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After nearly 70 years, the Land Rover Defender is no more

Land Rover Defender | Photo: Courtesy of Land Rover
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Khatir Soltani
Iconic British vehicle has been in production since 1948

More than 2 million of them have been sold since first being introduced in 1948, the last Land Rover Defender was built in central England last week.

The iconic 4x4 has been in production for 68 years and was made famous by owners like Queen Elizabeth, according to a Reuters report.

Other famous owners of the Defender, originally designed for farming and agricultural use, include Beatles singer Paul McCartney and Steve McQueen.

The Land Rover and Jaguar brands were purchased in 2008 by Tata, an Indian company, and the company has gone about updating the Range Rover lineup. Attention will now turn to the Defender.

"Any conventional vehicle would have been replaced many times over in the lifespan of Defender," a Jaguar Land Rover spokeswoman told Reuters. "We now have the technology, pioneering engineering capability and design expertise to evolve the Defender."

The Defender was built mostly by hand, taking 56 hours to complete in the Solihull facility, making it more costly to produce than vehicles that make more use of machinery.

Khatir Soltani
Khatir Soltani
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