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Lucy Devine
A man who bought 240 Land Rover Defenders in 2015 has revealed how much they're selling for a decade after the 'risky' purchase.
When Land Rover made the bombshell decision to discontinue its iconic Defender after almost 70 years, Charles Fawcett saw an opportunity he could not ignore.
He decided to buy 240 of the cult cars to modify and sell through his automotive company Twisted.
The North Yorkshire-based business was set up in 2000 and customises, modifies and 'twists' around 100 Defenders every year.
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While Charles spent a whopping £8 million in total on the cars, his gamble certainly paid off, with the Defenders now selling for hundreds of thousands.
Explaining how it went down at the time, Charles explained that he was simply looking for stock when he heard the news that Land Rover were discontinuing the Defender.
"Everyone thought we were nuts. But, I always felt it was a good investment and I always knew there was a get out if I needed it," he told LADbible.
"History has proven that an outgoing model in the automative sector always depreciates quickly. We believed it would appreciate and we needed it to.
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"I negotiated a 14.8 percent discount of 240 vehicles that had a retail of around £30,000, so I probably paid £22,600 per vehicle. We sold them at the beginning for £70,000-£90,000, but now we’re selling them between £180,00-£320,000.
"The bit that gets missed in the middle is that we also put 1,500 hours into every single build. That's 1,500 hours of labour using parts, components and processes developed over 25 years."
Charles explained that while he now has only 25 Defenders left, his company has turned over in excess of £50 million since buying the vehicles.
"It really is an extraordinary level of craftsmanship and attention to detail that justifies the premium price point, but it was still a huge risk. Ultimately, we build something no one needs but the desire for it is huge," he continued.
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"Having that stock of vehicles has enabled the business to grow over the nine year period since production ended and in those nine years we will have turned well over in excess of £50 million. Without those core vehicles I suspect the business would look quite different.
"We are down to the last 25 now, I will be sad to see them go, but I'm going to keep some for myself."
The Twisted founder explained that although everyone thought he'd gone mad when he revealed his plans to buy the cars, their scepticism only spurred him on.
"A number of times through my journey with Twisted I've had people advise me not to do things, or tell me something’s a bad idea," he said.
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"I have to be honest, it makes me want to do it more. If someone says 'no' it’s like red rag really, at any of these points in the past I had nothing to lose so why would I not try something?"