Fairlane Manuals

FORD FAIRLANE BACKGROUND

The Ford Fairlane are full-sized luxury vehicles^[1] produced in a series of models by Ford Australia between 1959 and 2007.

From 1959 to 1964, the Fairlane was a locally assembled version of the American Ford Fairlane, which had taken its name from Henry Ford‘s estate, Fair Lane, near Dearborn, Michigan. The car was Ford Australia’s top-of-the-range model until replaced by an Australian-assembled version of the full-sized American Ford Galaxie. In 1967, Ford Australia reintroduced the Fairlane, this time as an Australian-developed, luxury, long-wheelbase version of its mainstream Falcon/Fairmont, positioned between the Falcon and the Galaxie. The locally assembled Galaxie evolved into the LTD which was itself replaced in 1973 by an Australian-developed, Fairlane-based model, also known as the Ford LTD. 

The Holden Brougham (1968–1971), Statesman (1971–1984), and later the Holden Statesman and Caprice (1990–2007) were competitors of the Fairlane and LTD in the market.

In the beginning, Ford built the Fairlane/LTD at Eagle Farm, Queensland, and the Broadmeadows Assembly Plant. Ford centralised Falcon production at Campbellfield and Fairlane/LTD manufacturing to Eagle Farm until about March/April 1978 with the impending debut of the Ford Falcon (XD) and its derivatives. Eagle Farm stopped making automobiles around the time of the EA Falcon era’s introduction of the following generation (1988) and only produced heavy vehicles until its demise in 1998.