Nobody, that’s who. And to be fair, this one wasn’t ever finished and is unlikely to ever be, certainly not in time for Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale. Maybe someone confused it for a Miura; after all both have two doors and the second letter of the five-letter model names are an “i”. “Same Same But Different” as my friends in Asia are fond of saying. Both were available in bright colors too, I’ll add. Uncanny.
I’m sure there are some of you interested into views of the inner reaches of Pinto-dom, uncluttered by inconveniences such as the stuff that normally resides where it does. This one is remarkably rust free too, ironically the remaining paint is the closest possible factory paint color to it though.
I’m sure the owner (or his heirs) did their best to find a willing buyer for this, we’ve all seen the ads “Testing the waters, ready for paint, 99.9% parts are there, needs minor reassembly, numbers matching, A/C just needs a charge, some TLC required, blah blah blah, or best offer, I know what I’ve got”. I’ve never fallen for that though, perhaps I have left some genuine opportunities pass me by. Although more likely they would have been a different sort of “opportunity” than the ideal.
It does remarkably remind of the Mustang II from the front though. Hmm. Maybe there’s hope for the old nag yet. Look how low one seems to have to sit in it as compared to the Ford Focus next to it!
I can’t confess to being particularly imbued with Pinto-fandom myself, I’ve ridden in precisely one of them (seated low with lots of dashboard ahead is what I recall) and this is probably the most time I’ve spent looking at one otherwise. I understand their reason for being, and am astonished at how successful they actually were, for example 1976 saw 290,132 leave dealerships as new cars which is staggering and not a particularly good year either (1974 holds the record at 544,209). Over ten model years from 1971 to 1980 the total tally was almost 3.2 million. I don’t know if those numbers include the Mercury Bobcat either, which is more “Same Same But Different”…
The Pinto name is cute though, making Ford the horsey brand, all corralled together with Mustangs and Broncos. The name though remains but a shadow, unlikely to reappear anytime soon, “soon” in this case being a euphemism for “ever”. The Pinto was a firebrand of sorts, at least by reputation if not enormously borne out by actual numerical facts, but I’ll gloss over that here, after all this one made it through somehow.
That’s as disassembled (eviscerated?) an engine bay as I’ve ever seen, with only a few bobs and bits remaining. No, this isn’t how a Pinto is left by junkyard shoppers, it was still fresh. (A RAV4 though, that’s a different story! There’s usually nothing left to crush within about a week). Normally there’d be an inline 4 or a V6 in there. Maybe the plan called for shoehorning a V8 in, who knows. Watch out for the fan!
There’s the buck tag, affixed near the passenger headlight location. Perfectly legible but I could not find a decipher key for it online. The Pinto just doesn’t have the following apparently, searching for some info like this can drive one to drink. To drink gin, as the tag seems to emphasize.
We can tell it’s the popular “Runabout” version of the Pinto due to the three holes for the badge on the C-pillar. The sanding couldn’t have been too long ago, exposed metal tends to get at least a thin layer of surface rust around here with the higher humidity in the summer and afternoon thunderstorms.
I do prefer the hatchback style to the earlier sedan with a trunk style though, although my favorites may be the last of the line with the optional frameless glass tailgate, offered starting in 1977 whereas the hatch itself debuted for 1973. Lots of the bits and pieces needed to reassemble this car are inside it. Along with some sidesteps from a pickup truck. Scrap metal pays out the same, no matter what vehicle it’s from.
The engine currently resides where the driver’s seat used to be, if that is in fact the engine this car came with it would be the 2.3liter inline-4 that with some revisions also served as the basis for the later turbocharged engines of the Thunderbird, Mustang SVO and Merkur XR4Ti, heady company to be sure, along with serving faithfully (I hope) for millions of other cars. Introduced in 1974 it would be built until 1997 or so.
Here’s a perhaps better angle, the blue valve cover seals the deal for me. Although not having ever owned a 2.3l Ford (that I can recall anyway) I couldn’t tell for sure if this is the one that came with this car, but if it is, 1976 marks the year of Pinto wherein it was rated at its highest power levels, 92hp and 121lb-ft of torque. Only the optional V6 was more powerful, but also heavier.
Ford certainly touted the power compared to what it felt were its main competitors (Chevette, B-210, and Corolla) that year in various ads. Or at least the competitors over which it had an advantage. Ford did take great pains to mention it was better even in spite of its “road-hugging weight”, I guess it was a plump little pony for the day even at 2,450 pounds.
And look at that, a 6×9! Nobody leaves their 6x9s behind like this. What is the world coming to. This speaker should be cranking out some crackly beats right now, not being ogled (and judged) across the globe by you all.
Not rust, just glue residue. I can imagine thinking about having to sand that off while laying below it and rethinking things as well.
I guess the hatchback was still called the sedan inside of Ford. The tire size and inflation pressure guide recommends that you consult your owner’s manual in the event of sustained high speed or trailer towing.
I’d sure love to, but the owner’s manual does not appear to be where the glovebox used to be. There is remarkably little metal between the occupants and the elements, I’ll note here. It looks quite flimsy.
Maybe it’s under the hatch, which does in fact show some signs of rust on it. The chrome looks nice and shiny though!
So do the doors, but that’s all surface stuff, mostly. The grinding wheel will sort that out, the body structure is what matters. I can’t even fathom removing virtually every fastener and thing attached to the inside and outside of this car…I will grant that it is easier to take it apart than put it back together.
This Pinto has about six weeks left in this northern Colorado corral, then it’s off to the glue factory in the back of the picture here. Even though it’s Resting In Piece(s), it’s still one of the better condition Pintos that I’ve seen in some time…Giddy-Up!
Laugh if you will; however, in the summer of ’77, I was one ’68 327 4 barrel Chevy Caprice owner (and it was not a worn out junker) who lost a race to a stock Pinto. And get this: the kid who owned the Pinto which I raced predicted that he’d win no sweat.
which only goes to prove that it is the better driver not the car that wins races you must suck
Why is it so important to display your fear in a public forum ? .
-Nate
This car sold in the millions, and thus created lots of memories for people. Why is it so crazy that someone wanted to put one right as a fun occupation in retirement? My wife’s uncle recently did this with a 67 Beetle,(from the year of his birth), even though he is still employed and had a shop do it. Yet you assume our late Pinto friend was just hoodwinked by a sporty roofline. Lot of falsely perceived superiority being expressed.
I make no assumptions whatsoever, I just report the facts as they are displayed to me.
You may be taking my commentary far too seriously though, lighten up a bit and enjoy that someone is even writing about a Pinto. Or if you prefer, feel free to skip over my future posts.
And finally, the VW Beetle is (rightfully) a motoring icon. The Pinto, eh, not so much. When you see him at Thanksgiving ask your wife’s uncle if he had been born five years later would be have restored a ’72 Beetle or a ’72 Pinto instead?
“Enjoy that someone is even writing about a Pinto.” There is that falsely perceived superiority again.
In my uncle in law’s case, a Pinto is not so crazy as you would think. His much older, 20 years, sister had a Beetle bought for her by her parents when he was a small child. One assumes the beginning of his Beetle passion. Later when my wife’s family was struggling, my wife’s now widowed Grandmother generously bought her daughter a 76 Pinto Squire with the wood on the side to squire around her two young daughters. So lots of fond memories, even if they had to keep a sharp eye on oil level during the Pinto’s long life. A good suggestion, now that I think about it, for a Beetle as well.
Alright, how about “Enjoy that someone is even writing about any car” and not making you pay a subscription fee to read it… Gift horses, mouths, sometimes getting what you pay for, etc…Either way, thank you for the clicks!
The only falsely perceived superiority here was from Ford in regard to the Pinto…but that all went up in flames fairly quickly. Oh well.
Jim makes a good point about remembering to tip your bartender, as someone once said. So I just clicked on an ad and was rewarded by learning much more about a cd ripper/player. Paul can’t say so per Google rules, but all of you should too, whatever you think of the Pinto.
Thank you. That helps to keep the site going. The people here spending their own time taking pictures, researching stuff, and writing about it are doing so of their own volition and not for pay unlike many other sites out there. They are in it due to enjoying seeing their thoughts and pictures in “print” and generating some discussion about whatever the subject may be. As a flipside/bonus though, virtually anyone with an interest can also get started and try their hand at it just by sending in an email expressing interest.
I agree. I had one I bought new in the fall of 1978. It was a 1979 baby blue station wagon. I grew up on the coast of NC Went to college in Wisconsin. I was/am a outdoors sport guy. This little wagon was split and tough as hell ! No rust and no engine/transmission issues. A tornado killed in in NC in 1984. Had 202,000 miles.
Jim, thank you for traipsing around the corral, avoiding the meadow muffins, and taming this pony for us. No doubt you avoided the stampede that was to follow.
Somebody does need credit for breaking this pony so it could be harnessed…by the glue factory you mention.
That said, the bumpside F-350 tow truck beside the Pinto seems somewhat more memorable. Perhaps it was a package sale on those two, with big boy hauling the tamed and broken Pinto.
Yes! I was hoping for some mention of the Ford tow truck. Paint it green, yellow and white and it’d be a full-sized version of the Matchbox one from the late 1960s. I like it!
Ever at your service, Mr. Shafer, ever at your service… 🙂
Damn straight! What is the world coming to?? Those things can always be put into the next car! 🙂
Dreadful little cars, although this one seems currently devoid of the most dreadful aspects of the breed; and that’s the awful plastic interior that as I recall from back in the day pretty much inspired car sickness just by looking at it. That said, they were popular for a while. I had a friend in high school with one and I was just reminded the other day by another friend that she had one at about the same time (which I had forgotten). Both of those were sent to the glue factory well before this one…so props to whoever managed to get this one to the ripe old, terminal, age of 46.
I had a 6×9 just like that one. When I put a radio in my Vauxhall Viva I was looking for a place for the speaker. I temporarily wedged it between the parcel shelf and the transmission tunnel. It was actually pretty solid, so it stayed that way until I sold the car, and the speaker went with it.
Considering that even the dash is stripped out, I wonder if someone was turning it into a drag car. Pro Stockers used Pintos back in the ’70s, so it would make for a good clone.
I have a soft spot for Pintos; my mom drove a ’74 all the way up until it was a rusted hulk in 1983. Then, Dad sold it to my uncle, who drove it for a year or two before taking it to the junkyard. Mom and Dad would take me around the neighborhood “Pinto hunting.”
My thoughts, exactly. Someone stripped out the body in anticipation of prepping it for the V8 installation, then ran out of money, lost interest, and/or priorities changed. One of those “it was a good idea at the time” of someone with too much time on their hands.
Whomever it was put a lot of effort into it for nothing. I’m going to guess they tried to sell it as far as they got, and with zero interest, it ultimately ended up in the boneyard.
Just imagine if your mom drove THAT Pinto when she dropped you off at Kindergarten in the mornings!
I love how you describe your mom’s car as turning into a rusted hulk, giving the impression it was about to visit the crusher, but then casually mention how your dad then sold it to HIS BROTHER who drove it for another year or two…!
You can imagine what a Pinto looked like after being subjected to Michigan salt for almost a decade. I was only six when they sold it to my uncle, but I remember sitting in the driveway examining the holes in the lower body. My mom would tell me not to wash it because it might fall apart, but she also convinced me she was 25 years old every birthday until I was six or seven (I was born when she was 26). I guess I was gullible.
I am old enough to remember when these came out. The first two or three years (71-73, say) they were what I would call “cheerful cheap” – meaning cute, fun and perky little cars. From 1974 they were “drab cheap” with no redeeming features other than their price, simplicity and (relative to the Vega) durability. People wanted to drive the early cars, but only drove the later ones out of expediency or necessity.
I love the sticker “Caution – Fan”. It reads like a warning against someone who might like the car.
This project has death or divorce written all over it. But as a guy who has grown up around well-kept cars that have rusted to pieces, it is such an appealing idea to take a rust-free shell like this and start moving all of the good parts over to it, one by one.
This sounds like the best assessment of the Pinto I’ve read. I remember there was actual excitement when the Runabout hatch was introduced as a 1971 1/2 model and then the introduction of the wagon a year later. I even remember reading the articles in Car & Driver about how they hopped up a 2.0-liter Pinto to perform credibly on the track – fun, indeed!
For 1974, the Pinto may have sold well during an ugly recession year following the first energy crisis, but the introduction of the huge 5 MPH bumpers and emissions controls transformed the car into something cheerless and depressing. By 1975, the world had moved on, with many of the Japanese makers offering serious competition with better gas mileage and more efficient packaging, including 4-door body styles, which made the Corolla or Dodge Colt, for example, a credible choice for a small family.
So, if someone were to actually take on a full, from-the-frame-up restoration of a Pinto, I would think a 1971-73 model would be a better starting point rather than this junkyard example from 1976, it’s lack of rust nothwithstanding.
I wonder if there’s really anything different about the basic Pinto, regardless of the year. All that would be required to make it year-specific would be the bumpers and headlight nacelles. Even the taillight cut-outs look like they’d be the same, even though the lenses, themselves, were different.
Actually, the 1974 got a major working-over, improving its body stiffness and such. The original Pinto was widely criticized for being too flimsy, noisy and lacking structural integrity. The ’74 got some of the same changes they made in creating the Mustang II; the result was a more solid feeling but heavier and duller Pinto. The 5 mile bumpers just added to that weight gain.
We had 2 Pintos: a nu ’74 2.3L/4spd. wagon in the metallic brown this one was, and a later a used ’71 1.6L/4 spd HB in metallic green. Of the 2 the ’71 with the pushrod “Kent” motor was preferable to me. It ran well, and with a nu set of Fulda radials from the 4 Day Tire store chain it rode and handled satisfactorily all over the L.A. Basin.
My only HUGE regret was trading it for the worst car I’ve ever purcha$ed: a nu ’76 Chevette. TOTAL pc. of GM garbage!! Things kept going wrong with it from day 3, and the Chevy dealer we bought it from was shall we say…less than cooperative with fixing the lil lump. 🙁 DFO
That engine is the 2.0L EAO, the German built engine last used in the Pinto in ’74. So it’s either not a ’76, or it’s the wrong engine.
Yup that shot of the head where the intake goes gives that away.
I’d guess this was more likely the work of a 16 year old, who got all ambitious, completely disassembled the car, glimpsed the top of the mountain of work and expense ahead and gave up.
Still, that’s remarkably rust free, if it wasn’t so early I’d hoist a shot of gin to the cute little rust free Pinto and it’s ignominious end.
It does remarkably remind of the Mustang II from the front though.
I had the exact same thought. Also to Aaron65’s point, I also think this one was being prepped for racing duty.
I’m so sad to see this one come to an end, as some work did go into it, it lasted this long, and it otherwise looks straight. I now need to find some pictures of ice cream or bunnies or something.
I have a Pinto model on my desk, poop brown with the white “sports” stripes on it. I have it to remind me of the one my dad had. He kept that joke of a car running for years. He became quite accomplished at changing head gaskets on it. I have memories of getting into the back seat “butt cups” by standing outside the car, and twisting my frame into the back seat from outside. To get out of the back seat, I did the same thing, but pulled myself out of the small opening between the folded front seat and the door frame like I was being birthed. (My kids wonder why I’m claustrophobic now?)
I wouldn’t want a brand new Pinto if it was given to me. Honestly, no. I also wouldn’t want any of my teen kids driving one. Why American auto manufacturers thought a subcompact car was supposed to mimick a pony car, but on a smaller scale, belies common sense and the market at the time, filled with practical 510s, Corollas, and nearly evey European subcompact.
Pintos sold by the millions. My childhood was filled with them. The fact that I am still a Ford buyer only shows that someone Ford finally figured out by the end of the 1970s, how to make a practical (Fox body) vehicle. I can’t believe Fords in the 1970s – sheesh.
I was offered a Pinto wagon. in the late 1980’s. I was rather lethargic in my replies to my friend, and she eventually gave it to someone else who totaled it driving home one day. I had ridden in a few Pintos by then, and knew they were not very good cars. Still, looking a gift horse in the mouth?
They were actually very good cars just plebeian…..
-Nate
I didn’t think I could have any new thoughts about the Pinto, but this post prompted one.
Ford won the “compact” wars in 1960 with the Falcon, by making it “the same, only smaller”. That’s what folks wanted. GM almost literally reinvented the car, with the Corvair. It wasn’t at all what people wanted, and they lost.
Fast forward 11 years to the “subcompact” wars. GM “invents” a half-baked subcompact engine from scratch, and it’s horrible. Ford (unlike GM) is not scared of “Not Invented Here”, uses tried-and-true subcompact engines from across the pond – at least until their fully-baked, home-grown engine is ready for prime time.
I’m not sure who won the subcompact wars in terms of sales figures, but in the end, the Pinto was an overall better car than the Vega, and lasted way longer, for better or worse. Ya know, if you can set aside the whole fuel tank thing. 🙂
I think it’s been pondered around these parts how much better the Vega would have been if Chevy simply used a Vauxhall or Opel engine…
Chevy Vega: 2 million
Ford Pinto: 3 million
VW Beetle: 21 million
Toyota Corolla: 50 (FIFTY) million and increasing every day…
That’s what building on name equity along with a focus on quality and value for money gets you in a segment where 99% of buyers only want and need something that gets them where they want to go efficiently, reliably, and while retaining value for a very long time.
“… 99% of buyers only want and need something that gets them where they want to go efficiently, reliably, and while retaining value for a very long time.”
While I greatly enjoy the company and comments of CC’s world wide car/truck/rail knowledgeable population, I am a secret charter member of the 99%’ers mentioned in Jim Klein’s above comment.
The Vega, Pinto and Beetle were one generation.
The Corolla figure is adding together 12 completely separate generations – all cars named “Corolla” since 1968. Certainly, you aren’t saying that Toyota sold 50 million of these, right? This first generation Corolla sold about 1 million by 1970, according to Toyota.
We keep hearing how the Corolla sold 50 million, but the figure is similar to adding together every car with the same name regardless of the generation, right?
When comparing the sales figures for the Falcon and Corvair, remember that the Falcon stole sales from the low-end full-size Fords, while the Corvair brought new customers to the Chevrolet dealerships. Full-size Chevrolet sales were not hurt by the debut of the Corvair. So even though the Falcon outsold the Corvair, it wasn’t a complete loss for Chevrolet, as the Corvair didn’t eat into the (more profitable) sales of its big brother.
The Pinto-Vega sales contest was much closer, although a case could be made that the Pinto had more impact on Maverick sales than the Vega did on Nova sales.
GM almost literally reinvented the car, with the Corvair. It wasn’t at all what people wanted, and they lost
This tired old trope is long overdue to be put to bed. How many articles have I written here pointing out what Geeber said above? The Corvair sold fairly well through 1965, and it was essentially all conquest sales, from import owners/intenders, and those looking for a sporty compact. It was actually a very substantial success, and precisely the reason Iaccoca was very jealous of it and created the Mustang, which in turn is what killed the Corvair.
Let me rewrite your comment: GM literally invented the sporty domestic compact car with the Corvair, and it went on to revolutionize the whole industry.
GMH in Aussie used imported body shells and power trains in the entry level models of their Torana, they werent overly popular in that market where six cylinder cars were the norm.
My favorite Pinto story.
South Chicagoland is where North American railroad traffic crosses from the Atlantic East to the North Pacific. Consequently, I grew up surrounded by trains on almost every street, and railroad crossings that were six, seven or more tracks. RR crossings were maintained by the railroads and with the massive car and train traffic over these crossings daily, they were usually ripped up, pot-holed, patched-up and a mess. Crossing these meant creeping across until the gates went down for the next train. Cars back then would end up with loose front ends and with rust – you drove over them slowly if your car was over 5 years of age.
My dad’s poop brown Pinto was trying to clatter over the massive railroad crossings near our house. You had to hold onto the steering wheel as the front end shifted and plopped over each set of tracks. The whole car shook and bounced. Suddenly the Pinto’s damn horn goes off and my dad couldn’t make it stop. However as the car continued shaking climbing over the next set of railroad tracks, the horn itself shook loose and fell off the Pinto and started getting dragged over the tracks by the electric wires. The wires were long enough so that the front tire caught the horn. We heard a crunch and the Pinto’s horn “squawked” as it was flattened by the front tire.
It was perfect – for a Pinto, that is.
These Pintos were everywhere when during my youth. They were popular with college students, and with families that needed a second car, although I recall that the wagon version accounted for an unusually high percentage of total sales.
My aunt had a basic 1977 sedan – the only options were automatic transmission and AM radio – that served her well. It seemed to be miles ahead of Vegas owned by friends and neighbors, and our 1973 AMC Gremlin, in build quality and reliability.
Mine as well, though I’m mystified that I’ve been in two of them that I can remember. The first, as a passenger was probably in 1971, when my sister and her friend and I were taking a summer typing class at a local high school. We were still too young for high school, and most of the time my Mother drove us to the school but once her friend’s sister drove us in the first ride I ever had in a Pinto.
The second (and final) time I was actually the driver, a few years later. I’d just gotten my driver’s license the summer before and was staying with my Grandparents for a couple weeks. We were visiting my Grandmother’s brother, in their summer cottage on the Susquehanna, and for some reason they decided they needed to get some unpasteurized milk at a local farm, I was to drive (maybe because I wasn’t drinking?) and their son who was a year or two younger than I was to navigate (I lived 300 miles away and wasn’t familiar with the area at all). Anyhow, I was tasked to drive (their son didn’t have a license yet) and I drove his Mom’s car, not sure what year, but pre-1975 Pinto with an automatic. We found the place and got the milk; not sure why we needed to get it but that’s the last time I ever found myself inside a Pinto, as a driver even less so.
Looks like another “I will finish this project car someday, and pass it to my kids! Meanwhile, gotta watch TV.” Then, they can’t complete it due to many reasons and off to the junk yard, since “the kids don’t want it”.
There are people who vintage race cars which either once competed in IMSA’s Baby Grand/Radial Sedan classes or are modeled after those cars. Maybe this car was destined to be completed as a vintage racer, although the hatchback body style seems like a poor choice in light of the rigidity issues that all hatches have relative to their equivalent sedans.
https://vintageracecar.com/imsa-on-a-budget/
I can vaguely imagine someone wanting to restore a Pinto. An outlier type no doubt, but I can imagine it.
I’ll be 55 this year. I remember Pintos driven by neighbors and my friends’ parents. We never had one, but my mother did own a Vega for about 2.5 years, which is of course about as long as one could stand to own a Vega.
I frequently find myself in the company of groups of folks 10-15 years my senior (I live in Florida, duh), and the Pinto is actually fondly remembered by at least 3 people I’m familiar with. During one random conversation about a year ago over drinks, one person happened to mention previous ownership of a Pinto. In a group of 5 people I was astonished that 2 others also piped up to admit that they’d owned them too. They all loved them as first cars or first new cars. So there’s that. For a nanosecond I felt disappointed that I’d been too young to have appreciated Pintos. It passed. Quickly.
6.00 × 13 tires (and that type of tire size format) were still a thing in 1976? And 22 whole entire pounds’ pressure?
Nobody in my family ever owned a Pinto, but I did ride in them from time to time way back when via various neighbors and friend’s parents.
In my memory, “seated low with lots of dashboard ahead” is quite accurate!
I could see the car being restored although this would be kind of late in the scheme of things. One could go to Fun Ford, up in Sonoma, in the first 12 years of this decade, and you would see a sprinkling of either very well kept, or restored, Pintos and Mavericks. I thought the same thing when I saw them. “Who restores these cars?” Yet here they were and they obviously meant something to them so more power to them. As for now, in the scheme of things, I would imagine finding parts (although the car seems to be missing nothing) would be quite difficult to locate. Might someone have a huge stash of Pinto parts just waiting for that day? Nah, but you never know…
My family had two, a dark augusta green 1972 hatch and lime frost 1974 wagon.
Pintos have been showing up at the Carlisle Ford Nationals for several years now. The majority, however, have been post-1973 models, and are well-maintained original cars.
I’m going to echo it may have been an aborted project, I highly doubt this was going to be a concourse restoration so it stands to reason this would be the basis for something custom, be it a race car or a hot rod. Given the relative freshness I’d wager the owner either got project ADD and found something else to spend time on, or, grimly, passed away and left a garage full of disassembled Pinto for the family to throw out.
Why a Pinto? Well, why not? It’s a distinctive old car you rarely see today. Its sporty styling that made it a poor mainstream subcompact arguably should make a great project car candidate. They’re not worth a lot in good condition so you can find one(like this) for cheap that doesn’t require extensive rust mitigation, which is a requisite for any popular car like a first gen Mustang or Camaro purchased for $5000 or less.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FMENQeCbxfI?t=115s
LOL! That line must have seeped out of my subconscious!
This car is an interesting find. Thank you for taking the time to write it up.
One minor quibble – the hatchback version debuted in the middle of the 1971 model year, but with the sedan’s rear window on the hatch itself. For the 1972 model year, the hatch’s rear window was enlarged.
Oh, interesting! So there was a sedan, then a hatch with the sedan rear window in it, then a hatch with big window (like this one), and then the all-glass hatch? That’s a lot of choices/revisions!
It is odd. Initially, the hatchback featured the standard rear window, but with several vertical chrome strips on the lower portion of the hatch itself. Then, after just a few months, the hatch with the full window debuted for the 1972 model year.
When the all-glass hatch option debuted for 1977 (and it was initially an option, which meant that there were two types of hatches available!), it was in conjunction with the facelifted front.
But by 1977, the car was definitely looking stale. The Honda Civic and VW Rabbit had arrived to the market, and Toyota had revamped the Corolla at least once since the Pinto had debuted. Even Chevrolet had introduced the Chevette for the 1976 model year.
My friend’s family traded his mother’s light metallic green 1972 Runabout on a loaded, dark metallic blue 1977 Runabout. Their 1977 Pinto had the deluxe interior (with plaid upholstery for the seats!), air conditioning, AM/FM stereo, the all-glass hatch and the optional V-6.
It was quite a change from the 1972 model, but not enough to keep the car current with the competition from Japan and Europe, or even the more practical Chevette.
Wild. Paul’s pic shows the small window but it is actually different than the sedan which had square lower corners on the rear window.
It had to be smaller, to fit inside the hatch. The sedan window went all the way to the edges of that body opening.
It’s pretty obvious that the hatchback was an afterthought, and rushed into production. Undoubtedly the popularity of the Vega hatchback stimulated that.
The 1971.5 hatches were pretty rare and are now unicorns. I found one back in 2009 or so.
Great find! I collected a lot of die casts as a kid. And can generally remember immediately what cars were immortalized by each toy car manufacturer at the time. For such a popular design, whose hatchback and station wagon shapes would translate well in miniature, I recall virtually no Pinto die casts. The one singular standout exception being the Poison Pinto by Hot Wheels. Which was released in 1976. I remember loving the lime green colour scheme. But thinking they could have rendered the nose and bodywork better.
I have to admit, by the time I became seriously interested in cars around 1975, I found the Pinto’s styling in both hatchback and wagon form, generally quite tired and dumpy. If there was an overexposed car of the 1970s, this was it! Of course, the later Cruisin’ Wagon was very cool. The 1976 Stallion package was interesting, but both the Maverick and Mustang II Stallions had much more attractive two tone paint schemes, than the Pinto.
FWIW, Johnny Lightning makes a coupe and Fresh Cherries makes a hatchback. Both are 1/64 scale and quite accurately designed.
A small footnote in history I recall about the Pinto. The 1979 Pinto was one of the first of a handful of small cars in the US and Canada that adopted the trend of having chrome bumper faces with black urethane end caps. An awkward transition from industry standard full chrome bumpers to the later popular black urethane bumpers. Followed by the transition to body-coloured plastic bumper covers. The ’81 Escort/Lynx continued this look into the late 80s. However ungainly they appeared, it did modernize the front and rear of the Pinto.
Datsun/Nissan was another manufacturer who popularized chrome bumper faces with black urethane end caps. As did Chrysler with the Omni/Horizon, for example. AMC probably handled it best, with body-coloured end caps on the Eagle, that integrated with their bodywork.
My first car, the 1979 Mazda 626, had this as well, likely cheaper to just chop and form or form and chop the metal beam and then attach the end caps.
I didn’t mind the look at the time. Though it did indeed, convey cost cutting.
I get the impression that none of you remember how where your heroes stuck with the tried and true, that innovators, like 1970s GM, had those most affected, like Camaro and Vega switch for 1974 from today impossible chromed steel, to aluminum bumpers to avoid the hippy Jihad, How did you miss that??? Oh yea…..
Given the number of owners who made low cost, performance and handling improvements to their Pintos, Ford missed an opportunity to greatly improve the image of the Pinto/Bobcat with a factory hot hatchback version. Improved tires, suspension and shock upgrades, Recaro-like seats, sunroof. With more of a cheap fun flavour than the Mustang II or Capri.
So true. The 72 in the family was my brother’s and he requested that car when he turned 16. When I turned 16 in 1969 it was a different era and I was looking at Mustangs and Chargers with V8’s. Within the year my brother got the car he had pulled the engine into a high octane, high compression, fire breathing little monster with improved suspension tweaks. Was it fast? Hell, yes it was but freaked me out. Could never figure out how he could go that fast on a road when you were basically in a thin cardboard box. Scary stuff! This was a souped up Integra long before there was an Integra.
Aaron :
The ten best years of a woman’s life are between 39 and 40 =8-) .
I hated Pintos when they were new but so many became Road Roaches that refused to die and would easily drive from coast to coast…
Now I think I like them, put me in the back seat and I’m sure I’d hate them .
-Nate
“Jim Klein
Posted August 25, 2022 at 6:33 AM
Chevy Vega: 2 million
Ford Pinto: 3 million
VW Beetle: 21 million
Toyota Corolla: 50 (FIFTY) million and increasing every day…”
Yeah but… The first three are specific cars, they all evolved some, the Beetle more than the others, but remained an air cooled, rear engine car for 50 years. The Corolla is not a car but a market segment nameplate. Look at a 1970 Corolla and then a 2010 and tell me if it’s the same car. Front engine, check, water cooled, check, rear drive, uh, not later. Similar styling? Are you kidding?
Back on the Pinto, projects can eat you alive, sometimes the best thing to do is just throw them away and get on with life. Trust me, I know.
I really don’t want to argue this but tell me that if someone shows you a 1970 Corolla and then shows you a 2010 (or 2023 Corolla) that you can’t see each of their positions in their respective market segment of their time and place.
Look at it less like a single version of a car and more of what it represents in the market place to a buyer. We consider the Mustang a 55 year legend and it has zero parts in common with the original, same (even more so) with the Corvette. You say either name and you know the basic idea and their competition, same with the Corolla.
The Corolla best represents what can be achieved if a manufacturer sticks with something, updates it, changes it, but doesn’t veer all too much from the basic formula, values (and value proposition), treats their customers with respect, doesn’t take them for granted etc. The Corolla has certainly changed in form over the years, but the basic formula remains the same. The Beetle continually improved from day one, the final one was very different from the original but clearly the same formula. The Pinto and Vega, not so much. You mention the switch from RWD to FWD in a Corolla, 99% of the consumers buying them did not care whatsoever, most probably had no idea, the rest realized for what it was, it made perfect sense. In fact, in the middle there, they produced BOTH formats at the same time in the same generation of cars. Now they have AWD ones…
That’s why, today, there is no end in sight for the Corolla nameplate. It stands for something and may as well be a synonym for “Subcompact Good Car Long Game”. The Beetle achieved the same thing but eventually lost a little focus and then was simply outclassed/outregulated and replaced by its manufacturer BUT the idea/name/brand had enough equity to be revived as a retro-car for several generations that evoked very happy memories and lots of goodwill for/from many. There will conversely never be another Pinto or Vega sold in the US, the names were utterly ruined in the general marketplace, their fans notwithstanding, and that ruination was perhaps by manufacturer choice, or at least their actions/inactions as the case may be. Even their replacements (two, sometimes three different nameplates on as those too didn’t retain any positive imagery) are entirely gone from our market Yet the Corolla endures and is, as you pointed out, even being produced in different form factors now.