History
This EF Fairmont Ghia was my third car and probably really the first car that I "loved". I picked it up for $8,000 which was very cheap for a V8 EF at the time, but the lower price was thanks to the nearly 250,000 kms already on the car. With that being said, the car had every option that could have been fitted to the EF at the time and it drove very nicely.
I would have kept this car for a lot longer than I did but it developed an issue with the automatic gear box where it would not shift in to second gear. It would rev out in first gear and then eventually change in to third and when slowing down it would drop from third back in to first causing a nice lurch as the engine breaks kicked in.
I had my mechanic at the time look at the car and he told me that the gear box was unrepairable and given that the car was now pushing 300,000 kms, he advised me that I should look at buying another car. Sadly, I took his advice.
I sold the EF for a rediculously low price due to the problems with the gear box. I think I got about $2,400 for it. On the day that I sold it, I realised that I had left my toll tag in the car so I drove to the purchaser's house to collect it. He had already fixed the issue with the gearbox - with a $40 solenoid.
Modifications
The car was fitted with pretty much every factory option that was available at the time - sunroof, full leather interior and limited slip diff. Other than this, the only modification I made was to replace the standard speakers on the parcel shelf with a pair of Kenwood 6x9"s.
