Fit for a King! Charles’ old Land Rover Discovery sells for £12,000 at auction

A Land Rover Discovery once owned by King Charles has sold for just over £12,000 at auction. 

The monarch, 74, had the Discovery 3 model delivered to the garage of Highgrove House in 2007 – when he was still the Prince of Wales.

Since then, the all-purpose 4×4 went on to have two further owners and has covered almost 118,000 miles to date.

The Tonga Green model – which is currently located in Ilminster, Somerset – is kitted out with heated front and rear leather seats as well as a cooled storage box.

Over the past few days, the vehicle received over 50 bids – with the highest offer jumping from £5, 450 to £12,050 in the final hours of the sale.

As part of the sale, the new owner will receive a letter George Hassall – the former Director of Royal and Diplomatic Affairs – wrote to Charles’ Head Chauffeur Tim Williams.

The correspondence outlines how the driver can obtain replacement glass and tires for the car and details of the user handbooks.

The auctioneers Collecting Cars described the car as a ‘a handsome example of the Land Rover Discovery 3, with excellent documented royal provenance.’

King Charles has owned several Land Rovers in the past few decades and his late father Prince Philip was particularly fond of the 4x4s. 

The Duke of Edinburgh spent 16 years working on his custom-made Land Rover Defender TD5 130 chassis cab – which was used to carry his coffin at his funeral in April 2021.

Along with modifying the open-top rear, Philip also requested that the original Belize Green paintwork was changed to Dark Bronze Green like those used by the armed forces.

In 2013, King Charles happily got behind the wheel of his Land Rover while on a visit to Kitridding Farm, near Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria.

The car firm had teamed up with Charles’ Countryside Fund to offer five Freelander 2 vehicles for a year to individuals and groups who can prove they can put it to good use for the benefit of their community. 

King Charles has owned several 4x4s over the years. Pictured driving his Range Rover in Windsor in 1978

Left: The front seat and steering wheel of Charles’ former Land Rover. Right: The sizeable boot of Charles’ old 4×4

Both the front and back seats in King Charles’ old Land Rover are kitted out with heaters and arm rests

The owner of the car will also receive a copy of a letter to the King’s former chauffeur with details of the vehicle

Launching the scheme, the Prince showed off his driving skills as he drove one of the vehicles on a mini-Terrapod that uses a combination of steep slopes, low friction surfaces and other obstacles to emphasise the grip and traction abilities of the vehicle.

He gushed at the time: ‘I want to use this opportunity to express my warmest possible gratitude to Land Rover for their really remarkable generosity in ensuring we now have this splendid scheme.

‘This is a wonderful act of generosity. It is the sort of willingness to become involved on the part of different companies which can make such a fantastic difference, above all in ensuring we can maintain the priceless national asset which is our precious countryside. In particular, the upland areas which tends to be the ones that visitors want to go to – millions of them every year.’

This isn’t the first time one of Charles’ old vehicles has gone up for sale.

In 2019, the royal’s six-litre Aston Martin convertible – which reaches speeds of 175mph – went on sale for a staggering £275,000.