Well-known Levin man Mike McGregor has sold his 1972 Ford GT Falcon to a private collector.
Well-known Levin man Mike McGregor walked into Hillview Motors in Oxford Street and drove out with a brand new 1972 purple Ford Falcon GT 351.
He paid $5900 for the car. That was 47 years ago.
Now, that same car only has 38,000 miles on the clock. It came to the attention of a private collector, who made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
McGregor said he was happy to know it was going to be well looked after.
"That's what softened me," he said.
McGregor wouldn't disclose what the sale price was - believed to be a six figure sum - only to say that he had a phone call from the bank alerting him to what they thought must have been a mistake.
"I've never experienced that before, when the bank rings to say there's too much in there," he said.
"But it's like anything. It's worth what someone is willing to pay."
McGregor had looked after the car well, like he had with all his vehicles. The interior was the same as when he bought it and it still had the original red wall tyres.
"When you work hard to pay for something, you want to look after it," he said.
"Years ago I used to have cars pull up alongside, wanting a race, and I used to pull over and let them pass. That wasn't my thing."
He said while there were special memories attached to the car, the time was right to sell.
"There's more room in the garage now...more space for the whānau," he said. The car's new owners picked it up by trailer late last week.
McGregor has no plans to sell his Transit van though, which he has owned for 38 years, and had also purchased brand new from Hillview.
The Transit was famous in Horowhenua and had been used countless times transporting athletes in sports trips like softball, rugby and touch football, and was also used for tangi.
McGregor had spent money keeping the van on the road and had put two new reconditioned motors in over the years.
It had done countless kilometres, but as McGregor said "it has given me back more than what I've put into it".
McGregor is well-known throughout Horowhenua for his involvement with numerous sporting codes and was also the founder of Skatetown, a hugely popular skating rink he developed in the 1980s.
The van was still signwritten with the Skatetown logo and was still wired for sound with huge speakers.
Skatetown held a reunion in Levin last year.
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