[DeTomaso] Reference needed

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/23/12 13 05 54, asajay at asajay.com writes:


> I'm sure someone like Mike Drew could give you the entire history in 
> one email.
> 

>>>I'm wondering what planet Dick has been living on for the past 40 years. 
:>)

I must confess that although I've known *about* Mike Mayberry since the 
first week I started shopping for a Pantera in 1989, I only met him for the 
first time a year and a half ago.

The event was significant enough that I felt compelled to take a photo of 
him, post it on my POCA album and make a post about my visit with him that 
day, back in January of last year:

http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=28620

Mike was the owner of Mayberry Lincoln-Mercury, a very old-school, very 
small family-owned L-M dealership in North Hollywood that has been in the same 
location for 50+ years I think.   Totally different from the monster 
mega-mart car dealerships you see today, this was located in a quiet neighborhood 
on a shopping street--I think it was next door to a deli.   That kind of 
place.   Beautiful old pre-war building too, as you can see from the photo.

When the Pantera came out, he got totally into them, and became somewhat 
specialized in them.   While there were many other So-Cal dealerships that 
were really on board with the whole Pantera thing, and in fact sold more cars 
than he did initially, when the bloom went off the rose, the rest of them 
bailed out on the cars (and the owners).   Mike ran around and bought up all 
their parts inventories and kept on keeping on, and has done so ever since, 
buying used Panteras, fixing them up and selling them, and also servicing 
them.

Recently, he was one of hundreds of small-size dealerships that Ford 
decided to assassinate.   Despite the fact that customers loved him, and his 
dealership was a profitable business, Ford decided they had too many dealerships 
and would only support the mega-monsters, so he was abruptly told that in X 
days, he would be out of the new car business.

So he quietly folded up his shop, and everybody got laid off.   But he kept 
all his Pantera spares and moved them elsewhere, and he is a frequent 
seller on E-bay.   Too, he is always on the lookout for barn car Panteras, 
project cars, etc. and will buy them up, fix them up, and then sell them.

I've never heard a complaint from anybody who ever dealt with him, and he 
KNOWS these cars inside and out.

Shop with confidence. :>)

BTW I turned him on to an 18K mile barn car that had been parked in Salinas 
(near Laguna Seca) 25-30 years ago.   He bought that about a year ago so 
it's possible that he's finished the restoration and this is the car he may 
now be offering up?

Mike