After weeks of searching I finally found a really good EF.

It is a 1994 EF Fairmont Ghia, 4.0 OHC 6-cyl, leather interior, ABS, power everything, cruise control, climate control, driver's airbag, 6spk CD, towbar. The car looks and drives great. As soon as I bought it I took it down to a friend of mine who owns a mechanic shop and its getting a service (well, just the oils and filters).

I left it there overnight as he had a lot on. Meanwhile I picked up insurance at AAMI for $585 full comprehensive which is really low (I'm used to paying $1800-$2200 for insurance on my previous cars).

Registered it for business purposes and I'll pick it up lunch time on Friday.

I must say, honestly, for the price it's the best value car I've ever purchased.

I hope you guys don't mind me asking a few noob questions in the coming weeks as I try and sus out the car. I'll try and figure stuff out myself first with the search etc...

PS: One of the things I can't find is the ITS Performance email / information / address. Does anyone have it?

congrats mate

how much was the car?

you realise with aami, from my memory, you can only do like 1 mod (or is that only rules for p platerS? or completly wrong?)

but any way, well done, and post pics up asap

congrats on the buy and i guess the price was good, i didnt know until looking into a fairmont ghia just over a year ago that the EL's came with tickford engine and suspension. a little more expensive but worth it.

oops..... forgot to put the price lol: $4,500. it was a private sale.

also the km's.... it was a bit high but considering the condition i decided it was worth it at 206,000km's.

as for mods... if i decide to modify the car i can reduce the cover to simply "third party property and theft". they also will pay you up to $5,000 of the value of the car if it is stolen, so that basically covers me for anything bar repairing my own vehicle if i'm in an accident.

just car's quote came in at $1,400+ ... so... naah not atm.

206,000 for a 10 year old car is only slightly above average and an example with anything less probably would have cost a crap load more.

joolz: Ford starting putting the Ticky engines and running gear into the Fairmont Ghias as early as the Series 2 EFs

so mine's no tickford?

it just had a full service and automatic service too. it felt slightly sluggish but then i filled the tank with optimax and it went a bit better.

my last car was a 190rwkw mr2 turbo, so there is a slight deficit in what i was accustomed to.

but the thing is just cruisy. so comfortable and eats up the kms with such ease i finish the journey relaxed. the high suspension and quiet engine are perks that i find good in my old age (i'm 28) as opposed to banging and crashing lowered suspension and deep throb exhaust note of my previous cars.

the one thing i was surprised, however (and probably attributed to the high std suspension) was how hard it was to take corners at anything other than slow. I had to turn in to catch the amber arrow turning left and i may have been going no more than 25-30km/hr and it felt as if the front end understeered to the point i thought it was going to crash into the median strip of the road i was turning in to. i didnt push the car into corners after that. but its not a performance car so i'm not holding that against it at all.

i dont think i'll even mod this car. it's just nice to drive as it is. the power is nice for crusing... i gave it a couple of times just to see what the top end was like and its, erm... sort of the same as the low-end but it feels like there is less torque up top. my previous cars would get to 3000-4000rpm then go into warp drive. but that stuff is in the past. i have a mortgage now and cars are an ever sinking pit you throw your hard earned $$$ into. perhaps later i'll get back into modding. for now the ford the way it is suits me just fine.

No ticky stuff for you, series 2 is, get a set of XR springs, or even series 2 Ghia springs, ghia springs are 15mm lower than stock, XR are around 30mm lower, makes a big difference, but than again there was some suspension work to the series 2 to improve over series 1 problems.

the EF series 2 onwards had a lower centre of gravity.

i may just get the lowered tickford bits put in because i'm not used to taking corners so, what's the word.... ummm... casually? lol.

i took 2 pics of the outside. i'll drive it out tomorrow and open all the doors so i can take pics of the interior.





if anyone's interested in what my previous car looked like, i have a pic here

awesome price dude.. congratulations on the purchase did it take long to find it?

They look like series 2 Ghia rims, dont think both were the same???.

i was searching for a few weeks. there was a 1996 ef series ii with 201,000k's metallic blue (not fairmont ghia, just falcon) going for $4,990 and the dealer wouldn't budge... but it had 12 mths rego and 1 yr warranty.

i'm glad i waited. this car runs out of rego in 3 months, but its a ghia and when i drove the one above ^^^^ it felt clunky and there were a few rattles in the dash. the one i have has no rattles, altho the climate control panel is very VERY dim... i can hardly see the display.

all i know is its a 94 model. not sure about the rims.

looks very tidy; love the colour.

Nice paint work n new headlights by looks of it.. did the previous owner have a bump with it?

Still looks mickey mouse for <5k and being a ghia.

congrats, and 200,000km for ef isnt much, dont worry.

The picture of the Fairmont Ghia on the cover of the owners manual has those rims too and that's almost guaranteed to be an S1.