A Ride Fit for Royalty: Here Are Some of Queen Elizabeth's Most Iconic Cars

The British monarchy is one of the most famous ones in the entire world, and the Royal Family brings in quite a revenue. According to Forbes Magazine, the House of Windsor is estimated to be worth around £19 billion ($28 billion), and it contributed an estimated £1.9 billion ($2.7 billion) annually to the UK's economy up till 2020.

Although they seldom show off their immense wealth, the members of the Royal Family are big petrolheads, with Queen Elizabeth herself serving as a mechanic during World War II. Given that she was only 25 years old when she acceded to the throne, Queen Elizabeth has had her share of vehicles over the long years that followed.

A recent research by a crew called Vanarama suggests her most iconic car is the Bentley State Limousine, and we can’t disagree. The British Monarch owns not just one, but two rare Bentley limousines that are worth $13.5 million (£10 million) each.

The two luxury limousines were a gift for her Golden Jubilee, which marked 50 years of reign back in 2002. They come equipped with security features to keep them safe, including armored bodywork, blast-resistant chassis, and Kevlar-reinforced tires, plus they're completely air-tight to protect against potential gas attacks.

Another emblematic car is the Land Rover Range Rover LWB Landaulet, which gave the Queen the opportunity to be seen when out on official business. The custom SUV has backward-opening doors and an open-top so she could stand and wave at crowds. She has the royal flag mounted on the hood. The SUV is a hybrid, one of the Royal Family’s new approaches to sustainable driving.

The Queen was also the first person to receive Bentley's first-ever SUV, the Bentayga, as it rolled off the production line.

When she’s not out on official business, though, she usually rolls in a Land Rover. Over the years, she’s had more than 30 Land Rovers, and it’s one of her favorite brands. At the start of her reign in the 1950s, the sovereign monarch drove the Series I, which was one of her first cars. She also had the Series III in 1978, which sold in 2012 with less than 2,000 miles (3,200 km) on the clock.

In the early 2000s, the Queen's country retreat Sandringham purchased a Land Rover, and later added heated seats and electric windows to make it more pleasant when she drove around the estate or went out hunting. When it was auctioned off, shotgun cartridges were left in the glove box from a hunting party.

She also used to own a 1984 Daimler Double Six, which she auctioned off on Sotheby's in 2019, fetching £80,500 ($101,000). It had a full-length bench seat installed to make journeys more comfortable for the Queen's corgis.

Another brand the Royal Family prefers is Jaguar. Her collection includes a Jaguar Daimler V8 Super LWB, specially built to be driven around Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. This one was auctioned by HRM at around 15,000 miles (24,140 km) on the clock. Most recently, her choice is a Jaguar X-Type Estate.

An honorable mention is the Aston Martin DB6 Volante, which the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh purchased as a gift for Prince Charles on his 21st birthday. Valued at £1,000,000 ($1.26 million), it was converted to run on bioethanol in 2008, and Prince Charles said: "At first, the engineers weren't convinced that the conversion would work, but I insisted that it would. When the conversion was done, they had to admit that the car now performs better than ever." It was also the convertible Prince William and Kate Middleton used as a going-away car during their royal wedding in 2011.

Most recently, a 1966 Vanden Plas Limousine built for her Majesty is now up for sale, and you can read all about it here.