EBII/ED Ghia...Thoughts?

[biased99]

Hi guys,
First post, and a lengthy one, so please bear with me...

I am looking at buying an Fairmont Ghia, advertised as an EBII, but the pics tell me that it is an ED (eg. Grille and wheels).

car "specs" are as follows:

1993 Fairmont Ghia
Injected Windsor
All usual Ghia features, including Power pack, ABS, LSD (supposedly), full leather interior (photo of driver's seat shows little wear).
H/D tow bar *worries about what it might have been towing* used:
Exterior/interior both seem in good nick.
Car has (again, apparently) 140,000kms on the clock.

I guess I need to know what kind of "gotchas" these cars have? My current car (which we are selling, because we can get more for it than we'll spend replacing it), is a modified Toyota Cressida, running the Lexus quad-cam V8/4-speed auto - these are virtually un-burstable. I have heard in some quarters that the Ford engine/trans aren't quite so...Although with relatively low kms, you'd think they should still be OK, unless the car's been flogged...???

As for the Ford V8s, surely these must have been pretty much fully "sorted" by the time they were stuffed into EB Fords? I'd guess the transmission would have the larger question mark hanging over it...? How strong are the diffs/drivelines in these things? (I've heard that they are speed limited to 180K/PH due to a single-piece tail-shaft...Is there any merit in that rumour?)

Can anyone offer advice on the sort of things I should look for on one of these, given the age/mileage? What should one realistically expect to pay? (Cash $ buyer).

Thanks in advance for any help/advice you can give.

[neb]

my bro's friend just bought an ed fairmont ghia. its only a 6 not an 8, and has the half velour, half leather seats. its very nice.

i think the full leather seats in the ebII, ed's are actually fairly rare to come by so thats nice to have. i'm unsure whether the ed would be speed limited or not.. my ebII isn't.

yes ghia's came with lsd, and the tow pack.. well pretty much every falcon seems to have one so i wouldn't worry too much about that.

the milege is low for that car... i'm not sure how much something like that would go for.. considering its a fairmont ghia with a v8 and low kms.. guessing its in good condition i'm guessing around the 6k mark? driveline should be pretty reliable, if something does break fords are fairly cheap to replace parts anyway.

[T_Terror]

Sorry to be off topic but im interested in your old car. Did you do the 1UZ transplant yourself or did you buy it like that? There is a member here who has done the same engine into an XF and another guy i know of into an EA Falcon.
How did it go?

[EBII Ghia]

My EBII Ghia (6 cyl) has part leather, most options inc sunroof and 16" wheels, 130k when I bought it 3 weeks ago. One owner and all receipts since new (no kidding). Paid $5400, but had 6 days of rego left and req 4 new tyres ($516). So I reckon somewhere around $5500 - 6000, should be fair especially for an 8.

[JADED6]

Ooh i know the car you're talking about biased99. (i think)
Saw that when i was looking for a V8 ghia and i got one pretty similar to that one (same colour to) except modified and had the grandpa spec taken out of it.

Low k's + leather = very good & very comfy.

I have full leather in my ED & the EB2/ED half/half ones in my EA and they're comfy but the ED is better again, same support but softer. I love those seats.
I reckon you "could" try manipulating their asking price a bit as it's been on there for a while.

If it's the one i think it is, my bet is it's an EB2.
It has black door handles.
If it's possible, go check it out without saying to much, look in the glovebox, check owners manual. If it is an EB then you'd want to know why it has an ED grill, could be as simple as preference or as undesired as accident damage. (country car, could have hit a roo)

As for the drivers seat showing little wear, you'll notice 99% of the outer side bolster isn't shown, that's the part that wears.

EB2 or ED, it would be a good score, plenty of features, plenty of power and plenty of life left in it.

[biased99]

Thanks for the replies guys!

Jaded6, I believe you're correct in your assessment of the vehicle (as an EBII) as it does have the non colour-keyed door handles...Just surprising that it would have the ED bonnet (accident damage could be a possibility), and the ED Ghia wheels.

OK, I now have a starting point to negotiate. Better yet, the bloke doing the selling admitted it has been around (for sale) for a while.

T_Terror, we had the conversion done to the car (I did a small amount of the wiring work etc, but needed a fair bit of help with the engineering side of things). We've put it together over a few years now (it would be the 2nd MX83 with a 1UZ transplant). When we did it (in 2002), 1UZs were still a little "unknown" in major circles...a lot has changed over the past few years, esp. with the Lextreme community coming online (I think both your mates post over there, as I've heard of both the EA and XF projects...)

Again, thanks all for the replies!

[EFFalcon]

oooer... i've been lookin' at a few of those V8 Cressida's over the past few weeks ;)
are u selling the cressida?

[biased99]

Originally Posted by EFFalcon

oooer... i've been lookin' at a few of those V8 Cressida's over the past few weeks ;)
are u selling the cressida?

Yes, (regrettably) the Cressida is for sale. I can replace it (with what, IMHO, is an "inferior" car), for less than we should be able to get for the Cress, allowing us to save a bit of money...I would keep it, but we have some fairly strict savings goals to achieve over the next few years, so the car must go. :(

The actual Cressida pages are here , with the more recent for sale page here.

I've also advertsied it on Carsales; the link for which can be found here

The price asked sounds a little exxy, but a look through the pages will reveal that we've spent serious $$ on the car to get it to where it is now. (Let's just say it isn't embarassed by $60K HSVs etc).

(Apologies for turning this into a for sale thread... : )

[NZ]

Not a lot goes wrong with the V8's they can take a flogging. The transmissions if looked after will last a while too. Parts are very exspensive espeially if you can only get the part from ford.

[rag top]

Wasn't the change over from EB to ED late '93?

[JADED6]

Yeh, last quarter 93.

Most EB2's that i saw had the same wheels as the ED's biased99.
quick check on carsales will confirm.

[EFFalcon]

the EB II and ED Ghia wheels are different.
They're very similar in design but are WAY different.
the ED rim has a flat face where as the EB one has a slight dish

[NZ]

EB2 ghias have those 'lovely' (term used loosly) BBS wheels with the racing nut. ED Ghia are quite different

[EFFalcon]

ED Ghia rims:hxxp://gallery.fordforums.com/data//...a_Side-med.jpg
EB Ghia rims:hxxp://gallery.fordforums.com/data//...30Car5-med.jpg