On behalf of my mother, I am selling a very nice burgundy red 1998 Ford Scorpio estate ultimo automatic with the 2.3 16v engine and black leather interior and nearly 63,000 miles on the clock. 

It belonged to my recently departed father, but it’s no longer needed and it’s time for us to move it on. He was a dyed-in-the-wood Scorpio enthusiast, having previously owned three examples, including a Cosworth-engined estate, but he rated this car as by far the best example he owned. 

The car is normally resident in Derry, Northern Ireland, hence the UK (NI) reg, but is currently domiciled near Dublin, Ireland, as I borrowed it from my mother when our own main car gave up the ghost. We’ve now bought a replacement, but depending on the location of the winning bidder, the Scorpio can be picked up from either Derry or Dublin. Happy to pick up the winning bidder at Dublin or Belfast ferry ports or airports if needed.

For any interested buyers in GB, it would be a bit of a trek, but it would be well worth the trip as I can’t emphasis what a nice, tight example this is. I know the car pretty well by now, and can answer any questions you have over the phone some evening.

I actually considered taking it myself but the motor tax and import tax rates for 2.3 litre engined cars in the Republic of Ireland are absolutely prohibitive (nearly a €1,000 a year in annual motor tax, for a start), so it makes more sense to sell it to someone in NI or GB.

It was bought from England in - I think - 2007 when it had just 33k-odd miles and straightaway my father got it fitted with a top of the range LPG system with a 60 litre tank.

It has a nearly full documented service history (a big file) along with several brochures and car magazine articles featuring the Scorpio.

My father put just 20,000 miles on it in five years before deteriorating health stopped him from driving, and was subsequently put to use by other family members, including my mother, so it's been kept in regular use rather than been left sitting for long periods. I used it for about six months as a stop-gap car up until October last year and it never gave me any trouble. 

More recently, I borrowed it for our holiday trip to the south of France last month (after our aforementioned main car died), during which we clocked up nearly 2,000 miles - again, without the slightest bother. It’s a superb long-distance cruiser and the extensive motorway LPG network in France practically halved our fuel costs. 

In summary:

Good points:

• Very good condition
• Just 63,000 miles
• LPG system with only 30k miles covered (serviced about two years ago)
• Three owners (first two husband and wife)
• Unmarked and unworn leather interior
• Everything electrical works (and there's a lot of it): windows, door mirrors, electrically operated seats, sunroof, etc.
• Great Clarion sound system
• Nearly full service history with all old MOTs
• Taxed until the end of December. 
• Three keys

Bad points: 

• Its MOT is due shortly, but passed the more stringent Northern Ireland MOT test last year (sept 2013) without any advisories and I would fully expect it to pass again, with possibly an advisory on the state of the two front tyres (probably about 5,000 miles left on them). The rear tyres are good.
• A few paint stone chips at the front
• One slight dent in the rear tailgate (see pic)
• Air conditioning works, but could do with a re-gas. I gather its an easy job, and Halfords stocks regassing kits for £30-odd.
• There are small spots of rust in both rear arches (see pics), which i understand is a common place for them to go, but the car will come with genuine Ford wheel arch repair/replacement panels my father purchased some time ago off ebay. I’ve since touched up the worst bits with Krrust to stop them deteriorating any further.
• It could probably do with a minor service (oil and filter, air filter, plugs etc) including changing the main rubber drive belt at the front, which looks a bit old and cracked at this stage. (This engine has a timing chain rather than a timing belt).
• I would recommend getting the LPG system serviced at the same time, too. 
• The hydraulic ashtray (with cigarette lighter) is stuck open - as in you can push it in, but it won’t click shut.

In the interior pics I’ve since removed most the various dashboard-mounted bits that my father had put in to hold his gadgets like a sat-nav and mobile, as most of the contact points were obsolete by the time I starting driving the car regularly.

I would encourage any serious bidders to email me at jcradden [at] gmail.com or call on 0035316012881 (leave a message and a phone number if no answer and I’ll call you back asap) or even text me on 00353868096320. As I say, more than happy to answer any questions, or find anything out that I don't know off-hand.

Usual eBay auction rules apply: bidding to buy, not to view; winning bidder to pay a £200 deposit within 24 hours by Paypal and cash or bankers draft or postal order on collection, and to arrange collection within a week. If you are resident in GB, I could probably be persuaded to extended the collection deadline to two weeks, but no longer. 

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On 10-Aug-14 at 09:48:51 BST, seller added the following information: