Defender's last stand

The popular and hard-working Land Rover Defender is set to be replaced after 62 years of rugged service. Photo / Supplied

Land Rover has confirmed it will replace the Defender, with owner Tata Motors approving funds for engineering and design.

Project Icon will launch in 2014, but may not take the Defender name and could at last see a completely clean sheet design.

The Defender first launched in 1948 as a post-war response to the need for a go-anywhere car.

It arrived in New Zealand as the Series One the same year, and was the only model until the Range Rover arrived in 1970.

The car took the Defender name in 1990 and today's is the sixth generation - still built rather like a Meccano kit, with body panels bolted on to the basic frame. It can literally be disassembled using hand tools, and though its simple construction is an anachronism, it also makes the cars easy to service - and cheap to build. So cheap, the current variant allegedly still contains a part or two from that first Defender.

The model has been a success for Land Rover, with 1.8 million sold since its launch 62 years ago. The factory estimates 75 per cent of those are still running, a figure that covers registered cars and those doing farm-track duty.

It's that rugged nature as much as its history that sees sales continuing steadily year after year.

Almost 20 per cent of Land Rover NZ's 2008 tally came from this venerable off-roader, and 17 per cent last year despite a shortage of supplies.

Whether Defender's replacement will remain so popular may depend not on how well it follows its ancestor's footsteps, but how well it imparts its predecessor's joyously indestructible nature.