Based on condition, color, options, and mileage, Edmunds says a 2004 Range Rover is worth about six grand right now. This Epsom Green beauty has royal blood, however, as it was owned and driven by her majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. So here’s your chance to pay an estimated $73,000 plus auction fees for a twenty-year old 109,000 mile British 4×4.
Apparently King Chuck didn’t want his mum’s automobile in the estate, and has decided to let it go on to the next owner, according to the Drive. Liz was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 1952 until her death in 2022. For seventy years she was among the most powerful people in the world, assuming the throne at just 25 years old. She had something of a penchant for collecting opulent British-built automobiles, with a 16 million dollar collection of vintage Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Daimler, and Jaguar automobiles. I like to imagine that she had a secret garage at Silverstone with a variety of Lotus, an Ariel Atom, an XJ220, a McLaren F1, and maybe a TVR Cerbera or something. Maybe not.
In any case, this Range was her daily driver for the last couple of decades of her life. In 2019, when she was 93 years old, Elizabeth gave up her driving license. After her beloved Philip was advised to give up his license following a car crash, she took her age and cognitive ability behind the wheel a little more seriously. Or maybe their advisors did. It’s unclear.
Manufactured in the famed Solihull plant, this Range Rover served the queen dutifully from 2004 until 2019. While I’m sure Land Rover took particularly good care of this car for her, it’s pretty great that this machine manages to look as good today as it does. With a little bit of wear shown on the seat, and some minor corrosion in places, it doesn’t belie its age, but certainly doesn’t look like it’s logged six figures on the odometer.
I don’t really know what you do with a car like this after you buy it. Do you just keep driving it knowing you’re farting into the same seat that Queenie did? Or do you put it in a museum somewhere on display? Personally, I think I’d stock it with all of the requisite accouterments for a weekend of pheasant/grouse/partridge hunting in the countryside. Make it as hoity-toity upper crusty British cosplay as possible, with the vintage gilded-walnut-stock over-under shotgun, several drams of scotch, and all the plaid you can find. Could be fun.
Does the Queen’s ownership of this truck give it a 10x value? I guess we’ll see when it sells at Iconic Auctioneers’ NEC Classic Motor Show Sale in early November.
