A Range Rover once part of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's fleet is for sale. While this is a relatively common occurrence in Britain -- there were lots of royal Rovers, with lots of turnover in the fleet -- this one is really special, as the vehicle used in iconic images of the late Duke of Edinburgh driving The Queen and Barack and Michelle Obama during a state visit in 2016.
The vehicle is a 2016 Range Rover Autobiography LWB with a high-performance turbocharged diesel V8 engine (which was never available in North America). Finished in Loire Blue, a very popular 2010s Land Rover color, it's to the eye a standard, high-specification L405 Range Rover.
Where the vehicle became iconic was during President Obama's April 2016 state visit. On this visit, Obama's final state visit to the UK before leaving office the following January, the President and First Lady stayed with The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle. They took Marine One from Air Force One to Windsor Castle, where the helicopter landed in the protected castle grounds. The Duke of Edinburgh, at that point 94 years old, drove the Range Rover to meet the helicopter, with The Queen. After greetings, the Duke drove all three of them back to the castle entrance to begin the visit.
It was an extraordinarily rare occasion where the President was driven in a vehicle other than his own highly secure limo, "The Beast," which usually joins the commander-in-chief wherever he travels. The ride was also taken without any Secret Service personnel onboard, though they didn't drive far and the entire Windsor grounds would have been secured and monitored. It's a testament to the special Relationship between the United States and United Kingdom, and the esteem placed by the world in the late royal couple, that any of this happened at all.
Most royal vehicles, once they leave the fleet, have all royal modifications removed and their number plates changed, so it's not obvious where the vehicle came from. This one seems to be different. It still has its original registration, OU16 XVH; however, the plates themselves are not the originals. (British number plates are not made in a central facility, and the originals also had the European Union logo on them, no longer relevant since Brexit in 2020.)
The diminutive late Queen had one modification made to all of her Land Rovers: discreet grab handles, to help her get up into the vehicle. These are often also removed, to remove the obvious signal of a former royal vehicle. In this case, they had been placed in the under-floor trunk storage, ready for reinstallation. The vehicle also has decals with vestiges of the siren system it once carried.
All of this trans-Atlantic history and pedigree doesn't come cheap. Elizabeth II has passed, and there will be no further Range Rovers graced by her presence. If you'd like this one, it'll cost you £224,850 (about $284,000). Cheap? Not at all. But there are very few specific royal Land Rovers that are as famous as this one, so the market demands the price.
If you want to see about taking this vehicle home (and it's a 2016 UK-market vehicle, so "home" won't mean "your house in the United States" until 2041), check out the website of Bramley Motor Cars, the British dealership selling it.
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