The wild price ride for Ford's premium hero car
As this ad from our August 2007 edition shows, 2018 is not the first time a Ford Falcon GTHO owner hoped for a million dollars out of their favourite toy.
Though a million dollar price tag for a Phase III GTHO Falcon got all the headlines at a recent Lloyds auction, it hasn’t always been a comfortable ride for investors in premium Aussie muscle.
Prior to the global finanical crisis (GFC) that hit around 2007-2008, Ford Falcon Phase III GTHOs were hitting dizzying heights.
The highest sale price we were able to confirm at that stage was $700,000, some way short of the $900,000 rumoured to have occurred in a private sale and the $1 million owners were beginning to expect.
To put that in perspective, $700k back in 2007 is worth more like $890k now, so the values were close.
However back when the GFC hit (post 2008) Phase III prices slumped to the point where you could pick up a decent example for $350k. So values effectively halved.
Back to the present, we’ve seen Aussie muscle car values move very fast in recent times, to the point where valuations can shift significantly in the space of a month.
For example, the Gary Rush and Damon Beck Bathurst race car from 1971, last November sold for ‘just’ $430k. At that time, we were estimating premium cars at up to $600k.
And now? The most recent result could be seen as an aberration – remember it only takes two very determined people to set an auction price record.
However what’s remarkable about the latest result is there were four bidders sniffing around at the million mark.
Certainly the car once having a famous owner – former test cricketer Jeff Thompson – helped it along, but there’s some debate on how much effect that really had.
Our prediction at this stage is we can’t see prices going significantly higher at this stage. But we could be wrong…
Feature: Allan Moffat drives the Phase III
Recent auction results
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