Twenty-five years ago, I was enjoying the freedom that came from a driver's license and my first car.
My parents helped me with my first car. After searching far and wide looking at various Falcon's, eventually this 2001 AU III Fairmont sedan popped up at the local Ford dealer. After a test drive, along the same roads I shot the videos of my Mustang and XR6, it all went quiet. A few days later, I noticed the car had disappeared from the lot, which was kinda the clue. On my birthday, the 28th of December, this 3-year-old Fairmont was sitting in the driveway. A few days later, I passed my driving test in the same vehicle. Funnily, one of my friends got to drive my first car before I did, he worked at the Ford dealer as an apprentice mechanic, where he did the pre-sale inspection.
The car was made on the 11th of November 2001, making it one of the first AU III's off the line. So early that this example actually had the AU II's diamond pattern seat and door trim material. This didn't bother me, actually I only discovered it a few years later, at least it had the Warm Charcoal instead of the cheap looking Dark Graphite grey colour tone.
With only 54,000 km on the clock and painted in the majestic Barossa Red, it had the standard 157 kW 4.0 SOHC engine and 4-speed auto. Apart from the massive tow bar, which was clearly used going by the scraped up rear mud flaps, the car was standard. Although that would change, my uncle was the spare parts manager at the same Ford dealer, so I had access to various genuine Ford parts.
The first thing I did was to fit a rear spoiler. With various spoilers offered on the AU, I wanted it to look like it was originally ordered with it, so I went with the curvier item with the triangular central brake light. That spoiler was originally used on the series one XR's, but for AU II and AU III, it then became the factory option spoiler and was standard on the SR SVP. I had it painted and fitted at a local panel shop......................who lost my keys and ended up having to replace the whole ignition system with two brand new keys/fobs installed at their cost. Thinking back, this was when my phobia of leaving my cars in the "care" of someone else began.
Next, I replaced the ugly 16-inch wheels that were fitted with horrible no-name tyres fitted. Actually, I nearly wrote the car off due to those tyres, the rear snapping into full opposite lock oversteers on a cold, wet morning WITHOUT provocation. The AU III Fairmont used the previous AU II Fairmont Ghia wheels, they were a nightmare to clean and really made the car look like the grandpa's express it was originally meant to be.
Again, I wanted OEM, which back then was relatively simple. They don't exist anymore, but Wheel King used to buy up OE wheels from Holden and Ford and offered them at a good price, with or without tyres. I decided I wanted the 17-inch wheels offered as an option on AU series one XR's, but was also the optional Tickford wheels on all other models. They had a machined face, which made them shimmer on the move. I also liked how easy they were to clean and the beautiful set of Tickford wings on the center caps.
On the inside, I fitted a Momo leather shifter. I also fitted the Fairmont Ghia woodgrain surround, which involved removal of the 1-piece center console. I remember it being mid-summer, so I was working inside the car with the fan running....................then flattened the battery. You live, you learn.
At some point, I also had a Metallic Blue Momo steering wheel fitted, the best steering wheel I have ever used. This wheel was optional across the range and was a different to the Wild Blue used on the T-Series.
I also got my uncle to order a Fairlane exhaust tip. I remember paying $120 trade for it. I could have bought something generic from Repco or Supercheap, but no, I wanted the Ford part, I just loved the size and angle of it. It didn't change the sound, which was fine by me. They also used this tip on XR6 VCT.
Mechanically, the car served me well. I put 30,000 km on the car over the 3.5 years I owned it, I even loaded my mower in the back to go do lawns. At one point, it needed the front ball joints addressed as it had a weird clunk in the front end when letting off the brakes from rest. I also had to replace the rear muffler as it was rotted out towards the end of my ownership. And the 6-stack CD head unit needed to be repaired, as did the climate control display.
Driving wise, it was a superb long-distance cruiser with stunning highway fuel economy. The brakes were weak though, and I suspect it had done a LOT of towing, the transmission was occasionally thump back to second. Ride comfort was as expected for a car heavily skewed to an older driver, but she did like to roll around a bit. The engine was super smooth up to about 3000 rpm, at which point the intake manifold would switch to the short runners for the final 2750 rpm. Those engines really didn't like to spend much time over 3000 rpm, they were noisy and rough as guts up top. The noise was pretty nasty as well, too much wheezing and whining. But.................she would pull a mean single ped burnout pulling out of rural TAFE campus at 3.30pm home time. (Hey, we all did it)
In the end, I sold the car to a family friend in June 2008, but haven't seen it since. It's hard to know if I miss the car itself, or the time in my life when things weren't so complicated. Probably both.
Most of the images above were taken in the same locations as the below images, 20 years later......................
