I TURNED 17 in the spring of 1983. I’d been hanging for that milestone because it meant I could get my driving licence.

Working all sorts of odd jobs for years, I’d managed to save enough money to pay cash for my first car. My Uncle Kelvin had worked in used-car dealerships and I charged him with finding me a car; not just any car, I wanted a Falcon.

He tracked down a five-year-old XC Falcon. What a car! I felt 10 feet tall the first day I sat behind the steering wheel.

It had such beautiful lines. While mine wasn’t a great colour (beige with black trim), I thought it was the sexiest car on the earth. I used to wash it at least every fortnight.

Young and foolish, I drove it too fast and nearly rolled one morning on the back road to York, taking out a couple of white posts in the process. It taught me lessons that probably, ultimately, saved my life and it cost me a good quid to get the grill replaced and get the car back on the road.

Today, whenever I see an XC or XB Falcon on the road, it still stops me in my tracks.

So I was saddened by the big announcement that the Falcon is dead and, in Australia, Ford is on its last legs.

In the ‘70s and ‘80s we loved our cars in a way that Ford and Holden executives wish we did now. I don’t know what’s changed more since then – us as consumers, or the cars themselves.

The Ford announcement wasn’t a great surprise, more surprising was that they’d hung in there for so long as they did. Sure, there were some bad marketing decisions, but the combination of wages, workers comp, the high $A and business tax were always going to beat them.

I can’t see the point of governments propping up the car industry because it’s not sustainable in the long run. Holden and Toyota say that they’re fine. They’re not. In 20 years we won’t have a car industry in this country. It’s sad, but inevitable.

It all makes me want to have a mid-life crisis, buy a hotted up XC Falcon and just drive…

Mark Parton is the breakfast announcer on 2CC