This from Dan Roth, July 24...
Italian-Argentine exotic car manufacturer DeTomaso has been in liquidation since 2004, and yesterday, the entire brand was once again on the auction block – in this case, the writing desk of Monica Rossi in Modena – for a starting bid of €1.6 million (nearly $2.3 million USD). While that's a bargain basement deal for an established nameplate with credibility, even with unfavorable dollar/euro exchange rates, no buyers were smitten enough to bite.
The price for the brand, logos, and car designs, is down from the 2008 opening bid of €1.78 million ($2.5 million). Now, as then, there were interested parties, but no bids. The DeTomaso brand is probably best known for its Pantera, powered by Ford hardware and deftly penned by Tom Tjaarda, but other beautiful and tempestuous cars were developed, like the Vallelunga, Mangusta, and the more upright Longchamp. Alejandro DeTomaso had his hands in Maserati, Moto Guzzi, Ghia – and even Chrysler – as well as a Formula 1 venture that corralled the talents of names such as Dallara and Williams. Our guess is that we'll hear from DeTomaso again, for a lower price, and once again interest from Italy, Asia, and the Middle East will sniff around and see if the price is attractive enough to raise a paddle and take it on.
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