Last Fairlane standing

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.