Reply to "Why the DeTomaso name still has a value"

Charlie

You bring up some interesting points, but as a counter-point I would look at some recent automotive history.


Ford spent billions buying Jaguar and Aston Martin to get names with a "history". Then spent billions more upgrading facilities and designs. Now all they have to show for it is a large tax right-off every year from their losses. At about the same time Infinity and Lexus were started from scratch, slowly creating their own history, and making money to ensure their survival. Ten years from now which of these brands will still be around?

Qvale bought into the DeTomaso name to get some history. We all know how that turned out. It is very similar to what happened about 3 decades earlier when Ford originally bought DeTomaso, to get some history and an Italian name. We can only speculate how things would have turned out if Ford had created their own Italian brand in 1971.


Don't get me wrong, I am not against DeTomaso (just of the opposite). I enjoy my Pantera and Longchamp, and plan on driving them for decades to come. There were many small car companies started about the same time as DeTomaso, none of them are still around. They are either in the history books or swallowed up by a large company only to lose their character. DeTomaso survived longer then the rest for a variety of reasons, I think the largest reason was him. As far as I know he ran his own company longer then any other auto founder, including Henry Ford and Enzo Ferarri, so in a way he won the most important race.

I think the hard part about putting a price on the DeTomaso name, is that it means different things, depending to who you ask. To the current owners (mostly Panteras) it means a great car at a reasonable cost. To most non-owners it means cars that were poorly engineered, that rusted and haven't been produced since 1974. To make the name survive you would cater to the first group, who want a good looking, mid-engine exotic with a mass produced engine. To do this and have it legal in the US and Europe you either mass produce it, which takes away the aura or you have a high price tag like a Ferarri. If you sell 20,000 a year it is too common to be considered a true exotic and no one would pay significantly over $100,000 for a DeTomaso, which is why the Pantera200 and Guara didn't sell.

We have been hoping someone would make a "new" Pantera for the last 20 years, but our expectations are too high for what we are willing to pay for it. I say lets enjoy the cars we have. We have a great group of vendors that keep our cars running, a great group of clubs providing opportunities to use our cars and a great group of owners that enjoy using the cars. What more can you ask for?

Ciao
Scott