Last Ford Falcon you can own sells for $81,500

THE final road-registrable Ford Falcon has sold at auction for $81,500 – a relative bargain for what will live on as a significant slice of Australian history.

The Ford FGX Falcon XR6 sedan sold on Saturday isn’t actually the final car to roll off the Broadmeadows production line - the true last car doesn’t have a Vehicle Identification Number and therefore can never be registered. However, both wear the same Kinetic blue hue.

Manheim, the auction house behind Saturday’s historic sale that also included the last XR6 Sprint – number 500 of 500 – the last XR6 Turbo ute and the last road-registrable Ford Territory, had tipped that the XR6 would soar past $100,000, with total proceeds from the four auctions expected to raise more than $500,000.

Instead, within half an hour, two real-world bidders had shown they had deeper pockets than rivals online to shell out a collective $353,000 for the cars, with Ford donating the proceeds to Broadmeadows- and Geelong-based community projects, including a robotics program for schools.

The prices paid are in stark contrast to a pair of FPV GT-F sedans sold by Ford in 2014, with the proceeds from those car going to breast cancer research.

GT-F build number 001 sold for $157,600, while GT-F build number 500 – the final one, sold for $236,100, with a combined total of $393,700

Both the $81,500 Falcon XR6, and the Ford Territory Titanium that sold on Saturday for $68,500, were bought by Melbourne-based Ford collector Mark Jeffs. The Falcon, Jeffs told Wheels, would go straight into storage.

The XR6 Sprint that sold for $122,000, along with a Winter White XR6 Turbo Ute that sold for $81,000, both went to Sunbury Ford dealer John Bradbury.

The auction took place at an event called “Falcon: The Legacy Lives On” in Hanger Four at Avalon airport on the outskirts of Geelong.

Ford offered 2000 tickets to the invitation-only event that included a static display of significant Falcon models. Attendees could also have a photo taken with some of the last 10 cars to roll off the Broadmeadows production line on October 7.