A Range Rover used by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge has sold at auction for £50,625 (£71,000).
The Range Rover Vogue SE SUV was given to Prince William and Duchess Catherine by the VIP Department of Land Rover in 2013. The SUV went under the hammer at the Bonhams in Bicester, Oxfordshire. After unsurprisingly attracting interest from as many royal as car enthusiasts, it ended up selling for £10,000 more than its estimate, and double the price a similar vehicle would retail for without a royal connection.
The Range Rover, is described as ‘Baltic Blue’ with ‘Almond’ and ‘Espresso’ leather interior, while the paint and leather has apparently been treated with protective products to guarantee their longevity. It was used by the couple on their tour of Scotland in 2014 and on a tour to Australia. However in it’s eight years of royal service the Range Rover has accumulated just 38,420 miles.
The auction house say that in most cases, Land Rovers and Range Rovers used by the royals are given a new vehicle registration number once they are out of service, so they can be resold without revealing the identity of their former owners. However, this is an exception to the rule, with the ‘OY13 TBU’ plate being the one used by William and Catherine. So as to safe guard the car’s identity, it doesn’t even appear on the DVLA’s vehicle checker website that allows owners to look up MOT and tax records of registered UK motors.
It’s not the only royal vehicle to go under the hammer recently as Princess Margaret’s Rolls Royce, which carried passengers including The Princess of Wales, Ronald and Nancy Reagan and The Queen, is also up for auction. Expected to fetch between £45,000- £55,000 ,the 1980 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith II was owned by the Queen’s late sister for 22 years.