[DeTomaso] supercharger questions

[JJD1010 at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/4/2010 12:30:06 A.M. Central Standard Time,  
boyd411 at gmail.com writes:
 
If you want to enjoy having a car that you can drive with out  worrying 
about getting stuck 
 
 
I'm not sure that this sort of thinking needs to be  treated as an absolute 
truth. In fact we may be doing ourselves a disservice  by thinking this 
way. I bought a new 74L and drove it daily  back and forth to work in Chicago 
traffic in rain, snow or shine for  three years. It was my only car. And it 
never broke or left me stuck  somewhere. That's not to say that it was great 
in the snow or rain but it did  run. So it seems to me that a properly 
updated and maintained Pantera should  be reasonably reliable. 
 
My two cents worth is that a lot of these cars  were never maintained well 
by their owners and this is why they seem to have  "problems" today. 
Consider that they were early 70s vintage exotics  and as such, appropriate costs 
would have to be spent to maintain them,  including the cost of fixing the 
rust issues. Unfortunately, they were  sort of the bastard child of the car 
world and they didn't hold their  value well so owners couldn't or wouldn't  
spend money to keep them up to snuff. "Couldn't" because they were cheap buys 
 and some owners bought them because they were cheap and treated them as 
such  or didn't have the money to keep them maintained well. "Wouldn't" 
because they  were a depreciating asset that didn't seem to hold its value well so 
they  couldn't justify spending the money to keep them in top notch shape.  

I see no reason why we have to keep berating the cars.  Fortunately, there 
were a number of Pantera enthusiasts who kept  the marque going and have 
made the car what it is today. But the  cars are in need of some serious costs 
to restore them. We should all  hope that the car goes up in value so we can 
justify spending the appropriate  money to update them well. And then they 
will be dependable. For an early 70s vintage exotic, I'd say they can't be  
beat. We should make that our message.
 
Jeff
6559