A classic Ford Fiesta due to appear in a special Wheeler Dealers episode with Mike Brewer has been stolen ahead of its star appearance.
Wheeler Dealers is a long-running TV series that sees classic cars in need of repair being bought to restore, with the aim of selling them for profit once complete.
Now in its 20th year, the show has been working on a special 1979 Ford Fiesta 1300S to mark the anniversary, while also helping to celebrate the imminent end of the production of the best-selling Ford hatchback.
However, the star car was last night stolen along with the white covered trailer it was inside from the car park of the Premier Inn in Pontefract, North Yorkshire.
In a plea on social media, Wheeler Dealers’ Mike Brewer, alongside co-presenter Marc ‘Elvis’ Priestley, urged the public to try and locate the stolen Fiesta.
Brewer said: “We urge you to share those pictures and get them out to as many people as possible in the hope that the classic car community can come together and we can find our trailer and find our car and finish this epic show.”
In the video, Priestley adds: “Please do help as we’re heartbroken and it’s a car that deserves to be out there for the world to see, not being squirrelled away on the back of some thief’s trailer.”
The dark blue Ford Fiesta 1300S (registration JBY 10V) is said to have had a ‘nut and bolt restoration’, with Brewer describing it as ‘the best mk1 Ford Fiesta in this country’.
It was due to make a special appearance at an event at The Motorist car cafe near Leeds today (June 27), where it would be assembled alongside 500 other Ford Fiestas in the show’s biggest event.
In a follow-up post, Brewer said he had received CCTV of a white Mercedes Sprinter towing the trailer away.