I've had my BA Futura since near new. It's been great for ferrying a large family around, and any country kilometres get easily eaten up.

The BA was also a better looker than the AU series, so even after 10 years, it's still modern enough on the outside, although the dashboard is dating.

Around the city it likes to drink petrol, but that's the price for a large roomy car. I added better gas front strut inserts some years ago so handling that was already good is even better. It makes light work of bumps, and is pretty quiet.

Cars like this now go for only a few thousand dollars, so they're a real bargain second hand - and reaching 300000km on the clock will not be out of the question.

A pity that Ford Australia is falling on tough times, as the FG range is now even better than all previous models.

They're arguably some of the best large cars in the world, but they don't sell. I guess I'll be in the same boat when the kids have their own cars and I downsize...but until then the BA marches on...