Prince Phillip And His Salvage Landrover
So Prince Phillip has eventually sent his apology to the other victims of last week’s road traffic accident. His reason for the “RTA”, apparently being the sun in his eyes. But the pictures of the aftermath show a typical reason for why so many newer vehicles find themselves in auto breaker yards before their time.
Even though his Landrover Freelander, clearly rolled and ended up lying on its side, this un-drivable lump of metal can now service other Freelanders, to repair other less serious accidents, or where poor maintenance has created a failure.
The quickness of the replacement vehicle suggests the car was either provided for the Princes use free of charge as a kind of kudos marketing. Let’s be honest it doesn’t do the Landrover brand any harm to be photographed or filmed almost every day and those picture beamed, published or transmitted around the world, as the Monarchies choice of transport. So providing free vehicles to senior members of the royal family could be a bargain in marketing terms. The point being it is unlikely the Prince’s name would actually be on the logbook, where its value as a damaged vehicle could be worth more than a fully functional one.
In fact there would be a real business argument, to completely repair the salvage and sell it on as the Princes Landrover previously famous for being involved in an accident. There will be those, especially abroad that would pay big money for this piece of history. The historical event may only be one week old currently, but in years to come, the value could only rise.
Chances are though; attempts will be made to ensure this does not happen and the vehicle is dismantled and stripped down and removed from the DVLAs database.
So if in the next few months, you need a part for a relatively new Landrover, there could be a relatively high chance that the used part you buy is from the Princes crashed vehicle. Let’s be honest there are not many of these luxury models sitting in British salvage yards.
The location of the accident was on the A149 near Sandringham not far from Norwich. Of course it makes sense the recovery vehicle would have transported it, to a local auto yard initially. Police are still saying they are looking into the accident, so it is likely the vehicle will remain local and untouched for now. But once the investigation has been completed, you would have to assume the insurance company will give it a Salvage Title B, which means it has to be stripped and cannot be returned back to the road. Otherwise it would go to aution, leaving the new buyer to do with it as they wish, would could include repairing it and selling it as the Duke Of Edinburgh’s vehicle, not a good PR exercise.
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