Land Rover Defender: The farewell variants

At times popping that bitter pill might be the only option you could be left with. Land Rover will stop making the Defender series after rolling out the vehicles from its Solihull plant for the last seven decades. The Defender has been one of the most capable off-roaders to be sold in Great Britain and for the last 68 years was available on sale.

As a final salute to the Defender and to give something special for prospective buyers and fans, the company has announced three limited edition models – Autobiography, Heritage and Adventure editions. About 80 of the Autobiography, 600 of the Adventure and 400 of the Heritage will be made and with this the production might cease.

Land Rover vehicle line director Nick Rogers said: “Coming up with a single identity was impossible, so we developed three very different interpretations of the Defender.”

The Autobiography Edition will be priced at £61,845 (Rs 59.1 lakh) and will go on sale in April. It will get a dual tone paint job with the top, grille, bonnet, headlamp surrounds in Santorini . LED headlamps, privacy glass, side steps and a metal fuel filler cap will be standard. The cabin will greet the occupants with full windsor leather covers spread out in most of the cabin, including the dash and rooflining, however the seats get semi-aniline leather with contrast stitching. The Autobiography will only be produced as the 90 Station Wagon.

This variant will be powered by the same 2.2-litre oil burner with a power upgrade up from the current 121bhp to 148bhp, a rise in torque from 359Nm to 400Nm.

The Heritage edition will be priced starting from around £27,800 (Rs 26.5 lakh) and will go on sale in August and will be available in three body styles 90 Hard Top, 90 Station Wagon and 110 Station Wagon.

The exclusive touch will come in the form of grasmere green metallic paintwork, white roof, silver front bumper and heritage grille and headlamp surrounds. It will also get ‘Hue 166’ graphics with reference to the first pre-production series 1 Land Rover. Inside the cabin, aluminium brightwork will be used.

The third model will be the Adventure Edition that will also go on sale in August and will be available in the 90 Station Wagon and 110 Station Wagon body styles. It will be priced from £43,995 (Rs 42 lakh).

This particular edition will be available in three optional paintwork – phoenix orange, corris grey or yulong white. It also gets the uprated engine like the Autobiography and comes fitted with an expedition roof rack, snorkel and rear access ladder along with an underbody and under-sill protection. The cabin gets Windsor leather and gets aluminium brightwork.

Land Rover has indicated that the Defender might be in production outside the UK, but in limited numbers. Previously, the company had announced that it will stop making Defenders by December 2015. Which means this is the last year, after which Solihull plant will stop dishing out Defenders.

Can we expect at least one of these three limited edition models to end up in a garage in India? This is the final call to Defender fans from the British off-road specialist.