One of the most interesting Pintos was the Cruising Wagon, introduced in mid-1977. Few are seen these days–much like all Pintos!–but the CW might well be the flashiest and most interesting Pinto, if perhaps not the most desirable.
How did it come about? I can’t say for sure, but I suspect it had something to do with the Vega panel. The Vega version was marketed as their “truck,” and all the ones featured in the brochure were pretty plain-Jane (a front passenger seat was optional). An opportunity was lost in GM not offering a flashy version, and the Vega Panel faded away after ’75.
The Ford folks probably looked at it and said, “Hey! We have a small wagon too! Let’s capitalize on the custom van craze and offer a trimmed up Pinto panel wagon! Even if it bombs, the tooling will be dirt cheap!”
And thus did the Cruising Wagon presumably come into existence. Our featured car looks a bit drab without the flashy graphics, but I still liked it. There were two graphics packages available: A really crazy package, and a less crazy package. Both were pure ’70s, and if not super-valuable, seem to be getting more and more collectible today. This white example is the first Cruising Wagon I have ever seen!
The Cruising Wagon came out along with an Econoline Cruising Van. Both of them got a similar paint job. Custom Vans were hot in the second half of the 70s, and Ford was going to cash in. I suppose there was a certain group of people who liked the vibe of the van but not the bulk. The Pinto CW was for them.
I thought I remembered these from writing up a Free Wheelin’ Bronco early in my CC career. And I was right – here is the ad featuring the Cruisin’ twosome.
To paraphrase the popular bumper sticker of that time, If the CW’s a rockin, don’t bother knockin’. 🙂
Ah! The Holey Grail of Pinto wagons! Too bad the Cruzin’ option came out after the goofy goof-proof bumpers came out. This would have looked slick on a 1973 or earlier.
I seem to remember Warshawski having aftermarket fiberglass panels to simulate this…without the porthole. Always wanted to…but the time I spent ridin’ herd, I was mostly jobless and broke.
Slick idea. But too late…the sin-bin van concept had run its course by this time…and anyone who contemplates sinning in a Pinto Wagon….deserves the cramps and muscle spasms that will inevitably accompany the fail.
I had one of those back in the early 80s…and believe me, I had a lot of fun in mine. It even had the hatchback louvrers, kind of like the old Mustang Mach one. It had an air conditioner that blew so cold you could see your breath inside the car on a hot summer day, and it had a kick-ass stereo system.
The interior shot of this Cruising Wagon shows some nice dress up features. In addition to the three spoke Sport Steering Wheel, it includes the sport guage package. With this package, a tachometer replaces the fuel gauge that normally resides next to the speedometer, and the space for the HVAC control panel now includes a fuel gauge, ammeter and temp gauge. The package was standard on the Cruising Wagon, but also available on the two door sedan and three door hatch.
Wicked!
Awesome! I had my fingers crossed hoping that one of these would turn up today, but not too tight knowing how rare they are. I’ve loved these weird and wonderful machines ever since I first laid eyes on one (in a book – I was born a little after the era of Plentiful Pintos) and often daydreamed about owning one when I was younger. When I had (both of) my Thunderbird TC(s), I always thought their perfect curbmate would be a Cruising Wagon in that wild silver sci-fi getup with a T-bird turbo engine under the hood, of course. Now, in my old age, I think the Squire version is actually a little more appealing to me, but I’ve still got a major soft spot for these. They’re completely tasteless, but in a very adorable way.
This particular example is very nice and actually not that gaudy at all. I really love the two-tone interior treatment, the mini-console and the steering wheel/shifter upgrades the owner has done; in fact, this is the nicest Pinto interior I’ve ever seen and if I owned one I’d want it to look exactly like this (minus the speakers in the doors). Very sweet alloys, too. I’d paint the grille and some of the exterior trim black, like on the Ford ES/ESS models from the late 70s, always liked that look. White is a good color on this, but there’s so much of it!
Really great find, I’ve never seen one in person and gave up hope long ago.
The interior of this one is actually made of all stock pieces other than the sound system. That console is the one that came with the AC option, though a similar one was used in later non-AC cars. The gauges came with the sport steering wheel and filled the place of the center AC vent or heater only controls if you didn’t get the gauges. That pushed the center AC vent to the right and made it smaller. The shift knob is one that was included with the Squire or LDG options and I don’t think it came with this car since there was a matching cover on the P-brake handle with that shifter knob.
I’d say that yeah it is probably the most desirable Pinto ever produced by Ford. I’ve seen a few back in the day and the guy I bought one of my $50 Pintos from had a cruising wagon too. He did say it was for sale but wanted $1000 for it since it sort of ran, had the V6 AT and he considered it a “collectable” even in 1985 or so.
There’s one of these about a block from where I live. Orange in colour but no graphics, the owner covered it with a tarp a few years back to discourage potential purchasers. Last time I saw it in the light it looked pretty good. Only one I’ve ever seen, back in the day or now, that I can recall. It has a V-6, automatic and air so I imagine it was a pretty expensive car when new. If I recall it has the slotted mags shown on the yellow car at the bottom of the brochure. If such a thing as a desirable Pinto exists, this would be it.
This is the first Cruising Wagon I have seen in ages; I think I may have seen a few in the late 70’s but they seemed to disappear quickly. Conventional Pinto wagons were fairly common in the mid-west at that time, but I don’t recall seeing a Cruising Wagon.
Love the cruising wagon. Built a 1/25 scale model of it back in the 70’s.
I’ve always thought that the silver/black wagon’s paint scheme influenced the colors of the 79 Mustang Pace Car.
Wow. I had one of these in the late 80s, a family hand me down — a white 78 CW with the square headlights, wheezing 2.3l Lima 4 with an automatic transmission.
Painfully sluggish, with blind spots big enough to hide a truck. I appreciated the cool factor of the panel van configuration with the goldfish bowl window, but it was still a Pinto. Painfully crude compared to the Japanese cars my friends drove; it soured me on American cars for a long time.
A relative who knew cars predicted it would be a “classic” someday, but it was in too rough a shape to preserve when I had it. A multitude of electrical and other problems killed it off at about 70k miles, a few months after it passed out of my hands.
Getting 70k miles from a Japanese car of this era was a lottery they fell apart with rust quite fast and rough roads smashed them to pieces the term Jap Crap was very accurate gentle use on merican freeways suits Japanese cars, being belted along at 60mph on corrugated gravel they simply fell to pieces.
Jap crap was applied to motorcycles in the UK,usually by someone who had never ridden or owned one.
Did these have a back seat or no? There was a base panel wagon version of the Pinto too no?
They did have back seats from what I remember and no there was never a basic Sedan Delivery version of the Pinto like the passenger seat optional Vega Sedan Delivery.
So they never made a sedan delivery Pinto, funny, I thought they did.
I seem to recall seeing a black and white factory photo of one, it had the full wheel covers and whitewalls and no round window in the blank-out panel. It might have been in an issue of Collectible Automobile.
Mine had a vestigal back seat, though you wouldn’t have anyone sit there except as a punishment.
Ye gods its nearly a Panelvan but not quite, these would’ve fitted the shaggin wagon craze fairly well nowhere near a good as a Falcon PV but what can you expect from amatuers.
Is this what inspired the 70’s van craze in the UK?My brother’s mate built a very nice Ford Escort van with bubble windows,Wolfrace slot mag wheels and a blue crushed velvet interior.This was one of the better ones there were some truly horrible examples lashed up at the time.
Here a picture of a Ford Escort Mk1 van (without all the van decorations) I saw at http://encarsglobe.com/photo/im/ford-escort-van/08/
And another Escort van, this one a 1989 model http://www.flickr.com/photos/albertsbite/2663184055/
Too bad then they didn’t sold them in Canada and the United States…. 🙁
To me the most desirable Pinto is a manual transmission ’72 Squire Wagon. I prefer the early small bumpers and the visibility with all the windows.
Desirable and Pinto in the same headline.
I think I psychologist could write a rather lengthy paper on the meaning behind this heading alone…
Maybe not hugged enough as a child…maybe scolded for not going poo poo in the potty… maybe caught picking your nose in church…hmmm
Ha!
“Most Desirable Pinto”
“Most Dynamic Cinder Block”
“Least Objectionable Rash”
The styling “inspiration” for the silver one would appear to be the AMC Gremlin.
These were rare because most buyers saw it as a joke of a car that had been painted up to look like a van – which it clearly wasn’t.
This era has a lot of car with unique color stripings and decals that usually didn’t translate into a better version of the car. It was kind of like an acid flashback from earlier muscle cars that actually could move out of their way. Detroit’s executives back in those days seemed to think that the young people purchasing muscle cars could be somehow fooled into an Aspen R/T, a Fury Road Runner, or a LeMans-Ventura GTO because of decals and stripes.
Maybe they made some money from whoring out these nasty rides with the extra paint? I don’t know but buyers learned that Detroit will flat-out lie in bold stripes and decals to sell you a POS. That lesson was learned and took decades to unlearn. Whatever benefit Detroit got out of doing this was null and void by the 1980s when their buyers stopped believing.
The Ventura GTO wasn’t as bad as a lot of people think (certainly better than other, so-called musclecars during the mid to late seventies). With its ‘shaker’ hood scoop and 350 engine, it was actually not that far removed from the original 1964 389 GTO. Unfortunately, by 1974, the market had moved on and there were way too many obstacles for any musclecar (even those based on compacts) to sell – the 1974 Ventura GTO was gone after only one year. The much better performing 340/360 A-body Mopars didn’t help matters any.
i second that, the ’74 GTO wasn’t just ‘stripes’. It had a real Ponitac 350, and tuned to 200 HP, net with better power to weight ratio than the ’73 Colonnade.
It was an attempt to compete with Duster 340 , which was a huge hit. Even stole Road Runner and Charger buyers. Nova SS was still selling well, along with F bodies. Smaller compact bodies were in, so Pontiac was getting in with the times.
So how is it different than anything sold today? IMO it’s worst than ever. Anybody who buys a new car today has so many choices on how to load up their ride with whatever accessories they just cant live without. And those that are to cost prohibitive to buy and install(bluetooth) come standard. I cant drive down the street without seeing a Mini with the Union Jack on its roof let alone checkerboard mirrors. Gawdy graphics have been replaced by running boards and chrome exhaust tips. I think you’re living in denial if you think that Old Detroit was the only company that was capable of doing this. Bryce has a difinition of Japcrap that could very well mean something else today.
The more I look at the Pinto Cruising wagon, the more I think it would had fit like a glove for that Diet-Pepsi ad. 🙂 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0tIoyTnjHs
whenever I hear anything about a Pinto I always start thinking about Animal House. I have to say that it is very cool. Really not a huge Pinto fan but the wagons have a Mad Max Australian feel to them. I’m also really digging the brochure collage. Some really nice trucks that I am salivating over. I mean I would pretty much love to drive any of those models Today and have a big sh*t eating grin on my face. I love cars…Glad this site is around.
If this Pinto’s a rockin’ don’t bother … well you know how it goes..
Aspen R/T and Volaré Roadrunner were also very quick for the day!
My wife and I bought a new 1977 Pinto Crusing Wagon in April ’77. It was dark blue. The extra optiions were an automatic tranny and a roof luggage rack. We ordered it from the local Ford Dealer. Sale price was $4416.00! He had a yellow one on the show room floor, but I thought I didn’t need a V6?
The first time I laid eyes on it, it was in the body shop getting touched up after some transport damage.
Right away, I regretted not buying the V6. The car was a gutless wonder, to say the least. I had been used to driving a Mustang with a 351! After 3 years and 20,000 miles, we sold it to a guy I knew from work. About 9 years later, I could have bought it from the people who bought from that guy for $500. I wish now I would have bought it and put a 302 in it!
Does anyone have production figures on these cars? They have to be rare. I haven’t seen one for probably 15 years or so. When I try to find the value of one on NADA Classic Cars site, they aren’t even listed. Just the pinto wagon?
Thanks,
Bob
I have the Marti Report on my 78 CW. Out of 52,269 wagons built that year only 5329 had the CW package. Mine has the multi-colored stripes that go over the hood. Those were only available with silver metallic paint and included the roof rack. MSRP was $53. Don’t have the number of CW Pinto’s with those. That would have been included in the $200 marti report and I’m to cheap for that. I bought mine the same day from the same guy in Iowa Park Tx that I purchased a 79 thunderbird from. I saw the CW sitting in the backyard and asked if it was for sale too. It was. I paid $600 for the T-Bird and $50 ( yup, fifty!) for the wagon. It was rough, but DD material. I no longer have the ‘bird.
Just read the comment about the question if Ford ever made a panel wagon w/o a rear seat. The did in fact produce a few of these. I know because I purchased one from a cabinet maker in California about 15 years ago. He had it stored inside for many years. This wagon is rust free and in mint condition. However, there are some modified pinto wagons with solid side panels. The way to verify if it is an original is to look inside the drivers door panel–it should read “FORD PINTO TRUCK” and this should also be seen on the title. Mine is a maroon color. The owner who sold this pinto to me said it was the only one left in the US. I don’t believe this to be true. If you have one I would be interested in purchasing it!
Thanks, Ray
I have been restoring a 1977 White CW- the undercarriage and engine compartment is silver, I was wondering if all CWs were that way or my car should be silvef
my cousin has about 30 cruising wagons. true story
I have a 1977 Ford pinto causing wagon with the bubble window. All original numbers matching for sale in colorado. How’s the best way or best place to market it.