Diana's black Ford Escort was sold for £650k after Dubai vs UK bidding war. Who did it go to?

Princess Diana's favourite car, a black Ford Escort, was auctioned off for £650,000 (ie Rs 6.07 crore) 25 years after her death. Though the bidding for the iconic car began at £100,000 (about Rs 94 lakh), the UK buyer ended up paying £730,000 (ie Rs 6.82 crore) for the vehicle.

The auction trail - from £100,000 to £730,000: Auctioneer Jonathan Humbert, who led the auction proceedings at Silverstone Auctions called Diana's car ''the car of the day'' (which should have been called ''the car of the century'' since the auction house received the highest number of telephone bids in the last 12 years). Though the bidding began at around Rs 94 lakh, there was a strong bidding war between a buyer in Dubai and UK.

It was eventually auctioned off to a buyer in Cheshire, UK, for £650,000 (ie Rs 6.07 crore). Every buyer at an auction has to also pay a buyer's premium, which is over and above the winning bid price at the auction. This is said to be the remuneration for the auctioneer and since the buyer had to pay a 12.5% premium to buy this car, the eventual cost of owning Diana's car came up to about £730,000 (ie Rs 6.82 crore).

Seems like many wanted to get their hands on this ''piece of history'' as the bidding surprised the auctioneer too who had never seen anyone ever bidding "£500,000 for a Ford Escort.''

How many cars did Diana own? 

Diana is known to have owned three Ford Escorts. Apart from this recently auctioned Ford Escort RS Turbo, Diana also owned a creme colored 1981 Ford Escort Mk 3 Ghia. Since this Mk Ghia was an engagement present from Prince Charles, she used this car till August 1982. This car then disappeared from public view for 20 years and was auctioned off last year for £52,000 (ie about $47,000 and about Rs 37 lakh).   

You may not know this but Ford Escort held the kind of reputation in the UK like the Maruti Suzuki 800 once did in India. Ford was known for its white and red Escorts, which were its most popular cars for about 42 years.

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1981 Ford Escort 1600 Sport White 👌 pic.twitter.com/IRS4lVyW4X

— ClassicFordsForSale (@FordsForSale) June 4, 2019

About the £650K auctioned black Ford Escort: This car is perceived to be unique because though Ford only created this RS Turbo Series 1 in White, the one that Diana drove was the first and the only RS Turbo Series 1 car that was available in black.

Unlike other members of the royal family, who would prefer to be driven around, Princess Diana loved driving her cars and drove this particular car for three years from 1985 to 1988. She would usually have a security team member in the passenger seat and was often photographed with this car outside boutique shops and restaurants in the UK, with Prince Harry.