Land Rover Defender sells for $833K
Special auction for two millionth Defender raises mega bucks for charityHow much would you pay for a Land Rover Defender?
Well, a wealthy Qatari buyer has paid £400,000 (more than $A800,000) for a very special Defender at a charity auction in London.
Costing roughly 20 times what a Defender 90 would usually fetch at a dealership, the two-millionth Defender was assembled with help from the likes of survivalist Bear Grylls and conservationist Virginia McKenna, along with Stephen and Nick Wilks, the sons of the founders of Land Rover.
The vehicle represents almost seven decades of production at Land Rover's Solihull UK plant, which will cease shut down in January 2016, as the new-generation Defender gears up.
Land Rover says the auction car is the most valuable production vehicle it has ever built, pipping even the flagship Range Rover SV Autobiography.
Other unique features of the vehicle include an engraved map of Red Wharf Bay, where the original Land Rover's design was conceived in line drawings in the sand, and a plaque signed by those who helped assemble the vehicle.
The Defender also features leather seats embossed with Red Wharf Bay graphics and 'No. 2,000,000' logos.
The number plates are S90 HUE, paying homage to Land Rover's first pre-production rego, HUE 166.
The proceeds from the Bonham's auction will be donated to the International Federation of Red Cross, Red Crescent Societies and Born Free Foundation.
John Edwards, the Managing Director of Jaguar Land Rover's Special Operations (SVO), said the vehicle was "a true collector's car".
"With the expert help of my SVO team and a handful of willing Land Rover ambassadors, we created something unique and very special. Tonight's sale will go down as part of our history,” he said.
"Of course, Defender has a future and will live on in its own right. But the original Series Land Rovers and Defenders will also continue to thrive through our Jaguar Land Rover Heritage division."
Land Rover production began at the Solihull plant in 1948 but the next-gen Defender is likely to be built at an all-new facility in Slovakia.
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