Is this the end of DT?

I have been watching this rather closely over the last year. I had quite unexpectedly run into Mr. Tjaarda last october at a Concours and got his take on it..... Bottom line, he called it exactly as it panned out. Sad, as I was really looking forward to a new Pantera and actually sort of halted my search for a car as a consequence.

... unfortunately years ago only a start up company with a man with a dream and private investors could revive a Marque like Detomaso. But today in this economy with Financial Institution holding on to money like its their last born and the Piedmont Region being the primary creditor ( Goverment ) the factory will be sitting for a while.

I just hope the guy chained to the gate eventually goes home otherwise the bones might scare away anyone who even thinks of buying the Factory ? LOL

quote:

Originally posted by Whiplash:
We are now orphans and on our way to an obscure marque status. Oh well...........

Could be worse. They could have succeeded in subverting the history and leaving people with a "last memory" of a big, useless ugly SUV like LaForza. Instead, maybe people will remember the cars WE love. Sort of like Iso, Bizzarrini, Osca and many other unique but short-lived marques.

Mark

Mark, my point exactly

#1154

quote:

Originally posted by DeLoreans and DeTomasos:
... I was really looking forward to a new Pantera and actually sort of halted my search for a car as a consequence ...

Harry

The price of Panteras has risen a bit in the last few years. I don't know if this had anything to do with Rossignolo's purchase of the company. In a similar way, I can't predict if prices will fall a bit now that the marque's future seems to be coming to an end. But even if prices do fall, it won't be a drastic decline. The iconic Pantera will soldier on as it always has, weathering financial storms, always in enough demand to keep the prices about where they always have been.

The parts situation is in better shape than it has been in over 20 years, thanks to the efforts of Santiago DeTomaso, Steve Wilkinson and others. Outside of the unibody, most of the parts needed to build a Pantera from scratch are reasonably easy to come by. The future of classic Pantera ownership seems trouble free at this time.

There are other Italian car marques from the sixties and seventies that have suffered the closure of a factory, or the manufacturer going out of business ... but the Pantera is the only car with the iconic reputation that it has. That's what sets the Pantera apart, and what keeps fueling this hobby.

Just like the founder of the company, just like each and every owner I know, the Pantera marches to its own drum. Whatever Rossignolo does, whatever the Chinese investors do, whatever Road and Track writes about it, just doesn't matter. It has been proven over and over for 40 years the Pantera is bad-ass enough to rise above all the hoopla.

-G

I think the subject "is this the end of DeTomaso?" is mistaken. 

It is not the end of DT but merely the end of another BS effort by less than scrupulous individuals who tried to fleece government, investors and workers for personal gain. They had nothing to offer the marque or the industry. 

This was clealy noted in the beginning on this forum and the result has no bearing on our great cars or storied history. 

We are not lost orphans. We are proud survivors. And Mark has it 100% right! Much better this way!

Opens the door to someone who wants to save a marque a la Buggatti.

It really is going to take a major car company to buy the name and do right to it. Maybe like BMW did with Mini-Cooper?

Don't forget, Detomaso never could have ever done this to begin with without Henry Ford's personal money and interest to begin with.

Just like then, it will just take an eccentric multi-billionare to want to build the cars instead of buying a football (soccer) team like Manchester United, Chelsea, Para, or maybe Real Madrid.

This is well out of reach of even regular billionaires now, and as Mark says, they can't desecrate what exists now with ridiculous far fetched yuppy projects of the moment now.

Anyone have 100 million sitting around? How cool would that be- design your own Pantera update?

Yeah, I don't have a lot of money. A man can dream, though.

I sure hope the De Tomaso museum stays open. I have been wanting to go to Italy and visit ALL the car museums out there. I was sad when Bertone started auctioning off some of their most famous concept cars.

Chris

What museum??? Santiago has sold the most importand cars, motors and bikes all around the world to the next, who had cash in the pocket.