Vintage tractor goes for $25k

And the winning bidder is …

Matt Tachdjian, the owner of a pair of Honda dealerships in Glendale and the City of Industry.

He plunked down $25,000 over the weekend and bought the vintage John Deere tractor that was recently restored, then auctioned off in the name of the Centennial Farm Foundation.

The thousands of dollars will go directly to the foundation, which educates children at the Orange County Fairgrounds on the importance of agriculture. The bidding took place during the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction staged at the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

"It seemed like a good cause," said Tachdjian, who said the bidding was mostly between him and another man up until the $22,000 mark.

"Then I just said '$25,000!' and was done with it," said Tachdjian, recounting the bidding war over what amounts to a shiny green-and-yellow Americana agricultural icon.

The tractor will now appear in the Fourth of July parade at Orange Park Acres, where Tachdjian is a resident.

The unincorporated Orange County area, rife with many a horse, is south of Anaheim Hills and east of the 55 Freeway and the Orange city limits.

Until then, Tachdjian will store the 1946-built BN tractor inside a facility of some sort, he said.

"It's too nice for it to sit outside," said Tachdjian.

The tractor was purchased and restored by Facilities Management West a few weeks ago by the principal, Richard Dick, who said he'd always wanted to buy one of the tractors to have it around the fairgrounds as a testimony to the bygone days of agriculture.

But then Costa Mesa City Manager Allan Roeder suggested he put the tractor up for auction to help the Centennial Foundation. He did.

The rest is recent history.

"I'm thrilled beyond words at the generosity of the winning bid," said Dick, whose company is planning to manage the fairgrounds for the city of Costa Mesa for 55 years if and when the state signs off on the $96 million purchasing deal.