Reply to "BJ Auction Pantera"

I'll chime in on this one with my opinionated point of view:

1. Panteras have a reputation for problems. Whenever Panteras are brought up the first order of discussion is always the problems the car has. Car mags have been relentless about this. Every article mentions problems, but they never go on to say they were corrected by the time the later cars were sold (73-74). Heck, that's all we talk about, too. It's a bum rap. I bought a brand new 74L and drove it every day, rain, snow, and shine, for three years in Chicago. I never had a problem.

2. The cars don't fit into a neat category. They aren't Ferraris. They aren't muscle cars. They aren't sports cars. (They are all of these. Personally, I feel we are closer to hot rods than anything else what with the way we mod them up.) So, when a new owner brings home the car, he can't tell his friends the car is in one of the categories most people relate to. That's awkward.

3. Car mags don't get it. They don't understand the essence of the car. They always do articles about stock or near-stock examples. They always mention the problems. Never do they talk about the passion of the owners, the performance relative to other cars of that era, the performance upgrade possibilities, contemporary racing competitiveness, the fact that many of the cars are being restomoded to a high standard. We need articles that capture this essence.

4. Too many Panteras have wings. I know this runs counter to what many of us like but let's be honest; how many cool cars have wings? It's too boy racerish for the collector car crowd.

5. Too many Panteras have aftermarket wheels. The only cars I see with these kinds of wheels are pimped up Escalades. Sorry, just my opinion.

6. There are a lot of Panteras out there that are being sold with problems. Since the car hasn't gone up in value much, a lot of owners haven't invested in keeping them properly maintained and updated. Those cars get sold and the new owners get surprised. So what do they tell their friends, "The car has problems." I know they should do their homework before they buy, but it still seems to happen alot. I can't think of recently purchased car here in North Texas that didn't have some sort of serious problem that came as a surprise to the new owner.

7. Too many people really don't know squat about these cars. They don't know about the performance capability. They don't know about our great vendors. They don't know the racing heritage. They don't know about the famous people involved. They don't know about the advanced for its time construction of the car.


So, what do we do? Education. We need to educate ourselves, we need to educate the public, we need to educate the car magazines. One of the ways I would suggest is the new POCA website which is being developed now. It can provide a single source to truly learn about the cars, to find fixes and upgrades, to learn how to buy a car, lastly, to have a sense of community. This would be a start.

Respectfully submitted.

Jeff
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