What is it about ladies and soft roaders, they will drive a really rather poor car as long as its high up and chunky.
K series was nearly a good engine, light, high output, economical, just saddled with some bad design in the headgasket area, they can be nursed to high milages by the sympathetic but your average school run mum in her Freelander ten minutes late hoofing a relatively low torque engine in a fairly heavy car is a recipe for killing the HG double quick, even quicker than normal, the 1.8 produces more power, generates more heat and has less metal due to larger bores, its the lightness of the engine thats the problem, boot it and it heats the coolant up very quickly, before the metal has warmed up and you get uneven expansion and cold/hot spots, no excuse for bad design (it wasnt all bad) but thats part of what kills them, along with poor maintenance.
I would look to the Japanese for a reliable Soft Roader, Rav 4 or some Honda with three letters as a name ending in a V.
Did you know that the Freelander is basically a Rover 200 chassis, adapted for off road use and high rise suspension, not a million miles off a Streetwise.