For Sale at Auction: 1997 Land Rover Defender in Carmel, California

Chassis No. SALDV2245VA116982

Land Rover would offer some of its most iconic off-roading machines-the 90 and 110 series trucks-in the U.S. and Canada starting in 1993 with the introduction of the North American Specification, or NAS, Defenders. NAS Defender 90s would be built in either soft or hard top form, initially with a 3.9-liter V8 and a five-speed manual transmission. By the end of the run in 1997, however, the NAS D90 boasted a 4.0-liter V8 and a four-speed ZF automatic, this ultimate specification representing the most refined and luxurious Defender 90 configuration available. Over the three model years they were offered, about 7,000 Defender 90 NAS models were produced, with the 1997 models being the only ones offering an automatic transmission. By 1998, with changing safety regulations making it impractical to continue producing the Defender 90 NAS, the model was phased out. It would not be until 2020 that the Defender nameplate would re-emerge in North America.

This exceptional example of Land Rover's Defender 90 is a final year, 1997 soft top model, a factory left-hand-drive D90 NAS. Retained since new by its original owner, a noted figure in the entertainment industry, the Defender has been kept as a seldom-used, stylish 4x4 at a posh Lake Tahoe estate. Appearing as new in striking AA Yellow, it boasts the 1997-only four-speed ZF automatic transmission. Amazingly, the D90 presents with only 4,269 original miles recorded at the time of cataloging, surely among the lowest mileage D90 NAS examples in existence, nearly three decades on from its manufacture date.

An accompanying clean CARFAX Report records that the NAS D90 has been registered in California and Nevada its entire life following its sale to its first and only owner in June 1997. The Land Rover had accrued some 3,372 of its miles by June 2003, and the following year would be registered in Nevada following the vehicle's move to a grand estate on the eastern shores of sparkling Lake Tahoe. Service visits at Land Rover Reno are recorded in 2014, at 3,989 miles, and 2024, at 4,240 miles, reflecting extremely limited usage in recent years. As a "time capsule" example of its type, the Defender 90 is offered with its factory manuals, soft top, side curtain door windows, and rear zip-in windows, and its overall condition reflects limited use and careful preservation.

Any NAS Defender 90 with such low mileage is an important specimen worthy of serious consideration by discerning collectors. This D90 NAS, a final year model boasting all of the model's iterative improvements and offered directly from its original owner and purchaser with under 4,300 original miles, is undoubtedly one of the finest of its type to have come to market, and represents a rare opportunity to sample a distinctive slice of "Best of British."