quote:Originally posted by SPEED:
Hello Gentlemen, I am a newbie and i have read almost everything about panteras all the pro's and con's. my friend has a 1972 pantera and it is nice. I love cars and most of the cars i owned have been germans(porsche). now i am interest in buying a pantera, but I agree with you guys a car is worth what a buyer is willing to pay and what the seller is willing to accept. but one issue that bothers me is why should I be willing to pay between 30 to 40K in a car that might need an extra 30k to have it up to date? don't get me wrong i've seen panteras that have all the updates and are in extremely nice condition for $69,000 with less than 40000 miles and still it is a little high when i can go get a brand new corvett z06 for $70,000. just my opinion, i hope i dont offend anyone.
Hey speed, welcome to the forum. I don't think you are going to upset any of the old timers with what you said. It be cool. BTW, have you actualy tried to order a new Z06? I am just kind of curious, because I know when the Ford GT came out you were supposed to be able to get them for 140K, but no one did. Damn dealers jacked up the asking price to over 200K.
I agree, the Pantera is not for everyone. It was a dream car back in the day though. I have always wanted a powerfull mid engine exotic. Corvettes have the engine in the wrong place for me. Yeah you can almost get a Porsche 911 for that price and they are some nice cars, no doubt. If you want a mid engine Vette, you can kinda get one of those too. They are called a Mosler MT900 and they will start selling them here pretty soon. But you are going to part with two hundred grand again. You can get a viper, but then again the engine is in the wrong place. The Saleen is a way cool car. But they start at over 400K and go up from there. And of course you have lambos and ferraris and such, but that is rich man territory, even if you can swing the entry fee, they will break you to keep them going.
I think why the Pantera is worth it is that they were the Ford GT of the seventies. If you want to buy a car you don't have to work on every now and then, probably best to stay away from the Pantera, even if it has been redone. But I would say the same thing if you were hankering for a Shelby Cobra. Old cars are old cars no matter how much you do to them. So yeah you can put brand new brakes, and seats and this and taht, but somewhere on the car, there are still some thirty year old something or other lurking around. Even if it is just a screw or bolt. So the Pantera is a unique car in a way. Exotic Italian body, American muscle car engine, and a German transmission. It is kind of like a blend of the best of the world at the time. And it is subjective. Definetly not for everybody.