Ford Pinto

in Ford
Just saw in the newspaper that someone is selling
a 1972 Ford Pinto for $3,000. It say that it's in a
excellent condition and it only have 5,000 miles
in it. I was wondering if it's a perfect classic
car collection. Also, is the Ford Pinto has been a
very reliable transportation in the 60's and 70's.
a 1972 Ford Pinto for $3,000. It say that it's in a
excellent condition and it only have 5,000 miles
in it. I was wondering if it's a perfect classic
car collection. Also, is the Ford Pinto has been a
very reliable transportation in the 60's and 70's.
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If you like Pintos, fine, buy it cheap and drive it until it drops. It's not a car worth saving or restoring IMHO.
My cousin had a wagon which he did this. WOW
It made some incredible 175 foot burn outs, both rear wheels.
Was'nt long before a heavy duty rearend was put in.
I always kind of liked the Pinto. If nothing else, they were better than the Vega.
I almost bought one in '79 when I was in high school. Actually, I almost traded an old nova with a bad cylinder and starter for an orange wagon with the spark plugs in a coffee can (not sure why). It seemed like a good idea at the time, but that logic is how i ended up with the nova in the first place (the 307/stick combo would have been fast if it didn't stall alot).
I'm also starting to realize why my wife doesn't want me to buy an old car to keep in the garage and work on...Must have talked to my mother.
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As to it being better than the Vega, I remember Brock Yates saying in Car & Driver that the Vega had taken over from the Corvair as the car America preferred to break down in.
Vega's did have a habit of having the cowl(that the right piece?) rust out so the wipers had nowhere to attach too. Seem to recall this one had that problem.
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I don't think people should make fun on it because Ford is one of the best automobile corporation in our whole solar system. I have depend on Ford for over 20 years.
It was a modest car of modest competence, and Ford should have just kept quiet instead of raising everyone's expectations way beyond the car's ability to deliver.
Made me want one even though I was 10 years old.......NOT.
Winners were:
1. Yugo
2. Vega
3. Pinto
4. AMC Gremlin
5. Chevy Chevette
6. Renault Le Car
7. dodge Aspen
8. Cadillac Cimmaron
9. Renault Dauphine
10. VW Bus
The 1600 engines were as tough as nails! They were also used in the Festivas and old Cortinas.
Even the 2000's weren't that bad.
Remember...this was 1971!
I think the 2000 and 2300 were very tough engines and are just now being phased out in the Rangers as a 2500. They've done everything to them from turbochargers to run them for industrial pumps and a neighbor has a commercial tree shredder with one.
Ford built something like 2 million Pintos from 1971 to 1976, and I think maybe a total of 50 or so people died as a result of exploding gas tanks. Still it was on the news enough in the late 70's, to rate right up there with the killer bees and the prophecy that we'd run out of gas by the end of the century. BTW, I think only the 2 door sedan and hatchback had the "barbeque" feature. The wagons were safe, and so were all the models built from 1977 to 1980.
I think Pintos are distinctive enough to rate up there with Gremlins and Pacers nowadays, but when they were new, no guy would be caught dead driving one...to "girly". It would be something akin to a man driving a VW cabriolet nowadays! I have to agree with some of the others on the list, though, that the sport wagons are kinda cool. And in the late 70's, when they facelifted the Pinto with square headlights, it wore them fairly well.
-Andre
The oldest Japanese import I have any knowledge of is the first Accords, which I guess came out in 1975 or so. A friend of mine in college had a 1980, and it was a piece of junk. But I will admit it was a lot better than just about any American small car of that vintage, and much better appointed.
By 1980, the Pinto was really outdated, but how bad were they by 1971 standards? (barbeque that seats four aspect aside?)
-Andre
It was a dark day when the first idiot designer put those on a car. Those things go a long way toward making a car look dull. Check out a Cadillac from the last year with round headlights, and then one from the first year with square ones. Big difference, it's really surprising because the whole rest of the car is nearly identical. The start of a long slide toward the boring crap cars of the '80's. I think that GM was the first to infect American design with them?
I think they look ok on some cars, for example, I think one of the coolest looking cars from the 70's is the 1976 Pontiac LeMans base model. Don't ask me why, I just think they look cool. I think they would have looked funny with round headlights. I think some of the dullest looking cars are the ones with singular square headlights, vs dual square headlights. The only thing worse is when those composite headlights first came out. Sure, they looked normal on a Ford Taurus, but when GM tried grafting onto existing cars, like the Celebrity, Caprice, Monte Carlo, etc, they kind of reminded me of cataracts.
I think you're right, sgaines1, that GM was the first to start using them once they became vogue in the 70's. In fact, I think the government wouldn't legalize them at first (kind of like dual headlights in 1957) GM argued that the square headlights were more space efficient and thus would allow for lower hoodlines. So what did they do? They stacked them, one on top of the other, on cars like the 1976 Monte Carlo, Century, and Malibu. So much for lower hoodlines. I think whole 1975 Cadillac lineup, plus the Buick Electra/Riviera, and Olds 98/Toronado were the first GM cars with square headlights, with the remaining full-size and midsize cars following the next year.
-Andre
I just saw some pics of the 1968-73 Datsun 510 on the web. Looks kinda like a poor man's BMW. Also looks better than those nasty little station wagons my aunt and uncle drove.
For some reason, whenever I think of Japanese cars from the 70's, I remember stuff like the late 70's Datsun 210 a friend of the family had, and our neighbor's junky Corolla and Fiesta. And compared to those, a Pinto begins to look good!
I kinda like those early 510's, though, now that I've finally seen some pics. Still too small for my tastes though.
-Andre
Regarding the Pinto's competition, let's not forget the Plymouth Cricket (although the five people who bought them are probably trying hard to). Imagine throwing an English car into the ring against Japanese imports. Singapore all over again. I have a brochure for the Cricket from one of the SF Auto Shows. Shiftright, can I sell it and retire?
Plymouth imported the Cricket, which I know was from England. Maybe that explains some of their QC problems in the '70s (they picked up an infection?).
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I actually knew womeone who owned a Cricket (my sister's friend). Her boyfriend had a GTO Judge, so that made up for it. This must have been about 1975 or so.
Don't forget the first Civics. They came out in the late 70's. Boy were they tiny, but a surprising amount of room in the back seat.
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The Ford Fiesta was around the same time as the Pinto. It was a German Ford product and yes it was fun to drive and pretty quick for its day. One of the first "pocket-rockets" of the era. Well-built, cross-flow cylinder head as I recall, but definitely an inexpensive automobile, even by German standards. They have a small following today and are even restored now and then.
They also got a 1989 Volvo station wagon used around the same time, and got rid of it after about 9 years, when every time it went into the shop it was at least $1000. Kind of interesting that their Fiesta lasted longer than their Volvo!
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Yes, the 2.3 is a real shaker, enough to spoil an otherwise nice T-Bird Turbo Coupe. Four-bangers shouldn't be brought out past two litres. Ford did offer some interesting speed parts for the 2300, including a high-perf head.
-Andre
But, it was the car that got me to start working on cars. I took it in for a tuneup once. The technician let me watch him, and even commented that I could do everything that he was.
Kept the Pinto until 1979, when my parents gave me their '72 Plymouth Scamp. That was when they bought a '79 Volare. I think we were the only family buying Chrysler products in the late 70s.
At the time, my sister had a Dodge Colt, I think. I think it was something like a denim edition, it was blue and white and has a faux blue demin vinyl roof. What ever were we thinking in the 70s? Yuk!
I almost hate to admit it, but I think the world would NOT be a better place if the Pinto was totally eradicated from the landscape. Look at all the boring little look-alike cars they make today. The more the manufacturers try to tell us they're differentiating them, the more they end up looking alike. Hell, those little Mercedes coupes they have now look like Honda Civics to me! The day that a Mercedes can be mistaken for a Civic is a sad day indeed for the auto industry. The Pinto may be cheap and ugly, and just about every adjective that can be hurled at it, but it still has a certain charm, a charm that's lacking in a 10 year old Escort, Cavalier, Hyundai, Corolla, et al.
I remember a line from a book of mine reminiscing about the way cars used to be. Something along the lines of "...they were different, had character. Some of them could make you laugh. And even that is important, for laughter is a precious commodity. Cars built today can't make you laugh. Cry, maybe, but not laugh..." This book was published in 1979, and they were reminiscing about the 50's, but that statement can pretty much apply today, as well.
A Pinto, Vega, or Pacer will never win any quality awards like a Toyota or Honda might, but at least you'll never mistake one for anything else.