It’s somehow calming from a car enthusiast’s viewpoint when a car company CEO is still a car person, deep down. Ford CEO Jim Farley’s car history backs that up, as he’s owned his share of interesting cars and not necessarily always with a Ford badge – even if they might have rolled from the factory with a Ford motor. And like the rest of us, he’s also the sort of car guy who spends some of his time looking at car ads and auctions.
A good example of that is the De Tomaso Pantera he bought via BringATrailer a couple of years ago. A Ford company car from new, the Pantera was originally a carpool vehicle for the Aeronutronic division at Ford Aerospace, in Newport Beach. The Pantera was driven for a couple of years to and from the Engineering and Research Center on Jamboree Road, until it was sold to a private owner in Ventura. During its life, it was also on display for a couple of decades at the Yankee Candle Car Museum in Massachusetts, and the first time it was put up on BaT was in October 2018.
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Back then, when being test driven by a potential buyer, the Pantera spun out on the road due to cold tires and a heavy right foot and ended up being sideswiped by a van. The crumpled passenger side quarterpanel and door were replaced and the car repainted, so by the time Farley put in a winning bid in 2024, it was good as new. According to the BAT listing, the car is painted in Giallo Fly, while Elvis Presley’s famously-shot Pantera was Yellow Gold from the factory.
The De Tomaso Pantera is one of the coolest mid-engined Italian sports cars made in Modena, and that’s saying a lot. Equipped with Ford’s 351 Cleveland V8, it combined a sleek Tom Tjaarda design with American power and Italian flair, and interestingly, it was built for a long time – over two decades.
Ford only imported Panteras to be sold through Lincoln-Mercury dealers for a few years, with 5500 cars sold by the time sales ended in 1975. It seems the split wasn’t amicable, as De Tomaso had to source engines from Australia from then on, to keep building the cars. Body manufacturing needed to move from Ford-owned Vignale to Maggiora, too.
Since Farley has a BaT account, it affords us a peek into his car guy persona as viewed through the site’s bid history. Since 2020, he’s bid on 36 vehicles. They’re mostly Fox body Mustangs, always with the 5.0 – he has said he’s owned a ’89 5.0 LX, and aren’t we always looking for another, sometimes nicer example of something we used to drive ages ago?
Farley also seems to have really wanted this modified 2006 E46 M3, as he put in 14 bids, getting close to the winning $42,750 bid but missing out on the car.
Farley’s bid history also includes a couple of bids on ‘70s Honda bikes, classic Minis, a Höhm instructional model, a Rupp go-kart, and a really nice 1958 Lancia Aurelia that sold for almost double compared to his $56k bid.
There are also a couple of heart-warming comments he’s left on the site. One of them is regarding a really, really good-looking Ford Sierra RS Cosworth (above), an Italian import residing in Florida, with 38k miles and iconic Moonstone Blue paint. If you’re the winning bidder in an auction of a great-looking ‘80s Ford, it probably feels good to have the company CEO comment, “If you ever want to sell this car, please let me know!”
The other comment is left in the Pantera auction, which ends tomorrow. Farley hopes the car goes to an “awesome” home, and he also mentions having donated a Ford Explorer to the Pope last month. Farley says Pope Leo is a “legit car guy” who misses driving his Ford Fusion with the 6-speed manual gearshift. If it’s good knowing the Ford CEO is a car person, it certainly is good news that the Pope is one too. Then again, John Paul II used to drive a Ford Escort in Seventies Poland, too, when he was still known as Cardinal Wojtyla.
Farley’s Pantera is currently sitting at $130,000 at the time of writing. His winning bid two years ago was $121,000, so he’s likely not making a loss on the car. Back in 2024, there was even a moderate bidding war against another BaT user, up from $105k – Farley had been looking for a good Pantera for ages, and it shows that he really wanted this one. As he says, the Mustang GTD Spirit of America has taken the Pantera’s place in his garage.
Story photos: Bring A Trailer
Top graphic images: Bring A Trailer; Ford
The Pantera was our car. I convinced my dad to buy it at an auction in 2015, after years of begging for a classic. So many great stories with that machine, highs and lows (that test drive spin!) alike. Life had a funny way of working out. I couldn’t believe it when Farley called our house to say he had won the Pantera.
Some day, I’ll write a proper story on how that all happened…
reuss and farley are car guys. i propose some races. Barber race course in corvettes. Milan drag mustang gts. a gymkanna in vw gti. matched cars obviously.
Here’s what Farley is really selling: Protectionism for an industry who refuse to compete.
https://insideevs.com/news/792969/ford-farley-chinese-cars-canada/
Fun fact: The 351 ‘Clevo’ in the Pantera was actually manufactured by Ford Australia.
In my very limited world of people who know people who have had Panteras almost all of them crashed at least once – these things were death traps- not sure if they are just overpowered with a fast throttle tip in, or if it is the snap oversteer, but I would be surprised if any of the remaining chassis have not been in some kind of crash. Beautiful cars though…
Let’s pour out a cup of coffee for Tim Horton, hockey player and one-time co-owner of the Canadian now omnipresent coffee chain Tim Horton’s. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Horton)
…
Hanoi Rocks’ drummer also passed away in a Pantera crash.
I remember this. Bummer to the max.
Remember Farley’s only been a Ford guy since he took over in 2015, before that he was a big whig at Toyota. Not sure its worth assigning die hard brand loyalty, nor should he have to be.
I’m think his father or other family members worked for Ford but I could be wrong. Not that that invalidates your point.
who in the right mind would give a green light for a wet belt system?
Also pay your mechanics competitively
To be fair to him he probably didn’t greenlight that directly. But he could have axed it for the next development cycle.
The theory of them is great. The execution, well, not-so-much.
Farley may be a car guy, but I can tell he hasn’t wrenched on a Ford product built this millennium, since every single one I’ve been subjected to has been utter misery and mediocrity induced by cynical cost cutting and poor quality.
Why would he have to? I’m sure he has access to many mechanically-able people who would love to have the CEO owe them a favor.
I’m sure there is no reason for him to have to for his personal, but he’s also gone on ad nauseum about the lack of techs for dealerships. Based on my own experience working on modern Fords and what I’ve seen online, a lot of that is due to them being horrible to work on, and from Ford warranty pay not being adequate. And with how many Ford recalls there are, that would take a toll quickly.
I don’t know about BaT, but C&B SUCKS ASS, and cost me thousands with their incompetence. The only rule of auction sites is that THEY make money.
I think many car auction sites start out as a passion project, and then they become very business oriented, and the bottom line is what becomes more important. It sucks, but is definitely the way of things.
Wasn’t Cars and Bids bought out by VC ghouls recently? I know DeMuro stepped back from leading it.
PE, not VC. PE are the ghouls. VCs are more like aggressive lemmings.
During my first job in the software industry in 1990, I had to ask what VC meant as I grew up during the Vietnam War and VC at the time was Viet Cong.
Having dealt with a lot of VCs (the puffy vest kind, not the camo vest ones), I can see how one might get the two mixed up, sometimes.
In my view, buying a car at an auction is The Worst Way to buy a car.
When buying, I don’t want to compete with other people. I want to be the only guy there with cash in hand telling the seller ‘take it or leave it’.
On top of that, when ‘winning’ an auction, why would I want to pay a 3rd party 5% of the value of what I bought just so I can buy a given vehicle.
And in the few auctions I’ve attended, there always seem to be some idiots willing to overpay so they can ‘win’.
Ebay is the worst for this… and to make matters worse, those ‘winning’ bidders often disappear and you get that stupid “second chance” at an item because the ‘winner’ was a bullshitter who walked
Fuck that, fuck auctions and No Fucking Thanks.
For the regular mass-produced vehicles I buy, buying at auction makes no sense and is The Worst Way to buy a vehicle.
Yep, I’d much rather wait and find the car I want that has been sitting for sale for a bit so that I know the seller is motivated, whether that is a dealer or private party. I’ve never even considered looking at car auctions.
No negative comments on his bid history! Also hilarious the CEO of one of the largest automotive companies on the planet misspelled “receipts”.
I’ve worked with many CEOs of large companies before and a sizable percentage of them were only semi-literate.
Some of it is probably also once you’re at the top, you don’t need to proofread as many of your messages, and can get away with firing off a lot of “handle this” type emails.
This has to be what it is. It’s also so funny to me to read personal messages to the public or employees from CEOs because it’s so painfully obvious they had nothing to do with writing any of it. They’re good at towing the line in public, but so many of them cannot communicate digitally to save their lives.
Speaking of: I think you mean “toeing the line.”
Although, his version has a certain something to it, regarding a lot of Fords…
In soviet Michigan, line tows you.
I don’t know if it’s better or worse, but I’ve been a writer/editor/journalist professionally for the past 16 years and “receipts” still shows up misspelled basically every time I use the word, so *shrug*.
I’m not sure if it is a good sign if Fords CEO contacts you to tell you if you ever want to sell when he wasn’t willing to buy it for what you did.
Also, for an unusual reference, George Peppard’s suave/smug insurance investigator had a yellow Pantera in largely unseen but weirdly influential 70s show Bannechek.
I was sure that Bill from Kill Bill had a Pantera, but it was the earlier model, the Mangusta.
It was the perfect car for both the character AND David Carradine!
Farley: See, I’m a car guy!
Also Farley: We can’t make money on selling any cars but the Mustang, so that’s the only car we’re going to make. For now, anyway; watch this space!
To be fair, he is a CEO first, car guy second. And to play devils advocate, car guys don’t have to exclusively be into “cars”. I’ve got 6 cars currently, and only two aren’t some sort of 4wd/utility.
To be honest, the Mustang was the only car they made past the early 2010s that was of any real interest to me, anyway.
They need to form a new partnership with Mazda and release a new Probe/MX-6.
or the lotus partnership and do a new cortina
On the surface yes, but if you read into it a bit more, Ford as a company didn’t want to invest billions into making a lower-margin (compared to crossovers) product that wouldn’t ever move significant volume without cash on the hood and massive fleet giveaways.
They avoided making a 200/Dart mistake
But if you dig into it a little more deeply, part of the reason they didn’t make money on their cars like the Focus/Fiesta was because of the PowerShit transmission and other defects. And let’s not overlook how those defects damaged the reputation of those products… and how that reputational damage affected sales.
Combine that too much product overlap in terms of size and price and you have a recipe for low-to-no profits.
The Fiesta/Focus were too similar in size and price.
Same deal for the Taurus/Fusion.
If they simply replaced the old Taurus/Fusion with the new Fusion-based Taurus sedan and replaced the Fiesta/Focus with a single Focus 4 door hatch… and if they gave both the reliable hybrid powertrain that was/is in the C-Max and Escape Hybrid, they would have made decent money on their sedans… and made more money too on a net basis… if only because the warranty claims would be lower.
And the 200/Dart apparently had product quality issues and wasn’t competitive.
Somehow every non-US manufacturer can sell millions of small cars and make a profit. Surely that’s something Ford could do. Their engineers can’t all be terrible.
Outside of the US, cars generally cost a decent amount more money. In the US, people expect small cars to have small price tags, when they don’t actually cost any less to produce.
Absurd CAFE targets killed the American car. Blaming the CEO’s of the Big 3 for this is blaming the victim.
No “car guy” credit till you reissue the Pantera!
Talk to De Tomaso about that, not Ford.
Get around the mess, call it Pintari’
To be fair, Ford supplied the engine and handled US distribution rights. Ford supposedly also helped De Tomaso improve quality/production as the years went by with the Pantera.
The Ford GT is too awesome. I’m thinking about a working mans sports car. A Ford Fiero- ish, analog gauges, as few nannies as legal. They’d sell dozens!
Ford can make a Pantera homage and call it whatever they want, as long as the audience knows what its supposed to be. Its as much a part of their history as the Cobra
If I ever came into a decent amount of fun money, my first purchase would be a LHD Moonstone Blue Sierra RS Cosworth in very nice condition with the BBS wheels. I was in love with those things as a kid, especially that configuration.
The spoiler set-up on the Cossy is definitely unique as well.
So the pope’s both a car guy and a Sox fan? Working on being the most relatable pontiff ever.
Yeah, talk about auto enthusiasm – it’s one thing to own say a manual Mustang, but manual Fusions were super rare.
My former boss and his brother owned three between them!
Much respect. I’ve never even seen one in the wild. I love the oddball nature of a domestic sedan with a manual. My Focus is a curiosity, but an even bigger car with one is just that much cooler.
Those Fusions were great vehicles. Boss had two, an ’09 Sport that was obliterated thanks to a deer, so he bought an identical ’10 and drove that thing for years. I think it had over 300k miles on it when he sold it. His brother’s was around the same age and had high mileage, too.
What year is your Focus? My dad bought an ’03 LX sedan new with a manual, zero options other than A/C (not even a tach), mostly to pull behind their motorhome. It was pretty sad when I collected it two years ago, but with some parts and a good cleanup it turned into a nice little runabout. I ended up selling it to a friend’s son as his first car and he loves the stupid little thing.
Mine’s a ’10, that weird refresh of the Mk1 while the rest of the world got the Mk2. She’s been wonderful, with only routine maintenance needed and a motor mount replaced. Agree on them being great runabouts…she’s a perfect city car for me.
Still do fantasize about having a manual Fusion though…
And he’s not afraid to say what needs to be said for the betterment of the world, rather than himself.
Why would he let the M3 get away? $43k is peanuts for someone who $27.5 million in 2025.
I think about this sort of thing a lot, as I have a very wealthy family member who religiously considers cost on all kinds of purchases. Toilet seats. Bicycles. Vehicles. Home upgrades. Everything. He’s not cheap, and he spends plenty of money on lots of things. Maybe this applies to you as well, I don’t know. But many high earners are very disciplined about their relationship with purchases of all kinds. So while I found the “unsuccessful” bid on the M3 interesting I did not find it surprising or unusual!
“You don’t get rich by spending money (unnecessarily)”
If he scoops an old Econoline, we’ll know he’s decided to go live in a VAN down by the RIVER.
Different Farley, IIRC.
And a different dream weaver too?
They are (were) related.
First cousins, apparently they were very close as children
One Chris’s brother did a great series of Dealership commercials in NC(?) about a literal weasel salesman that are worth a watch.
“Hey I’m Jim Farley, I pretend to be a bro every chance I get, and always make sure it’s in the news.”
I’m on my 4th recall in a truck that’s only a few months old, but been out for 3-5 years. Until Jim pays my gas for going back and forth to the dealer and for my time waiting around in their hallway they call a waiting room, he can pound sand.
Ford: Quality is Probably Someone’s Job, It Sounds Important and We’ll be Looking into it Very Strongly
We’ve had 4 recalls already on our 25 maverick hybrid AWD lariat..1 was over the air and the other 3 were done in my garage by a tech in about 10 minutes each. No hassle and no trip to the dealer. See if you can get the free remote tech to come by and do the work.
I’ve heard of this from someone with a platinum truck, maybe my XLT doesn’t qualify? But what I think the real issue is, is where I live. I am pretty rural, my dealer is in a small “city” that most would call a town. Curious if you live in a populated area with lots of employees where they have the man power for mobil techs. I think we just don’t have the people, but I’ll call them up and ask, I have 1-2 of them open right now because they are minor and I’m just waiting until my next oil change.
I live outside of Memphis, I would consider my dealer semi rural about 30 minutes from town. It doesn’t hurt to check if your dealer can do mobile service.
Also, pretty sure it doesn’t matter the vehicle as long as it’s still in warranty they should cover it. We’ve had them do work on a Ford escape PHEV as well as the Maverick.