Will be interesting to see the new version of the Defender once released in 2013.

Land Rover sold every Defender it imported at or near list price so the market demand was there. But the body was essentially the same as a Series II which was introduced in the early 60′s and that car wasn’t much different than the Series I. The updates that occurred over time pretty much focused on the chassis, suspension and engines. Plus the interiors were up graded and a few creature comforts added, like heat, air conditioning and items to meet safety standards.

It’s quite amazing that LR kept that vehicle in production so long without truly modernizing it, the only other car that I can think of that had a long run was the Jeep XJ (Cherokee) and that was only 24 years if you count China production. The Type One Beetle and Porsche 911 were/are different cars than the early models. The Defender is also labor intensive to produce, with the assembly being pretty much by hand. With Solihull likely to be closed and LR production moved to Castle Brownwich, it is a bit of a surprise that Tata didn’t move Defender production to India, as the basic vehicle meets the needs of developing countries.

With the ridiculous prices asked for used NAS Defenders, particularly 110′s, its often cheaper to rebuild an older model to contemporary standards.