Good morning! You know, we spend a lot of time on here looking at practical daily drivers; they’re the bread-and-butter of the cheap car market. And there’s a good reason: if you’re shopping for a cheap car, chances are you just need something to get around, with as little fuss as possible. But since it’s Friday, when I sometimes throw the rulebook out the window, I thought we’d flip the script and look at two cars that would be among the worst choices for daily commuters.
Either one of yesterday’s choices would handle daily-driver duties just fine, but it seems you preferred the Chevy S-10 by a pretty wide margin. I agree. I always liked these S-10s. The 4.3 will get crappy mileage, but it will give more power than you need in return. And I guess I was just hanging out with the wrong crowd for a while, because I did hear these things get bad-mouthed quite a lot. Probably disgruntled Tacoma owners, upset at trucks with rusted-out frames still being priced at seven grand.
Oh, and since it came up, you can absolutely drive 2WD trucks in the snow, especially with a manual. Snow tires help, as does a little weight in the rear. One of those tubes of sand behind each wheel hump usually does the trick. You want to know what car is bad in the snow? A second-gen Firebird with bald tires. Especially with my old co-worker Keith driving. I’m lucky to be here.
We’ve all tried to do jobs with the wrong tool before. Admit it; you’ve loosened nuts with Vise-Grips or pounded a nail into the wall with the butt of a screwdriver or something. Sometimes it’s for lack of a proper tool, some specialized thingamajig that you have to special-order and can’t wait for, and sometimes it’s just plain stubbornness and not wanting to go back out to the garage to get the right tool. But there are times when something is just the worst possible choice to use for the task at hand. I started perusing Craigslist with no real idea of what I was looking for, and laughed when I saw one of today’s cars and imagined trying to drive it in rush-hour traffic. So I went looking for another equally bad choice, and the internet did not disappoint. Think of these two as the anti-Corollas, in more ways than one.
1972 De Tomaso Pantera – $106,000
Engine/drivetrain: 393 cubic inch overhead valve V8, five-speed manual, RWD
Location: Boise, ID
Odometer reading: 60,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives great
What’s cooler than a mid-engined Italian sports car? (That’s a rhetorical question; there is nothing cooler than a mid-engined Italian sports car.) Nearly all of us ’70s and ’80s kids grew up with posters of Ferraris and Lamborghinis on our walls, watching Tom Selleck and Don Johnson drive them on TV, and seeing beautiful women thumbing their noses at authority in them. But those were fragile, high-strung machines; only those of us who paid attention knew there was another way to go, a car with the sexy looks of an Italian supercar but a red-blooded American V8 providing the power: the De Tomaso Pantera.
Believe it or not, for a couple of years, you could walk into a Lincoln-Mercury dealership and buy one of these. Can you imagine this thing sitting in a showroom next to Comets and Montegos? But it made sense; De Tomaso had partnered with Ford for engines for many years, and Ford actually owned a majority of the Italian automaker at the time. The Pantera was equipped with Ford’s 351 cubic inch Cleveland V8, mounted behind the seats and powering the rear wheels through a five-speed transaxle. If you’re thinking this is no longer a stock Pantera, you’d be right – it’s now rocking more than five hundred horsepower, with suspension and brake modifications to match. The seller provides a handy list of the car’s modifications, if you want to peruse it.
I can’t say I’m a fan of the carbon-fiber and the awful Momo steering wheel, but with the extra power on board, I have a feeling the racing harnesses and roll cage are a good idea. And I love the fact that Pantera owners are willing to modify their cars in ways that would give Ferrari owners nightmares. This particular car has a bit of a story to tell; it has a rebuilt title. The previous owner had a massive heart attack behind the wheel (but lived – don’t worry) and ran it into a tree. This has got to be the most expensive rebuilt-title car I’ve ever seen.
Cars that have a long production life like the Pantera tend to get uglier as time goes on; it’s nearly always the first-generation design with no adornments that looks the best. By the end, the Pantera looked like a cheap kit car version of itself, with fender flares and wings and all sorts of crap. I appreciate the fact that the owner of this one refrained from adding a wing to this one. I’d rather see almost any other color wheels besides black on it, though.
1976 Land Rover 101 Forward Control – $40,000
Engine/drivetrain: Diesel inline 4 of unknown displacement, four-speed manual, 4WD
Location: “Vehicle is located in Hawaii but can be shipped to LA”
Odometer reading: 103,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives great
Ex-military vehicles hold a lot of appeal for certain buyers. They’re built to survive unbelivably harsh conditions, and they’re often equipped in ways that were never offered to the general public. But why limit yourself to just our military surplus? This truck, the Land Rover 101 FC, was designed specifically for the British Army, but now is in private hands, in Hawaii.
The original engine in the 101 was a Buick/Rover 3.5 liter V8, but thanks to absolutely ridiculous fuel consumption, quite a number of them were converted to diesel engines. This one is powered by a four-cylinder Perkins diesel, but the seller didn’t specify which one. It drives two solid axles through a four-speed manual gearbox and a two-speed transfer case. It’s equipped with a winch at both ends, and I have a feeling that they’re operated from a PTO on the transfer case, which should make them plenty strong. It runs and drives well, and the seller says it is street-legal in Hawaii. California smog testing might present a problem, however, with the engine swap and all.
The 101 is a one-ton truck, so it’s no surprise that it’s all beefy underneath. The seller says it has new brakes, but a disc-brake conversion kit for the front is also included, in case you want more stopping power. Not a terrible idea with a truck this size and weight, actually. It also includes service manuals, and what looks like a stack of receipts. I do have to say, however, that I can’t get on board with mounting white letter tires letter-side-in. This thing would have looked so much cooler with the white letters out.
The diesel engine isn’t the only modification this Landy has received in its retirement. It has a full custom exoskeleton roll cage, and a fresh paint job in Porsche Lava Orange. It looks ready for anything – anything, of course, except rush hour, and maybe the Trader Joe’s parking lot.
Both of these vehicles are completely ridiculous and over-the-top, and I love them both for it. Especially because they’re not the same expensive things you see everywhere. Take either one of these to a car gathering, park it next to some trust-fund baby’s Lamborghini, and watch them fume while everyone ignores their influencer-mobile. And yeah, I know, they’re not what you’d call “shitboxes.” We’ll get back on track next week. I just felt like looking at some silly stuff today. So live a little, and make a ridiculous choice.
I came for the Pantera and left with the Land Rover. I would park it next to every cybertruck I came across and just look at the driver with “Chap, you mad?”
I’ve been around enough people that have Panteras, bricklands, and Deloreans to know don’t meet your heros. Not that a classic Landy doesn’t have issues. It’s neat and those engines are fairly robust. Plus it’s basically two beams with a shed on top.
Votes are at exactly 50/50 right now. Not bad.
I love the original Pantera. I even like the later versions with all the body cladding and huge wing. This one, I hate the carbon fiber, I don’t like the rims… but it’s still an early Pantera, so I’d still rock this.
True story: I took my 84 Camaro over a mountain pass in 3 inches of unloved snow. I kept 50 pounds of weight in the back, and chained up. It did fine if you knew how to drive it.
As much as I like both of these, there’s no way I can turn down a Pantera! It’s so awesome and I would daily it constantly…why not? It would be so much fun w/ all that power. Looks amazing too
Oh man, I actually love the idea of both of these, but the weird carbon and iffy title on the Pantera sway me to the FC. Nice round!
The Pantera is the correct answer.