A few weeks ago I wrote a story about a 1984 Holden Commodore, and in the spirit of fair play, today we are looking at the car that was its direct competitor at the time, the Ford Falcon XE. This particular car is the sporty derivative, which was referred to as the S Pack. You will find this car listed for sale here on eBay. It is located in Mooroolbark, Victoria, and is being offered for sale with a clear title. The owner has set the opening bid for the Falcon at $5,000.

Over the years the Australian automotive market has undergone wholesale change, but from the late 1940s until the early years of the 21st century, the volume-selling cars and market leaders were the family cars offered by Ford and Holden. From the late 1960s these offerings included the Holden Kingswood and later on the Commodore, and the Ford Falcon. Holden had always traditionally been the market leader, with Ford never quite able to peg back the margin. In 1982, Ford introduced the Falcon XE, and for a brief period, the market shifted. The XE allowed Falcon sales to overtake those of the Commodore, and this situation remained fairly static until Holden introduced a larger Commodore in 1988, and retook the lead in the sales race.

The Falcon XE was available in a number of trim levels, from the base GL model, through to the Fairmont and the range-topping Ghia ESP. The S Pack was Ford’s sportier derivative and included updates that were largely cosmetic, with only a few minor tweaks to tire and suspension specifications. This particular S Pack was built in 1984, which was the final year of production of the Falcon XE before it was replaced with the updated Falcon XF. This XE looks rough, but the body is in surprisingly good condition. Falcons of this era weren’t as prone to rust issues as earlier models, with the lower quarter panels and the rear pillar area being the weakest points. The quarters look solid, and there is minimal rust on the pillars. The S Pack specific wheels are present, although it appears that the trim rings on the passenger side of the car may be aftermarket items. This may present some problems in locating good replacements, as these were very prone to curb rubbing. The other S Pack item that appears to be present is the black front spoiler extension. The body has a few minor dings but generally seems to be in good condition.

The interior of the Falcon appears to be complete, but it also looks like it has had a pretty hard life. Thankfully the dash and its plastic items were all remarkably hard-wearing, and there is no dash pad to have to worry about. The sports instrument cluster looks to be intact, as does the original digital clock and factory radio/cassette player. The seat upholstery looks pretty worn, torn and faded, but replacement material is available. Some of the plastic trim items are faded, as is the carpet and the lid to the console, but the door trims look to be quite decent. There is no word on the state of the headliner, but these were pretty robust in Falcons of this era.

Under the hood is the 250ci straight-six engine, which is backed by a 4-speed manual transmission. The engine in the XE is quite a primitive design, and it actually dates back to the 1950s. It underwent a number of upgrades over the years, and the biggest of these up to this point occurred in 1980 when the engine received an alloy cylinder head to replace the cast iron unit. For the XE, further upgrades were introduced. These included all engines receiving Weber carburetors, except the range-topping engine, which received fuel injection. The 250 engine is a fairly tough unit and can survive some pretty awful levels of neglect. There is no word on whether this engine runs, or if it turns freely. Rebuilding one of these is pretty easy, and their only real weakness is corrosion in the alloy cylinder head if the owner has not run the car with the correct corrosion inhibitor. The manual transmission is also under-stressed in this application, so shouldn’t give any problems.

The Falcon XE was the market leader, and throughout its model life, Ford sold a total of 193,890 across all of its derivatives. When they were new they were a common sight on Australian roads, but today they are quite a rarity. For many years these were a firm favorite among the dirt-track speedway fraternity, as the engines provided surprising levels of power, while the coil sprung rear end allowed the cars to deliver that power to the track. Those that managed to avoid that fate were usually just driven into the ground and then sent to wrecking yards, as they were considered to be just another common old family car. It wasn’t that many years ago that you could have bought any number of these for under $1,000, but dwindling numbers coupled with the end of local manufacturing for Ford in Australia has seen values increase dramatically. This one is now priced at about five times what its market value would have been ten years ago, but when it comes to the market value of this model, I think that this is just the beginning.