I know I am the worst one when it comes to complaining about how expensive my Pantera is to maintain or restore. I whine and cry about how the car costs more to fix up than it is worth and bemoan how it rusts away and it doesn't make sound finacial sense to repair it. Well I done me some research and here are my findings. Horsepokey! Compared to other cars of its era we are craping in tall cotton.
I looked up the Lotus Europa car clubs on the internet. I know the Lotus Europa is not nothing even close to a Pantera, but just hear me out. It is like a cult car too. It was this little tiny sports car. It had a dinky little four popper that would barely get the car moving, but man could that little sucker turn a corner. I had a hair brained idea of getting one and making it look like my other Pantera so I could show them side by side and make it look like my Pantera had had a baby, but that is not what I am writting about. Those guys, the europa owners, have it worse than we do.
Sure their cars cost them less than ten grand to buy, but the parts to fix them are just as expensive, if not more so, and are way harder to find. Yeah an original engine may only cost them a few hundred bucks, but it isn't one that runs. They may have to buy two or three of them just to find enough parts to get one that runs. They got rust issues and it costs them tens of thousand of bucks to have it fixed just like us. But whe they are done spending fifty grand to restore their car what they got? A tweleve thousand dollar car. Poor bastards. I feel for them.
So next time you hear me singing the sad song of how bad I got it because I own a Pantera, just do me a favor and smack me in my fat patootie. I ain't got no right to bitch.
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