[valiant81]

Hi all;
First post on this forum and I'm now the proud owner of a 1999 au ford series 1. I bought this car of a mate of mine that i have know for the last 40 odd years. This is the second ford that i have owned as i used to own a old xb wagen that i used as a work truck for a number of years till i up graded to valiant wagen. Any way back to the au, this was bought from of a dealer in Melbourne and only had 45,000 Kms on the clock when my mate bought it. He did a few things to the au , mainly the roof lineing had droped and a couple of shock in the back.

The au had a few dings ( nothing major ) from the previous owner. A full service was also forth comeing. My mate had purchesed the au so as to transport his wife back and forth to hospital. Unfortuanly she pased away a couple of monthe ago.

My mate also had a Landrover discovery TD5 and his wifes own car and now the au had become supless to his needs.

This is were i purchesed the car and have never been happyer, car is very quiet, has a lot of power drives and handles ........well like a good car should do !!

As for the fuel consumption, On leaving Melbourne i filled the petrol tank up at calder thunder dome, set the cruse controle for 100 Kph and drove home, except for a stop in Bendigo, I pushed further homewards ( I live in Mildura ). After 527 Kms i had arived home and refilled the tank, and i got quiet a supprise to find that i only was able to squeeze in 38 Ltr of fuel .

This i later worked out to about 7.5 Ltrs per 100 Kms. This i found rearly good for a car that has a curb weight of about 1.5 ton. I'm realy impressed with the fuel consumtion. I used to have a 1985 Mazda 323 with a 5 speed box, and this was sold to my nice in Melbourne when i drove it to Melbourne to pick up my au ford and while this returned 34 Ltrs for the same trip( filled up in Mildura and a gain at calder ) the ford was way better and a lot more comfortable than the little mazda ( and when sold it it had only 83,000 Kms. I hade purchesed it from my wife Aurnt when she was unable to drive any more ).

So what now, well i have had most of the dings adressed by a panel beater and now the car looks a lot better.
I have traced a original cd radio for the au ( ebay ) and I'm just waiting for it to turn up and i will fit that and do away with the original cassette radio ( yuck ).

My ford NOW has only just under 48,000 Kms on the clock, so all good, lets hope i have aloooooong relationship with the au.