A car given to Princess Diana from Prince Charles as an engagement present has sold for big bucks.
The four-door 1981 Ford Escort Ghia sold at an auction on Tuesday for more than $72,000, CNN reports.
This huge price tag is about $30,000 more than the lower range of the expected price, which the auctioneer estimated would range between $41,500 and $55,400.
With the fees, the total price reached a whopping $72,800.
The car has roughly 83,000 miles on the speedometer and was sold with its original registration number, paintwork, and radio.
The Ford Escort, the model of which was sold between 1980 and 2003, was given to the late Princess by the Prince of Wales in May 1981, two months before the royal wedding, the outlet says. The princess dove the vehicle until August 1982.
"The Ford was Princes Diana's personal transport in the early and happiest part of her relationship with the Prince of Wales and there are numerous photographs of her driving it and even her watching the Prince playing polo, sitting inside it," the Reeman Dansie auctioneers’ statement reads.
The auctioneers say the unnamed seller of the car was a woman who was a great admirer of Diana and the car's royal history. The woman kept the car a secret from friends for 20 years.
A photo of the car posted by the auctioneers to Instagram says managing director, James Grinter "was amazed by the originality of the car, which is important to collector’s who put a high value on owning something that was a personal possession of the late Princess."
The car comes with a silver frog mascot on the hood, which is a copy of a gift from Diana’s sister, Sarah Spencer. The auctioneers claim the gift was to remind Diana of “the fairy tale of a beautiful girl whose kiss turns a frog into a prince."
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