The Queen has a few, so does Cuba’s Fidel Castro and one of his is riddled with bullets. Meanwhile Billy Connolly had a yellow one.

But production of the legendary Land Rover Defender is coming to an end in a few weeks.

The name will not die. The company is intending a replacement as part of its long term model strategy along with the Range Rover and Discovery.

The new vehicle's design is still under wraps. But it will not be the aluminium bodied, traditionally green four wheel drive 'Landie' workhorse that was originally inspired by the US-built Jeep.

The Land Rover was to become an unrivalled, if at times uncomfortable, symbol of rural Britain since the Second World War, as gamekeepers, farmers, foresters, coastguards and estate owners readily testify.

But last January Land Rover announced a year of celebration to mark the final year of Defender production, although high demand meant the deadline extended into 2016.

Kim Palmer, the company’s spokesman, however revealed a final date had now been set, saying: “No more will be built past the end of January at Solihull where they have been built for the past 67 years.”

It started life in 1948 simply as the Land Rover and was to come in short and long wheel base versions with hard or soft tops. It wasn’t until 1990/91 that the Defender name was added, to distinguish it from the new Land Rover Discovery and to underline its wide use by the armed forces.

It has been a global success. “We produced our two millionth in May this year. We auctioned that in December and it raised £400,000 for charity. It was bought by a Qatari,” Mr Palmer said.

In 2014, 17,781 Defenders were produced at the car-maker’s Solihull plant but that figure is likely to be dwarfed by 2015's output.

Mr Palmer explained why it was decided to end such a winning model.

“The vehicle hasn’t changed massively in 67 years, and is still largely produced by hand in Solihull. But we haven’t been able to sell it in the US since 1980, because it doesn’t have airbags. As a company we are now producing half a million cars, and time has just moved on. The Land Rover Defender was a vehicle for its time," he said.

European Union emissions controls and design concerns also meant meant increasingly rigorous modern safety standards, would be a challenge.

There have been suggestions it might still be produced elsewhere in the world. But there has been a rush to get one, on its home turf.

Alan Mackenzie, sales manager at Macrae & Dick Land Rover in Inverness, has seen a record year for Defender sales.

He said: “In fact we were sold out in the middle of the year, around July. I suppose it was because of the awareness that production was coming to an end and people who were due to change, maybe in the next year or so, decided to change early. Orders have been brought forward. It didn’t take much to create a shortage."

The Defender will be sorely missed according to Doug McAdam, chief executive, of the landowners’ organisation Scottish Land & Estates.

"The Land Rover Defender and its series forefathers have been a part of the fabric of rural estates for as long as they have been made," he said.

"Indeed they are viewed as an iconic part of Scottish estates and farms. They are great workhorses, if sometimes not the most comfortable of modes of transport, but that doesn't worry the true enthusiast. I've owned most models myself and I still run two Series 3s which I will treasure all the more now. "

It is a view shared at the other end of the proprietorial spectrum. Two miles up a rough road in the hills above Aberfeldy former teacher Angus Macdonald works a seven and a half acre smallholding. “My Land Rover is not a luxury but a necessity for life here. Whether it be transporting feed or animals, or getting through today’s floods to a doctor’s appointment, we couldn’t be without it. Mind you, if it's great comfort you are after, forget it.”