From 1948 to 1985, the Land Rover Series was the go-to 4x4 to get the job done. The agricultural cousin of the Range Rover is beloved by everyone from farmers to magnates and even by Her Majesty the Queen. Then came the Land Rover Defender. From 1983 to 2016, this 4x4 brought happiness and dependability to many people from all around the world. Unfortunately, all good stories come to an end.
On January 29, 2016, the last Defender, bearer of license plate H166 HUE, rolled off the production line in Solihull and that was that. Until an all-new generation replaces the Defender in late 2018 or early 2019, the used market will have to suffice if your want such an archetypal vehicle in your life.
One can find a Defender or older LR Series in the classifiers and eBay as easy as 1-2-3, with prices ranging from a handful of pounds sterling to a mind-boggling £72,990 for a 2015 model year Defender 90 Autobiography with 28 miles on the clock. If your pockets are deep enough and you want a Defender that will appreciate over time like fine wine, I recommend to forget the urbanized Autobiography and welcome the retro-cool Heritage Edition.
The Heritage Edition is arguably the most desirable Defender made in the 21st century. This particular example is offered for sale by the peeps at Bramley Motor Cars, the same dealer that listed the Queen’s awe-inspiring Bentley Mulsanne. With 80 miles on the odometer, this one of 400 examples ever made is priced at a slightly peppered £42,850.
That’s $60,980 at current exchange rates, the kind of dough that buys you a nicely equipped Corvette or a BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo. But then again, would you rather spend your hard-earned $$$ on a forgettable German hunchback, a sports car made in Kentucky by men called Bo, or the greatest and the most timeless 4x4 ever made?
Paul McCartney owned one and wrote a song about it (Helen Wheels), it spawned the monster truck genre decades before the term was coined and the sport became a thing, you could order one with tank treads in the 1950s, and it can tackle the deepest mud puddles imaginable. So there you have it. You can find out more about the 2016 Land Rover Defender 90 Heritage Edition right here.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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