1985 Ford Fairlane - today's budget tempter

By: Guy Allen, Unique Cars magazine

Date: 30.01.2018

This ZL Fairlane has the potential to be an inexpensive club cruiser.

This ZL Fairlane has the potential to be an inexpensive club cruiser.

Lots of car for the money

Along with the Holden Statesman, this was the preferred country cruiser for commercial travellers, farmers, and anyone who had a regular need to cover big distances in a high degree of comfort.

This was the final variant of the third generation local Fairlane (if you accept the 1967 ZA as the first), which by now had seen V8s disappear from the range - its biggest disadvantage against the Holden.

You could however get a fuel-injected 4.1lt six, which the maker claimed gave equivalent performance to a bent eight.

By now the Fairlane had a coil-sprung live axle, mounted with a Watts linkage, which was one of the better-handling set-ups of its kind.

This car is with a dealer in Port Macquarie in NSW and claims 181,000km and to be in very good, original and rust-free condition. If it checks out, that stacks up as a lot of luxury cruiser for $4950.

It's an auto (of course) and is running 12-slotter wheels as one of the few obvious non-original features. We love the fact it's running a sun visor - terrible for fuel economy, but still (just) a period feature that generally announced the owner was elderly.

Aside from the condition, its biggest asset may be that it old enough to run on a club permit pretty much nationwide.

The ZL is said to be a two-owner car and you can find out more here.

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