A $600k Land Rover Defender Deserves These 8 Postcards

Just in case the buyer needed a reminder that he got a superlative spruce-hauler.

byBen Keeshin|
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At a charity auction in the UK, a Qatari man paid $600k for the 2,000,000th Land Rover Defender. It’s a record price for any new Land Rover, let alone a bare-bones, antiquated Defender. While a top-of-the-line Land Rover Range Rover Sport SVR, with a 550-horsepower supercharged V8, costs a comparatively paltry $115k, I guess you old turn two million once?

That gigantic number includes every Series 1, Series 2 and Series 3 Rover that has rolled off the line at the Solihull, England, plant since 1948.

The special, 2,000,000th Defender comes with an engraved map of Red Wharf Bay, where the design came to life, plus special red leather seats and badging.

Fans of the Defender cite its boxy good looks, fantastic off-road ability and charming, old-fashioned driving dynamics as reasons to love what is essentially a 65-year-old design. Due to crash standards, Defenders have been banned from sale in the United States since 1997. That hasn’t kept Rover fanatics from importing their own, though.

In fact, so many came extra-legally into the country that at one point, the Department of Homeland Security seized more than two-dozen Defenders from owners. The common thread among the cars seized was their importer, Aaron Richardet, who the government alleges swapped the cars’ VINs in order to skirt the import ban that disallows cars under 25-years-old into the country.

Bonhams, the esteemed London auction house, carried out the sale. The $600k figure beats the previous record by almost half a million dollars. Last year, at Silverstone Auctions, a pristine 1970 Range Rover sold for $215,000.

After decades, the Land Rover Defender will cease production in order to make way for a new model.

And to all, a good night.

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