Sad Supercar: 1971 De Tomaso Pantera
The sentiment, “I know what I got” rings through loud and clear on this listing for a fairly beat DeTomaso Pantera. Coincidentally, we wrote it up way back in 2016, and apparently, the seller still hasn’t gotten a number he likes. For the sake of our new readers, we’ll revisit it, but I’d still love to hear opinions about whether he’s right to hold out for a number that to this point, only exists in his mind. Find it here on craigslist with no price listed and offers invited.
The fact that the photos haven’t even changed tells you a lot, both about the sorry state this Pantera is likely now in and the seller’s approach to encouraging serious buyers. Yes, I know, some of you will say I shouldn’t throw things in glass houses given the complaints about the photos of some of my recent Exclusives, but please – if I’m still sharing the same pictures two years from now, feel free to slay me then. This poor supercar deserves better, especially as an early production model with the aforementioned push-button doors.
And if the paint was already peeling this badly two years ago, what’s it look like now? The seller says in the ad, “I know what it is worth in this condition as I have already talked and had it checked with Pantera experts.” To me, those same Pantera experts – who are likely a passionate bunch – probably cringe at the fact that this car has been left to further deteriorate, and I’m guessing the number must be whacky enough that even a current Pantera owner can’t get the seller to let it go.
If the roof looks like this, what does the interior look like? How locked up is the motor? I can understand letting an average car with little to no collector value to go to waste. Simple cars, simple engines – no one’s going to break out in a sweat that an air-cooled Beetle is being left exposed to the elements. But a DeTomaso Pantera deserves better, and the seller could start by putting a hard number on the listing and letting negotiations start from there.
Auctions Ending Soon
2006 Ford Mustang Saleen S281 SCBid Now1 days$15,000
2002 Subaru Impreza WRXBid Now4 days$100
1975 Chevrolet Corvette ConvertibleBid Now4 days$3,000
1964 Ford F-100 Camper CustomBid Now4 days$2,000
2006 Jeep Wrangler SportBid Now6 days$7,500
Comments
“Hey Honey, I’ve got the Pantera listed for sale” unbeknownst to her with a price as ridiculous as a blind driving instructor. Please, no reference intended or inferred to any blind driving instructors out there.
Get of few “buds” to start throwing “offers” until you get a response. No less C/S than “Give me a free appraisal, please” Oh, there was no “please”, was there?
BB
The seller comes across like a clown, especially when you factor in the car has currently been for sale for two years.
Someone like this knows what they won’t take, the only reason they won’t name a price is because they live in a fantasy world where someone will come along and offer them more than their already inflated figure.
I wonder if the Chris Carter of the Pantera fanboy club is staking this car out.
Steve R
I know a number of cars like this, rotting with a seller’s ridiculously unrealistic pricing. I call those cars as being in “Economic Prison” with no chance at parole.
So the guy doesn’t give you any idea what he would take, then he says low ballers. wouldn’t be answered- how would you know what he would take, if he considered you a low baller?? I try to keep upbeat but this is crazy. Why not DA the roof and get some primer on it? How much would it cost to fix the damage to the front end? Does he want to sell it or not? Hard to see a Pantera in this condition. caveat Emptor!
Primer is worse than rust. Primer is like a sponge. You’d be better off with any can of spray paint on it better than the rust
This is business of over-pricing stuff seems to be a Craigslist phenomena – most of the J*U*N*K I see on Craigslist is Fantasy Island pricing and I suspect some of it is due to the fact that it costs nothing to place an ad. If people had to pay real money for an ad, as we used to for newspaper or magazine ads and if they were serious about selling, they would price the stuff realistically. As it is, some of these sellers must think an ignorant yokel with way too much money is going to came along and fall in love with their junk, but it doesn’t happen, not that there aren’t ignorant yokels out there, but they just don’t have any money. As far as this seller talking to “the experts” such experts probably couldn’t persuade him either as to the actual value of his Pantera V.I.N. as that’s about all that’s usable on this accumulation of ferrous oxide.
I sold my ’40 Ford 2 dr deLuxe Sedan 2 years ago off of a CRAIGSLIST ad for very reasonable money for me & the buyer . This was after getting jerked around for the better part of a month by a buyer who was supposedly on the road to a hot rod show in So. Cal. This “Buyer ” was responding to an E-BAY ad that costs money sale or no sale. I’ve had better results with CRAIGSLIST for selling .You just gotta be able to seperate the wheat from the chaff & be aware. BTW I was in New York at that time
I’m with you Craig. I’ve sold quite a few cars via CL, and yes you do get jerky buyers there, but with Ebay I have had the worst luck. Non paying bidders, people who win the car then show up to pay with the “well I know I bid X but I only have Y” hoping you’re desperate enough to take their lowball money. If you’re smart enough not to fall for the Nigerian Prince who’d like to buy your classic car sight unseen bit, CL still seems to be the way to go.
My only hope in regards to this car is that the current owner’s obituary reads “He tried to sell the Pantera at a stupid price.”
I agree with the comments. The Seller is simply unrealistic about everything. Now to excite possible Pantera Puppies: This is a $500.00 car. Period. Never mind values and experts. One is North of $75,000.00 to get this to where one would be proud to have it.
Don’t even consider it for anything more.
$500.00 ?
i’ll take 20 of them at that price !
hahaha !!!!
Personally, I’d get a weight on it and offer what a scrap dealer would pay for scrap. IMO the seller is not serious on selling. No interior shots, no under chassis shots, no engine shots, no price, NO NOTHING! The seller is either trying to pacify a spouse, parent or no inconsequential person. They aren’t actually trying to sell it or they’ve been sniffing too much white-out while trying to make corrections to their ad on the computer screen.
Ok… I found this 71. Like every auction, every seller has a “acceptical” price in mind. With that said, the market AND the seller determine that level of “acceptance”.
The fact that this car has sat in the weather, as a static peice…tells my 43+ years in Automotive restoration that this may be MORE of a money pit then avarege.
Being an Italian car from that era, it is most likely rittled with corrosion of both steel structural, trim and aluminum peices.
Kudos to owning one to begin with BUT being a poor steward of a car has it’s consequences. I think this owner has done a great disservice to a iconic automobile and may be expecting too much for a car, that he / she has ZERO respect for.
+1 for “acceptical”.
I knew a military office that brought one home from Europe in the mid 80’s. So it wasn’t even old then. He did a frame off. He told me the frame was a combination of inferior Italian steel and superior German salt ( where he was stationed). Hate to think what this looks like by now!
Dan T
I think he just likes to look at it the way it is! Live, and let live!
Some guys just like attention.
Forget about the relatively poor performance of these, which any reasonably well designed small Japanese performance hotbox could run rings around. Forget about the waste of space in the back half of the car. Forget about the quality problems. This car is a true example of an overhyped, intentionally poorly presented car. There are 12 pics of the car, all taken at the same level, many of them repetitious, with no pics of the interior, or underside, or suspension, or engine bay.
Just from what we can see it’s clear the car needs everything. Large areas of the body are toast….rusted toast. And who knows what horrors lurk inside and underneath. The seller says “low miles”….”pushbutton doors”….body “all there”. By my usual metric, those claims plus 5 bucks will get me a very nice designer coffee…..if I ever actually wanted a designer coffee.
By the time someone hires an expert metal man to try to save the badly rusted hood and roof plus the rest of the car, you will have eaten up a significant part of what you saved in buying this project. And then there’s paint, interior, engine, suspension, and the other systems to deal with. How easy will that be, and how much will that cost you?
These have been selling at auction recently in very good / excellent condition for $90K lately, and you can’t get there from here.
Made of self-oxidizing Italian steel! Seller should let go before it’s too late!
junk
There are too many people that go out of their way to figure out the worst place to store a car. Why save something you obviously don’t care too much about. People are puzzling.
What a piece of S**T and he wants money for it.
A P.O.S. & a MONEY PIT! Nightmare city. A good $100 parts car!
He needs to try e-bay no reserve to establish the value not his “pantera experts”
For those interested in a Pantera, I suggest watching the Pantera edition of Leno’s Garage on Youtube. Lots of really good info on that episode, and the most important suggestion. >>> Join the Pantera Club, and search out what their members have for sale. You’ll end up with a much better prospect, with the bugs mostly worked out, upgrades already performed, and more likely a quality, ready to roll experience. Something like this mess is a parts car at best.
Considering that’s Italian steel a DA would go right through it at this point. Sad but junk.
Timmy is correct- putting it on fleabay would establish value-this guy forgets that something is only what someone is willing to pay for. I will say that a lot of junk is bringing big bucks these days as we here at BF are witnessing like the Corvettes and Porsches. With all the fraud on Ebay the whole thing might be an exercise in futility. No Worries–He knows what its worth.
cheers
GPC
For th.ose of you suggesting eBay for a realistic price check, let me ask: 1) How many cars have you listed? 2) Of those, how many “sold?” 3) Of those that allegedly sold, how many high bidders flaked out and failed to pay?? EBay is a bottom feeders market and a refuge for scammers and scalawags. They could bring more buyers in and make it much more honest, but all eBay cares about is the commissions eBay makes, whether their uses get screwed or not!!
Chinga hit it.
EBay so full of scammers i’ m wondering if i wanna list any more stuff. Did well on a 55 chevy Conv I sold but got stiffed on a motorcycle and a 68 camaro. Had a backup offer on camaro so that was ok but actually had to kick in my own money to sell the bike. Fees too sold a mustang rally pac for 200 and the fees were $27. Too much. Just beware on eBay both buying and selling!
Thank you Chinga-Trailer.
Exactly this. And let’s not forget you cannot leave negative feedback if someone flakes on you. I once had a high bidder flake, I relisted the car and put in the description “relisted due to non-paying bidder”. Ebay pulled my listing telling me that “some people might get offended by the use of the term ‘non-paying bidder'”. Seriously, that’s what they told me. This is why everyone has 99%+ feedback on Ebay now.
With each passing year there is less car remaining to sell. Good luck getting the money for what may ultimately cost more to restore than the selling price.Sellers often fixate on what the car is worth finished and are unable to actually calculate the cost of the restoration often figuring labor is cheap to their own detriment.
Get of few “buds” to start throwing “offers” until you get a response. No less C/S than “Give me a free appraisal, please” Oh, there was no “please”, was there?
BB
The rust problem pretty makes this car worthless. If you wanted to build a fiberglass one maybe you could start with what’s left of this one — but my guess is that chassis is rusted too — if that’s the case this is a parts car — with very few good parts.
Judging from all the firewood around the car, it was there to hold down a tarp which probably deteriorated. That would explain why the roof has pine needles under the flaking paint. Years and years of trapped water and heat/cold cycles. Yuck…
Seller states: “I know what it is worth in this condition as I have already talked and had it checked with Pantera experts”. I would love to have heard the discussion between the seller and the experts. The seller probably picked a number and stuck with it and the experts walked away shaking their heads muttering under their breath “good luck with that”.
I asked him what kind of medication he was on to make him think that what he has is nothing more then a very poor parts car and he would need to pay me to take it away. He told me to f**k off.
When I graduated HS( 1972) this was the hottest exotic we’d ever seen. Mostly because it had “Ford” on it. GT40’s were never seen, but this was close. Not one of those Italian jobs we couldn’t even pronounce the name. These were actually kind of popular, and I saw several driving around, or at Road America. Fast forward 45 years, and here’s one that’s now a beater. For shame someone didn’t think more of this fantastic car than to let it rot.
these must be his Pantera “experts”
This Pantera project would be like opening Pandora’s! Run Forest Run…
I would love to buy it for what it’s worth and sell it for what he thinks it’s worth. A very nice profit.
I personally could never financially reward anyone so ignorant as the current owner of this car.
Fun listing, for a little comedy relief this fine Monday morning. It must be fun to live in La ,La Land !
Yep. He knows what he has. A boat anchor. But he is hoping no one else figures out it’s just a piece of scrap. You would have to pay me to pick it up.
Every time I see an ad like this with pictures only of the exterior, I can’t help but think they were taken by someone who just happened to be walking by, spotted the car and took some pics, and posted it on CL as a joke.
I think the seller is confusing “these” with “this”. “These are worth decent money. “This” is not worth anything. I just asked him how much he actually wants for it. Wonder if I will get a response.
I too asked him for a starting price …so far, no response. This car is worth whatever it would cost to transplant that novel push button feature to the doors of my ‘71 Pantera. If the body panels on this car are that rotten, the typical frame issues must be a complete deal breaker.
I have ran across these type of sellers more than i care to mention. Usually they have no real clue !
I love these cars like most people but I have seen 32 5 widow ford sitting in a field until gophers brought the dirt above the level of the rotten floor.
I tried to buy owners got pissed.
So you know I say let them keep it and loose all its worth and move on .
Reality is that seller like this are Fools!
I have no respect for them.
ZERO
Maybe the guys from Gas Money would buy it, lol! Who cares what this guy does with this his car. It’s a parts car at best. If he knew what it was worth, it would have been sold.
Besides the nose completely rusted away, what’s going on with the hood? Looks like a mini volcano and next to that, a small pond.
I’ll give top dollar for this, $1500. so I can run it in Lemons next year. On second thought, $800.
LOL – great idea!
I’m sure that it’s unnecessary to point out the obvious to such a sophisticated group of gear heads, but the real ‘value’ is the title and VIN to be used for transfer to a purloined Pantera. ‘Nuff said.
I think the real value may be in the transaxle, but not much chance of determining its condition.
I figured that was implied 😏
Chris: My comment was for the 3 or 4 idealists remaining out there in the ether.
BB
Hahahahahaha… I know what ya got….AND you can keep it..enjoy
I would pay to much for it but even my to much was not enough. :( Seemed like a friendly seller though. It seems that everyone has 2 cents to talk but not 2 cents to offer real money. The experts that gave him unrealistic pricing are not putting up any money. They may speculate high hoping that their car are business is also worth high.
Apparently great patina comes at a price! Lolc
.99 starting bid, no reserve, get what ya can get & be happy for the cleared space. Oops… that’s me, if I woke up tomorrow and found that poor car in my back yard, not this guy.
The 351 is worth more than the rest of it whole.
It’s a shame that he realized what he has only too late to save it from ruin. Apparently someone didn’t realize what they had and now that it is a former super car he wants to sell it for what it would have been worth had it been cared for.
Is this still available or not if so let me know