Ford Concept Cars Sold For Charity

These cars are often the beginning of an idea.

Some are design exercises, others are proposals to gauge public interest. All of them draw a crowd.

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Eighteen concept cars from Ford Motor Co. were auctioned off Thursday night in Monterey, Calif., as a fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Children's Center.

The three-day auction, open to the public and featuring 225 vehicles from around the world, began Thursday night. Ford raised nearly $1 million for charities.

"Concept cars serve as the auto industry's vision into the future, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase these vehicles at RM's Sports & Classics of Monterey," said Edsel B. Ford II, great-grandson of Ford's founder and a member of the company's board of directors.

Auctioning concept cars is not as rare as one might think, said Ford spokesman Robert Parker, who attended Thursday's auction. But "it's certainly not a common occurrence to do this many," he noted.

The highest price concept vehicle sold Thursday night was the 2006 Ford GT, which fetched $148,000, including the 10 percent buyer's fee.

"RM's all-Ford Thursday evening sale in Monterey presented the biggest single offering of concepts in the last 10 years," said RM car specialist Dan Warrener, who consigned the collection of Ford concept vehicles.

"All 18 of these automotive works of art found new homes and the prices realized were solid, especially considering the fact that they cannot be titled for use on public roads," he added.

Some concepts cannot be titled because they lack drivetrains and had to be pushed onto the auction block, Parker said.

The event in Monterey preceded the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, one of the most prestigious and expensive car shows in the world, which begins Sunday.

Source: The Detroit News