Princess Diana's Silver Ford — An Engagement Gift From Prince Charles — Is Up For Sale & In Great Condition!
June 9 2021, Published 2:10 p.m. ET
Princess Diana's engagement gift from her ex-husband, Prince Charles, is up for sale — and it can now be yours!
The 72-year-old gave Diana — who died in a tragic car accident in 1997 — the silver Ford ahead of their wedding, which took place in 1981.
The mom-of-two used the car until August 1982, and then she sold it to a private owner. For 20 years, it has been kept in a garage — and is in great condition.
"The car has been dry stored for quite a few years," Lewis Rabett, who works for Reeman Dansie auctioneers, said. "This is really nice because keeping it stored in a dry barn or garage has kept it in a really nice condition. Escorts of that age weren't like modern cars with really good galvanizing and rust proofing, so a lot of them have just rusted away. Now, 40 years later, you don't tend to find Escorts at all, let alone ones with the provenance of this car."
The car — which Rabett believes will sell for at least $55,000 — has 83,000 miles and still has Diana's original license plate: WEV 297W.
There's also a silver frog perched on the front of the car — a gift from her sister, Lady Sarah Spencer, to remind her of the fairy tale where a girl has to kiss a frog, and then he turns into a prince.
"I've driven the car myself and it's a lovely step back in time," Rabett noted. "Even the radio is a 1980s Ford radio," he adds. "Nobody has changed it and fitted a super modern thing, so it's just as Diana would have driven it."
He continued, "It was very surreal to sit behind the wheel and think who would have been there at an early part of her life when she was young and before she went on to do all that she did in her unfortunately very short life. Just the fact it's silver makes a difference. It's a very bright shade of silver and just really shines in the sunlight."
