Bond cars are always met with a great deal of excitement. Even the Land Rover Defender has taken on a new aura and new level of cool thanks to the announcement that it would appear in the next installment of the Bond franchise. However, it's always the classics that tend to have a greater allure to those looking to bolster an impressive collection. Although the film On Her Majesty's Secret Service was arguably the worst 007 flick ever made, one of the hero cars from this movie has just sold for a ludicrous amount of money that far exceeded expectations.

Earlier this month, we reportedthat the 1969 Mercury Cougar driven by the femme fatale of this film would go under the hammer at Bonham's Bond Street Sale auction. At the time, we were expecting that the car would fetch around $200,000, but with the auction of this car completed earlier this week, we can now tell you that this estimate was more than doubled.

It finally changed hands after much "spirited and protracted bidding" for the sum of £356,500. That's a whopping $482,692 (at the time of writing). Considering that it has changed hands at least seven times for much less money, this is astonishingly impressive.

Of course, it wasn't a simple matter of someone picking the car up for a steal and then rolling it across the auction block. When the seller bought this car, it was a little worse for wear, and it took over 30 years for the vendor to professionally restore the car. There's plenty done to this car, but even without its cinematic provenance, it's a special example, being one of just three that were finished in Candy Apple Red with a black roof. The three cars purchased for the film didn't all make it to the 21st century either, as one was scrapped during filing. The remaining survivor reportedly now lives in Spain.