the last four of those spent trying unsuccessfully trying to run it into the ground, I'll be making the move to a Freetrack TDi on Tuesday.

Candy white, four years old, 23,000 miles and (seemingly!) in indecently good condition; it's taken a while to find. I know these things are like hen's teeth at the best of times, but up in the north-east, it's been even harder to pick one up. A couple of trips across the country have been met with a couple of very nice examples, but both have been let down by smoke damaged interiors; can't be doing with fag burns on the upholstery after it drove me crazy in the Audi for all these years! Ironically, it was the closest Freetrack to me, and the one that I discounted in the first instance because it was over-priced, that I settled on.

Looking forward to getting it immensely; on the test drives it pulled like the proverbial train and will, I suspect, be the cause of much surprise and embarrassment to plenty of other road users. When I get round to plonking a towbar on it, it may well be all to easy to get beyond the speed limit, your Honour.

No sat-nav unfortunately and I'll miss not being able to just dump music onto a memory card and drop that into the head unit; one of those SD/USB adaptors for the factory head unit may well be order of the day.

Roll on Tuesday!

R.
 

Chris_in_London

Guest
Freetrack Farewell

After 3.5 years and almost 70,000miles of trouble free (relatively) motoring I've traded in my Freetrack for a BMW convertible.

Last seen the car was on a forecourt at a car supermarket in Romsey, I just that whoever has bought it has as much fun driving it as I did.

I almost sold the BMW for the Freetrack as it was both faster and more fun to drive than the BMW but as the saying goes - Never Go Back.

I just hope that SEAT introduce a suitable replacement (for the Freetrack) in the not too distant future.
 

cadman2k

Full Member
Jul 15, 2003
188
0
Visit site
It would be Good go know which Freetrack's you went to see as I am on the lookout for a good example also. I spotted the white one you've bought as it was local to me, (also in North East). It looks a nice car and quite stunning in white.
If you get round to it a quick PM to me for which freetracks you ruled out would help a lot.
Cheers
 

Dawesy

Guest
Well, it's been a while since the last post here, so I thought I'd stick my proverbial oar in.

After nine years of Audi 80 TDi ownership, and the last four of those spent trying unsuccessfully trying to run it into the ground, I'll be making the move to a Freetrack TDi on Tuesday.

Candy white, four years old, 23,000 miles and (seemingly!) in indecently good condition; it's taken a while to find. I know these things are like hen's teeth at the best of times, but up in the north-east, it's been even harder to pick one up. A couple of trips across the country have been met with a couple of very nice examples, but both have been let down by smoke damaged interiors; can't be doing with fag burns on the upholstery after it drove me crazy in the Audi for all these years! Ironically, it was the closest Freetrack to me, and the one that I discounted in the first instance because it was over-priced, that I settled on.

Looking forward to getting it immensely; on the test drives it pulled like the proverbial train and will, I suspect, be the cause of much surprise and embarrassment to plenty of other road users. When I get round to plonking a towbar on it, it may well be all to easy to get beyond the speed limit, your Honour.

No sat-nav unfortunately and I'll miss not being able to just dump music onto a memory card and drop that into the head unit; one of those SD/USB adaptors for the factory head unit may well be order of the day.

Roll on Tuesday!

R.

Great choise, and yes did see that on the odd autotrader scan recently!
Yes not many about here, I'm in Whitley bay and there are 2 silver Freetracks, mine and someone elses..
Mines and 09 car with Sat Nav and love it...Had it 18mths now and it's getting better, economy up (since injector change via warranty work) and as you say, leaves many a boy racer stadning when I can be bothered to flaw it.
Also got me out of a few situations in the ice and snow over the winter months.
Will keep my eyes open if your about this area.
Will
 

ritch_b

Active Member
Jul 27, 2012
131
1
Oop north
It would be Good go know which Freetrack's you went to see.

Sadly, as a complete and utter newbie, I'm not allowed to PM until I've posted some more, erm, posts! I did spend some time (and went through a glass of red) trying to figure that out, when all I needed to do was read the welcome e-mail I got when I signed up to the forum!

In local terms though, there's a yellow Freetrack at a dealer round the corner from where I bought mine from. It's about on the money for the higher mileage it has, but I simply couldn't be doing with the colour! More accurately, the colour isn't actually that bad, but I don't think it suits the Freetrack. The interior wasn't too bad though and aside from some minor scratches and a misted headlight, it didn't seem too bad really.

Also looked over at another higher mileage one near Chorley; it was, and still is, at Suttons. Very tidy looking thing, but really, really, really did smell very bad! Quite a few ciggie burns on the seats too. They also had a very late model Toledo Sport in, but I'd settled on a Freetrack by then, so didn't give it much thought!

Last of the ones that I looked at and is still there is one up in Montrose. Good looking car, average miles and on the money. The one I went for was better though! :rofl:

Dewesy, I shall keep an eager eye out for you when I'm up in your neck of the woods! I'm not convinced I'm going to see any others around here; been looking for weeks, but haven't seen a single one! Still, it'll enlighten the locals here, if nowt else!

R.

Whilst I think on, I hope the details of what I viewed don't go against any forum policies. If so though, I'll happily amend and consider myself told! Ta!
 
Last edited:

Hampton Caught

No It's These Trousers
Dec 8, 2009
35
0
Near Hampton Court
Greetings All,

Hadn't been on the Forum for ages and surprised myself that I hadn't visited since November 2011! Ooops!!

The Freetrack is still going strong, had a slight issue early in the spring with the engine management light coming on, coupled with the cruise control not working. Turned out, after 2 visits to the local dealer, to be a faulty cable! That was replaced and all good again.

Had to replace the front tyres again and more recently the rear ones too. Went to Black Circles on the net and bought some 'Rockstone' branded tyres with the right speed rating and the heavy duty rating needed for the car. The car is now quieter at speed and gives me more miles to the gallon than with the original tyres. Which is good news!

Mileage is now 48,000 and the car still looks great, tows beautifully and is a joy to own.

On the earlier 'towing limits' question, many of the online resources quote the 1400Kg figure for braked trailers, however, as stated in n earlier post, the limit for cars after May or June 2008 is 1650Kg. MIne falls into that category, although the SEAT garage couldn;t confirm it. So here's a clue for you when checking your car's towing limit: Check the V5 registration document. It states the maximum towing limit for a braked trailer on the V5.

Cheers, Steve
 

MrGringo

Guest
Hello everybody,
I'm new to the forum but quite interested in getting a Freetrack and have a few questions so thought I'd put a quick post on the end of this thread to see if any of you can help.

My wife is very concerned about how the interior looks, and I'd like to know how "brown" the plastics are. There's a few differing pictures on the net, and I'm not sure I trust the dubious quality of the images on autotrader.

Without travelling quite a long way to find out for myself, I was hoping somebody could tell me which of the two it looks more from first or the second pictures I've found below.
I'd also like to know whether they actually look nicer/smarter than they do in the pictures.
I'm unable to post the images due to my newbie status, but please just replace the DOT's with .'s :)

img2 DOT netcarshow DOT com/Seat-Altea_Freetrack_2008_800x600_wallpaper_bf.jpg
Or this:
www DOT carbodydesign DOT com/archive/2007/05/22-seat-altea-freetrack/Seat-Altea-Freetrack-interior-1-lg.jpg

Secondly, has anybody ever swapped out the stock radio in a Freetrack for a VAG Group RNS-510 sized one? I know you can get the fascias to fit in silver, but do you think it's possible to get them in the Freetrack's brown?

Many thanks, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Matt
 

Hampton Caught

No It's These Trousers
Dec 8, 2009
35
0
Near Hampton Court
Hi Matt,

I couldn't get the first image to work but the second one did. I can honestly say the Freetrack interior is NOT the 'in your face' toffee shade of brown shown in that photo. It's a far more subtle, darker brown.

I was a little concerned myself, before buying my car, but the reality is I like it, it suits the road/ mud character of the car (that's why SEAT chose the brown and black interior colours) and I like it because it's different!

I can't answer your query re the radio but suspect the radio surrounds in brown are limited to those used in the various specs of right hand drive cars SEAT imported to the UK.

Sorry I can't help you any further with your queries, other than to say, no-one knows what they are, to all intents and purposes they are another Zafira-sized MPV and they don't expect you to go whizzing off as quickly and smoothly as the Freetrack does. :D To those of us in the know, the Freetrack is a superb vehicle which ticks an awful lot of boxes! Steve
 

MrGringo

Guest
Thanks a lot, I was hoping that would be the case. I am pretty keen on the idea of getting one but my wife has other ideas relating to rather boring looking MP-V/4x4's so there's some thinking to do. I'm glad it's not that poo brown though, definitely a good start!
 

Hampton Caught

No It's These Trousers
Dec 8, 2009
35
0
Near Hampton Court
Hi Matt,

Since I posted my reply, I've been on eBay and there's a white Freetrack for sale in White City, London. There's one interior picture there which gives oyu a much more realistic idea of how the brown looks in natural light, not a studio.

Hop on to eBay and search for freetrack, Cars and Vehicles and it's the cheapest of those for sale and the only white one listed. Hopefully, this will help win the other half over! :) Never seen one that cheap either!!

I've had my Freetrack for 3 years now and has been (and still is) excellent. With a gently right foot, I get over 40mph on my commute to work, accelerates better than any road car I've driven and the interior is well specced and well proportioned. Mine's bright red and a colleague refers to it as the ladybird! Rarely see any others around and you get far more car for your money than more mainstream alternatives.

The only problem I have is what can I possibly replace it with when I eventually decide to sell it (not that I'm planning!).

Hope that helps. You know it makes sense!! Cheers, Steve
 

MrGringo

Guest
Thanks a lot for the info, I definitely think the freetrack brings a lot to the table so I'm pretty keen but there's some way to go to convince the OH.
I'll be sure to post any further questions on here, thanks for being so welcoming.
Also, it is extremely useful to know that with a light foot you can reach the lofty speeds of 40mph! ;)
 

Hampton Caught

No It's These Trousers
Dec 8, 2009
35
0
Near Hampton Court
Also, it is extremely useful to know that with a light foot you can reach the lofty speeds of 40mph! ;)

Hi Matt,

You haven't seen my commute to work!!! ;)

Yes, not for the first time, I've made a typo in a post! :) Yep, I do, regularly beat 40 mpg as an average over my 10.5 mile journey to work. I can beat 40mph too, sometimes at the same time!! :D

I'd strongly suggest that you encourage the OH to join you on a trip to see a Freetrack and let the car do the talking and pursuading for you! It certainly does bring loads to the table - and has its own too. Two picnic tables on the backs of the front seats! :rolleyes:

The screen in the rear is not a conventional TVbut you can plug a DVD player (or we use a PS2) and keep the kids amused on longer journeys. I've bought a couple of SEAT headphones and that lets the kids play game or watch a film whilst we listen to music, or the traffic news [B)]

Happy hunting/ pursuading!! Cheers, Steve
 

ritch_b

Active Member
Jul 27, 2012
131
1
Oop north
Hi Matt,

Bit late to the party, so apologies.

The interior is definitely more subtle than that, as Hampton rather accurately puts it, toffee brown! It's not to everyone's taste, but it does suit the car and of those who've had the privilege of being allowed to sit in my FreeTrack have largely come round to it; the interior just works!

For fascias, it is possible to get replacement fascias for the FreeTrack. There are two versions available; one with rounded edges for the VAG style double-din head units and the other with square edges for aftermarket double-din head units, eg. Pioneer, Blaupunkt, etc. David Hawthorn from Sere Motors is the chap to ask; look on the main forum page for more info, but I was quoted around the £25 to £30 mark for a FreeTrack fascia.

Mine is Candy White which is, in my humble opinion, the best colour for a FreeTrack. Others will disagree! Bit of a dog to keep clean at the moment though!...

The TDi is awesome, by the way. Pulls like a train and is good for 45 mpg with some nursing; low 40s is a bit more realistic though!

If you're in this neck of the woods (north-east) then you're welcome to come and have a look at the VengaBus, if that helps any.

Cadman; headlight washers were indeed standard on all FreeTracks in the UK, or as far as I can tell anyhow.

R.
 

jamborino

Active Member
Aug 3, 2009
85
0
Mine (2009 model) has headlamp washers as standard. It comes on at the same time as the front windscreen wash when you pull the stalk forward.
The little oval piece of plastic below the headlamp opens and squirts the washer fluid at the headlamp. There's no headlamp wiper.
 

Hampton Caught

No It's These Trousers
Dec 8, 2009
35
0
Near Hampton Court
I believe the car has them fitted, however at this present time they do not function?

Do you have the little oval panel on the bumper below each headlamp? If so, the washer fluid should come out of the washers, hiding behind the oval panel when the windscreen washers are operated AND THE HEADLAMPS ARE ON.

Did you try the washers with the headlamps on (dipped or main beam)? They only squirt the lamps when they are on. Hope that's the (easy) answer to your situation!

Cheers, Steve
 
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