Last Fairlane standing Fails to Meet Reserve Price

[csv8]

Last Fairlane standing




04 March 2008
Chris Riley
The Ford Fairlane was a bit of a fizzer in the end.

A charity auction ended in disappointment when the last Fairlane to leave Ford's production line failed to realise even its list price on Sunday afternoon.

Disappointing for Ford perhaps and the National Breast Cancer Council that was due to pocket the proceeds.

But not for Melbourne boat dealer Simon Miller, 43, who suddenly found himself the proud owner of another car.

“I don’t I think I could have got one that cheap even if I’d haggled,” he said.

Ford had anticipated “strong interest” in the event, but the Fairlane, a six cylinder Fairmont Ghia that retails for $58,625, managed to raise only $48,100 – and that's a driveway price including 12 month's registration.

Ford enlisted the services of cricketers Andrew Symonds and Matthew Hayden to promote the event, but the current one day international series must have been more interesting.

Perhaps the auction would have attracted more interest if the car had been a V8 model?

Yes, concedes Ford, but the trouble is that it stopped manufacturing V8s some time ago.

A Ford spokesman, however, confirmed the car is literally the last Fairlane to leave the line.

“It's a nice collector car and a very good price at that,” a spokesman said.

In the lead-up to the auction, Ford described the car as the final example of more than 250,000 Fairlane and LTD vehicles manufactured between 1967 and 2008.

Early last year, Ford decided to pull the pin on the Fairlane as well as the more luxurious LTD model in the wake of falling sales.

A total of 12 bidders registered for the auction which ended at 5pm on Sunday.

It attracted 40 bids in total, with the winning bid coming just seconds before the end in typical eBay fashion.

As the auction drew to a close there were some anxious moment as the eBay site refused to accept any further bids.

At the time Miller was out on a boat enjoying the sunshine off Frankston, with a friend keeping him updated on proceedings via text messages.

The father of two revealed his own father had owned five Fairlanes over the years but said he had no plans to give him this one.

Miller might however cook up something with his beloved Geelong Football Club.

Other than that, he has not decided what to do with the car yet.

In fact, the boat dealer has just taken delivery of a new turbo-diesel Landcruiser which he uses to tow boats.

My opinion : What a sad way for the Fairlane to go out. FORD should hang there heads in shame.

[dallasv8]

i think an ad campaign between the breast cancer council and ford would have helped out.cant say i seen it advertised anywhere but here.

i guess he gets a bloody nice car for cheap

[Peuty]

Originally Posted by csv8

... but the Fairlane, a six cylinder Fairmont Ghia...

Quality journalism right there....


Shame about the price it sold at, but hey, maybe it would have got more if it was more than just a taxi with out the stickers.

[uranium_death]

Maybe if the car offered a little more than just a plain Fairlane, interest would have been greater.

The fact remains that at the end of the day, it's just another Fairlane.

Give it a nicer interior and more options, wheels etc...make it unique.

[FordFella]

Well its not like the monaro - that at least went out with great sales, not a slow decline.... Should have made it a FPV Galaxie....

[Dezza]

Ford only have themselves to blame for the way the Fairlane finished up. The problem is, since the BA came out, it didn't have the differentiation required to stand above the rest of the Falcon range. You've got to spend money to make money, and using Falcon taillights and front sheetmetal (with just a different grille to pick it apart from a Falcon XT) was completely the wrong move. Holden have showed that doing more to the premium models will help in sales. Holden sell heaps of the new Statesman and Caprice because it looks and feels like a much classier car than a Commodore Omega. They even have longer rear doors! The Fairlane on the other hand just used the wagon doors, and is still even using a BA XT front bumper. For the last Fairlane to be like every other was also a disgraceful way to finish it. RIP Fairlane. If Ford gave you the attention you deserved, maybe you could have had many years left.

[LeadFoot81]

Originally Posted by FordFella

Well its not like the monaro - that at least went out with great sales, not a slow decline.... Should have made it a FPV Galaxie....

Monaro was canned due to insufficient domestic and export sales, (there was a slow decline in sales the whole time it was on our market, and sales never really took off in the US) it didnt go out 'on top'! Because it was a sports coupe with big name heritage it was alot more desirable to be auctioned off.

[banarcus]

It's been said before, who wants a Fairlane, that looks like a Falcon? Ford started losing market share with the NF/DF after the success of the VR Statesman. It was in slow decline from there on and in the end, without an export market, it was always going to die a slow gradual death. In the end, it didn't matter whether Ford spent a billion dollars on a Fairlane, the thing wouldn't have sold as people in Australia are shunning large Australian cars in their droves.

[AusM]

Notice to the media was only a couple of days before the auction start... ie not long enough for us print media to help promote it (except via the website, which we did).

Pity, but it may have come about as a last minute decision, or just got overlooked in the pressure of the FG release...

[uranium_death]

The Fairlane going for less IMO has nothing to do with it looking like a Falcon.

This last off the line should have had heaps of extras, and something unique. The person buying it should get something for their money. People should look at it and say, "Hey, that's the last Fairlane off the production line!"

Instead, people will look at it and either not care, or they'll say, "Yep, another Fairlane."

If the rest of the Fairlanes weren't selling, what makes Ford actually believe that this car is going to sell? The fact that it's the "last Fairlane" means nothing if it looks like the rest of them.

Ford went lazy.

What the hell were they thinking...really?!

[ea90gl]

I think looks played a big part in things here, as mentioned the front and rear of the Fairlane looked like a standard BA with a bit of chrome here and there. You need to make your luxury model stand out from the rest simple. I still wouldnt mind having one but at the end of the day it was nothing people would go nuts over

[MNM96]

Why is this all doom and gloom?

Ford raised $40000 for the Breast Cancer research, and well done to them for that!

Re the advertisement, It was shown on the sports shows, like in the V8 Telecast, but the Auction was overshadowed by the Bun Fights between Harbajan Sighn, Monkey and Haydo!

Failure of this to not net more $'s can be layed at the feet of Ford's and the Breast Cancer Foundation's Marketing departments, and to a lesser extent, the Media.

Well Done Ford, What an amazing donation!

Mike

[JMO]

Originally Posted by MNM96

Why is this all doom and gloom?

Ford raised $40000 for the Breast Cancer research, and well done to them for that!
Mike

They could've sold it from a dealership and raised $58,625.

[schnoods]

Should've been a V8 one, and not a 3v at that!

[ST]

Originally Posted by Peuty

Shame about the price it sold at, but hey, maybe it would have got more if it was more than just a taxi with out the stickers.

?
That's a Fairmont, Fairlanes don't have the same shape.

Very disappointing, but honestly one of the main draws to the Fairlane was its built for cruising V8. I kind of expected it with the 6 in there.

[StealthAu]

Originally Posted by RTSW

?
That's a Fairmont, Fairlanes don't have the same shape.

Very disappointing, but honestly one of the main draws to the Fairlane was its built for cruising V8. I kind of expected it with the 6 in there.

BA and BF Fairlanes didn't differ greatly in looks to the Fairmonts.

[PoMmYwOG]

I think that being the last model they should have made it a special one off type car...stick a boss 290/302 in it and give it FPV interior... would have definetly gained more interest i think and more $$$... all the fairlane fanatics out there would love to see that i reckon...

[ltd]

Sad ending for a great car. Ford cannot do one offs; they just become far too expensive. Sticking the boss in it would have required a different bonnet, bumper and other parts. Ford should have done a runout on the fairlane by putting the G6E-T running gear in it, or the BF Typhoon running gear and painting it a special non fairlane colour. A limited run of 50 would have sold out in probably a couple of weeks, and the car would then hold a decent value. The absolute last could have been auctioned like the silver service taxi was, but it would have probably fetched closer to 100K. If ford have of done a go fast fairlane as the last ever model, I know three blokes who would have been at the front of the queue.

[TwistedEL]

Originally Posted by FordFella

Well its not like the monaro - that at least went out with great sales, not a slow decline.... Should have made it a FPV Galaxie....

I see so many people saying they should have made an FPV variant. Anyone remember how many TL50's sold?

[Smoke Pursuit]

Originally Posted by TwistedEL

I see so many people saying they should have made an FPV variant. Anyone remember how many TL50's sold?

lol!!!

so true.

The Fairlane was rooted from the release of the BA for many reasons, it just didnt cut it above the Fairmont Ghia, for christ sake the Fairmont Ghia had bigger wheels and more options!! Ford should have brought out a new front end on the BF Fairlane but refused to spend any money on the car as it was too late then..

Sad for Hire car companies that have relied on the Fairlane for the last god knows how many years, you talk to these operators and they all hate Statesmens!

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by TwistedEL

I see so many people saying they should have made an FPV variant. Anyone remember how many TL50's sold?

Poor marketing was the blame for that, now look how sort after the 3rd T3 TL50 is now. Also look how popular the T series cars are becoming. If ford knew how to market their cars the would have sold alot more of them. (T Series that is)

Originally Posted by LSTerritoryGhia

The Fairlane was rooted from the release of the BA for many reasons, it just didnt cut it above the Fairmont Ghia, for christ sake the Fairmont Ghia had bigger wheels and more options!! Ford should have brought out a new front end on the BF Fairlane but refused to spend any money on the car as it was too late then..

Sad for Hire car companies that have relied on the Fairlane for the last god knows how many years, you talk to these operators and they all hate Statesmens!

Makes you wonder how many times Ford/FPV can shoot themselves in the foot

[Peuty]

Originally Posted by RTSW

?
That's a Fairmont, Fairlanes don't have the same shape.

Very disappointing, but honestly one of the main draws to the Fairlane was its built for cruising V8. I kind of expected it with the 6 in there.

Silver Service Taxis brother, squillions of them up here in Brisbane.

[DEVL-XR]

Pretty disappointing really. Honestly the only place I heard of it being up for auction was on here, I didnt see any other advertising for it.
The other problem Ford has is promoting and advertising their cars towards cricketers, tennis players and footy players. How many Ford ad's do we see that appeal to the car enthusiast's? Good example is that stupid ad they have going now about 'cracking deals'...

Anyway sorry to go off topic. Like Dezza said, the Fairlane wasn't much different to a Fairmont in the end, it was just a little longer...wow!

[troppo]

I'm not really surprised. I never heard about it anywhere but here which says something about the lack of marketing and secondly, not enough to make the car unique. A build number and paperwork or whatever is all very well, but it needed something to make it easily and readily identifiable as the last Fairlane...a one-off colour and some decals would've done it.

[Green X]

Should have stuck a Boss 290 in it, set of 19's of a Force 8 and had a little bit of a Custom trim job on the seats. A authentication certificate with Andrew Symonds Matthew Hayden and Tom's signatures on it.

Now that would have sent the fairlane out nicely, Good the 40 odd K has gone to charity but it seems it was done as a charity auction as it's the only way the last fairlane could have been sold.

[FTe342]

Just read about the auction result in my local paper and then found this thread.

In the latest AMC mag there is mention of a tribute to LWB V8 models "to mark the sad demise of local Fairlane production". The Early Ford V8 club's 11th National event at Bendigo on June 7-8 will be a special tribute to all LWB V8 models.

Sadly, the last Fairlane doesn't qualify for this event (because its only a 6) but it would be nice if they got it there. I will send the organisers an email. They are looking for factory original Customlines from 1955 right thru to 2007 Fairlane/LTD to display on the Saturday June 7.

If I can make it I will take the TL50 down since its the last performance enhanced LWB built here

[ZC001]

I thought it was another ebay scam

Seller would not answer messages
Listing said it was for a Fairlane.
Looked just like a Falcon to me :

[irlewy86]

The first media coverage of it was on last night, they were talking to Roy about the security situation in Pakistan, he was standing in front of the Fairlane. What a flop.

[Fev]

should have had the 3V in it with a full herrod exhaust, CAI capa flash tuner+custom tune and also some fat 20's then it would have gotten some attention!

[VZSS250]

Its a convenient misconception to think that the Fairlane is dead because the BA/BF Fairlane looked too similar to the base models!!!

The rot began to set in when the AU was released - which was significantly differentiated from the Falcon. The WH Statesman outsold Fairlane 3 to 1 when it arrived to compete against the AU and is the sole reason for Fairlane being discontinued 9 years later. Holden supersized the Statesman in the WH series and delivered a beautifully styled car powered by a 5.7 litre V8 that made the Fairlane redundant overnight.

The AU Fairlane was smashed by the WH Statesman so severely that Ford could not even come up with the dollars to fund the next update. The result was the half-hearted BA/BF Fairlane range, which was obliterated by the Holden WK/WL equivalents that took the WH concept to the next level. Finally the WM range arrived to put the final nails in the Fairlane's coffin.

History will recall that the last BF Fairlane cried at its deathbed for mercy, or at least for someone to buy it for $48k, some $10k less than RRP. And in its final moments, images of the WH Statesman flashed through its mind, relentless crushing the sales figures of its predecessors and its hopes of a better future.