2001 Falcon XR8 AUII - today's tempter

By: Guy Allen, Unique Cars mag

Date: 05.04.2018

Ford Falcon XR8 AUII

Ford Falcon XR8 AUII

The AU got off to a rocky start, but this one is a keeper

Ford's shiny new AU series of Falcons got off to a rocky start in 1998 - the styling was not well-received and there were numerous teething problems with the car.

Criticisms centred around the handling, brakes and cabin noise, much of which was sorted out by the time the AU II came along in 2000.

While Ford didn't have the budget to reskin the car completely (which some of its harsher critics suggested), it did manage some tweaks to the looks which removed a lot of the objections, particularly in the XR series.

We must admit to having a bit of a weakness for the four-eyed early XR series and reckon that they deserve to be on the collector radar.

At this stage the cars aren't worth a fortune, so there's the opportunity to get something with very acceptable performance and handling, plus the early XR look for a reasonable price.

This example located in Queensland claims to be the first of the 220kW cars, which was a final tweak for the AUII XR8s, around mid-2001.

It's priced at $18,500.

See our AU & Tickford buyer guide

(Note the prices will have changed since it was first published.)

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