What is the market value for an '01 Panoz Esperante?

No offense, but the whole Panoz line has been a bust. I would bet the dealer offered him low-$40s. The color isn't great, show history will give no premium. New cars can be had for Gallardo-like discounts (ha!). Retail seems to be around low-$50s, but because they are slow selling, he'll have a tough time getting a dealer to step up. Good luck either way!

 

I agree. I had one through a partnership for awhile, got rid of it as fast as possible.

 

I know very little about the Panoz line, but I've always thought it was an attractive car and I was under the impression that they were good performers. What's the cause of the line "going bust" as you guys see it?

 

It's interesting, I was at Road Atlanta last fall with my 2nd daughter attending the Audi driving school. The panoz place was next door to the Audi place so during some of the class room stuff I wandered around and looked at everything. I went around to the side of the big Panoz race building, and the big door was open. Looking in there was a row of maybe 6 or 8 of the race cars and piles of body work etc in there.

It struck me that the race cars are used hard, the body parts pulled off and replaced, and the whole cars sold for little value at the end. I started thinking about if this had been, say 1963 in Italy, looking in a garage at a row of race worn red cars called 250 SWBs that had little value and would soon be discarded, cut up, salvaged or just thrown away. That those cars in 1963 were not thought of as anything special, just odd little race cars from a small manufacturer...

 

I see a lot of them in Savannah and at Ford dealerships in Hilton Head, which offer them for sale. They never seem to move any of them, though...They strike me as very curious cars -- an interesting look, moderately fast, and definitely a striking sound...but the guys I know who raced with Panoz tell me that they are "below average" in terms of general driving dynamics.

The Esperante always seemed to be in a stylistic struggle for greatness. America needs more cool independent car manufacturers, but Panoz just doesn't cut the mustard with the Esperante. I always figured it was as muscular as a Viper, but with the class and reliability of a pre-Ford Jaguar. I was always very preoccupied with the Panoz AIV Roadster, a sort of Super7/Prowler looking thing which could move along at a pretty good clip. I once saw one in Miami, definitely cool cars...

Back to the Esperante...it strikes me that in order to make a successful independent automobile, it either needs to look amazing or be exceedingly quick in all arenas. Perhaps because the Panoz does neither it is beginning to have these pricing issues...

 

Well, lets face it, the styling is late 1980s, maybe early 1990s, running gear is Ford Cobra IIRC; there's some stiff competition out there.

 

Just to clarify, I never said that they were going bust, just that the model line has been a bust, as-in not successful.

I think the biggest problem was having a car like the Esperante. Yes it looks good, has decent power/performance etc. But so do the 996s, SL500s, SRT/10s, XLRs, XKRs, and all of the other luxo/sport cars out there in the same price range.

I think the AIV Roadster (despite not being too successful) was a better league for Panoz to be in. Start with a Elise-like toy car that people can toss around on the track. Build up to the GT/Exotic car once a solid following is built on your base car; give the customer something to move up to. Easier to target consumer bucks when not fighting some of the most prestigious brands out there...

 

Ebay and NO RESERVE is your best bet for that piece of junk.

 

You're right. Panoz is a very small maufacturer that is heavily involved in racing...it's almost scary how reminiscent of Ferrari it really is.

 

the green one at Springfield Ford was stolen from the owner and recovered . it was at the dealer for several weeks getting repairs. the owner has 2 of them and several other cars. he lives in the Richmond hill area. the cars seem fun, but for the money, dollar for dollar i would rather have my old and slow ferrari.

 

There was a 420hp version in the curent (or last months) issue of Motor Trend. It had a slightly modified version of the 390hp Supercharged 4.6 in the SVT Cobra mustang. However, it was running 13.2's which is slower than a 3,700lbs Cobra runs stock. I was surprised. I expected mid 12's out of this atleast since it is lighter/smaller than the mustang.

I was also shocked at the sticker price, $120k was like the base price. Considering how 120k can get you into a quicker and better 911 Turbo, the Panoz came of as grossly overpriced. Definitly goes against the american sport-cars trend of offering an excellent bang for your buck in terms of performance.

Sorry for going off-topic a bit.

 

thought I saw an article, maybe the same one, where Panoz claimed Ford "under-quotes" the hp on the same engine. yeah, very slightly modified.

 

I would think it might go around the high-50s. It is a shame that he is getting rid of it. The problem that Panoz runs into is that they get SVT engines to keep the costs down, but people think of it as a overly priced Mustang.

 

The Panoz Esperante has an aluminum chassis.

A recent issue of Motor Trend tested an Esperante and said that the 2006 model will use some carbon fiber in the chassis which will boost rigidity and drop an estimated 100 pounds.

Panoz backs the GTLM in the American Le Mans Series.

More information

http://www.panozauto.com

 

Not dealership wise. The only way to get that is do it privately through ads.