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read moreLiving with a Land Rover Defender
As the curtain falls on the Land Rover Defender’s 68 years in production, it’s also time for our long-term test car to depart. It's time to mark the end of an era
Land Rover Defender owners wave when they pass each other. At least, most do.Given that an estimated 70% of all Series Land Rovers and Defenders ever made – 2,016,933 vehicles – are still on the road, that’s a lot of waving. Naturally, being English, it can be a bit embarrassing, but it comes with the territory.But it felt to me like there was a difference between the waves I shared with other Land Rover drivers on Thursday 28 January and the ones offered on 29 January. On the Friday morning, production of the Land Rover Defender ceased, the factory fell quiet and an inordinate number of people seemed to know it: the Defender was no longer a new car.Within a few years, it will probably be rebranded as the ‘Defender Classic’, and not long after that all Defenders – like Series Land Rovers are already – will be classic cars.At least, in theory they will be. The truth is, most Series Land Rovers or early Defenders – the name was taken on in 1990 – aren’t used like normal classic cars today.Land Rovers live outside and are put to use as agricultural workhorses, their ‘Meccano’ style of assembly meaning that there’s no reason an old
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