Back in June, we took you inside Land Rover’s assembly plant in Solihull, England as the final Defenders came down the line. The sadness of losing a loyal friend was offset by celebrity guests along with the promise of a new Defender for 2017.
In a press release dated December 16th, Bonhams announced that the last production model sold for $600,000 at auction. This was the 2,000,000th Defender built, and all proceeds from the sale are going to Land Rover’s Humanitarian charities. The winning bidder resides in Qatar, so hopefully it will see a few sand dunes before a life of storage and rare appearances.
[youtube id=”JOLpi7agBxY” align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no” maxwidth=”680″]Land Rover also issued a press release stating that it was the most expensive Defender ever sold. It will be much safer in Qatar, since Homeland Security loves to seize and crush them.
Land Rover Special Operations have an eye for detail, and every aspect of this model had ties to its predecessors. Even the license plate “S90 HUE” is a reference to the first Defender ever registered “HUE 166”.
Development of the new Defender is underway, but so far all we know is that it will meet our DOT safety standards and sold alongside their other US models. As soon as more information becomes available, you will see it first here on Autofluence.
(Sources: Bonhams & Jaguar/Land Rover)
