End of the road draws near for Jaguar's Land Rover Defender

Early next year, production of the Defender will cease at its West Midlands home. The model that has served a host of British icons including the Queen has finally been overtaken by time, technology and legislation

That great steel and aluminium beast, the Land Rover Defender, and its ancestors have been clanging and clunking their way off the production line at Solihull since 1948. Born in postwar rationing, the Defender feels as quintessentially British as the Queen, Churchill or Bond, among the other national icons who have been plonked atop its unbending chassis.

Orders have boomed of late, and the 2 millionth Defender will be auctioned off at Bonhams in London next week, probably for the price of a luxury sports car. But the model that has served adventurers, soldiers, farmers and generations of enthusiasts is almost done: overtaken at last by time, technology and legislation.