My boss arranged a sweetheart deal on a new ’72 Pinto Wagon, Oxford white and tan vinyl interior (’73 Pinto wagon image taken from Craigslist).
Text submitted by Harry Case.
After “Heather” died my father bought a ’71 Mercury Comet for my mother and I inherited her yellow ’69 Torino fastback, the car she had bought to replace the ’63 Fairlane I took to college. The ’69 Torino was a sharp-looking car with a 351 Windsor engine and automatic transmission. It was almost as fast as the ‘63 I had hot-rodded, but much smoother and made the ten-hour trip to school a lot easier.
However, at the end of my junior year, I got a summer job at a truck fleet repair shop doing cost accounting and running for parts. By then I was disillusioned with school and decided not to go back for my senior year in the fall.
My parents were furious but in the end, we agreed I could live at home if I paid rent and kept a job. I was also encouraged to go to Syracuse University at night since I had originally been accepted there. One stipulation was giving up the Torino and getting a car of my own since my sister would need it to get to school in Ohio.
“I intended to earn extra money by plowing snow in the winter…”
I took my savings and promptly wasted it on a 1956 Jeep CJ5 with a snowplow. I intended to earn extra money by plowing snow in the winter. The Jeep ran well, but the body was rusted out behind the driver seat and the homemade half-cab was not insulated at all. My parents tried to get me to return it to the dealer, but that is when I learned what the ”As Is” sale really meant. While it was hardly the ideal commuter car, on the weekends I had plenty of places to go off-roading and made the most of its small size and ability to go anywhere in low.
Unfortunately the F head four tired quickly from the daily commute; I had it about six months before blowing the head gasket. I parked it in my parents’ garage and tore down the engine to find that the head was cracked. A co-worker offered to buy the remains for $50 and towed it away while I sold the plow separately to get enough money for a down payment on a car, but had no idea what to buy.
Image from Ford’s ’72 wagon booklet.
My parents suggested the best thing for me would be to buy something new I could afford payments for, with a warranty, and then make payments to establish my credit. They insisted I get something I wouldn’t get tired of in a few months. Coincidentally, my boss at the time bought all the vehicles for the company fleet, tractors, trailers, straight trucks, sales, and executive cars. He arranged a sweetheart deal with his Ford dealer buddy and I ordered a ’72 Pinto Wagon, Oxford white with tan vinyl interior. It was a special order because the 2 liter (122 ci at the time) engine normally came with the automatic and I wanted the four-speed.
Six weeks later it came in and boy was I happy. A car I didn’t have to work on every day and that didn’t swig gas like a hog. Even with the four speed the car was a slug, but it certainly was economical and comfortable. With the rear seats folded down, I could sleep in the back. I lived 25 miles from work, 50 miles a day commute. With trips to see my girlfriend back in Ohio the 12 month / 12000 mile warranty would be up very quickly so I unhooked the speedometer cable and drove conservatively, as if there was any choice.
When I got close to the end of the 12 months I hooked it back up. Then trouble started, and the engine which never was powerful to begin with got steadily weaker. I checked compression, and there was no problem. Checked spark, checked fuel, but still no clue. One of the dealer’s master mechanics called his technical contact at Ford and found a service bulletin about soft camshafts causing valves to not open all the way. That was a real blow, and it meant major repairs on top of the car payments.
While I debated what to do the Pinto made up my mind for me. One miserable winter day the wiper on the driver’s side stopped suddenly, and then the passenger side wiper slowed and stopped. I was near a Dodge dealer and pulled into their lot. When I looked under the dash the wiper transmission had come apart and the loose arms pulled wiring, ducting, and insulation into a ball that jammed the wiper motor.
I had enough of Fords for a while and I traded the Pinto on a 1971 Dodge B200 contractor van with a 318 v8 and Torqueflite transmission. I rolled the remaining payments for the Pinto into the new loan and drove away that same night. My parents thought I was crazy and impulsive, but at the time, it was the right thing to do.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1980 Pinto Wagon: The Pinto’s Long Colorful End
I never knew till CC just how unreliable the cars of my kidhood, the ’70’s, were. My memory of the CC reprint of the long-term Pinto test had some shockers, including a camshaft entirely in the wrong position ex-factory! (Maybe that’s what damaged yours?)
I’m always mildly surprised when someone says the Pinto (car) was a bit sluggish. When that 2 litre was in Cortinas, surely a similar weight vehicle, they were decently zippy, and you could certainly rev the ding-dong out of it them for fun.
The ’71 Pinto 2.0 with the 4-speed was a hoot, and we’ve recognized it here as such, on more than one occasion. And it became a very popular and successful SCCA racer. I doubt the ’72 was different, although the wagon did weigh a bit more. I suspect his engine never ran quite right from the get go.
I think some of the “slow Pinto” perception is based on comparison to many American V8’s, especially pre-malaise versions, and lazy shifting. Also the fact that many Pinto’s had the 3 speed automatic. I always found the 2 litter Pinto to feel quite peppy but with the exception of a few friends’ parents car, my usual benchmark was a 4 cylinder Japanese or European car, usually with a smaller engine. My Vega GT with 2300cc four felt more powerful compared to the B18 Volvo I owned before, though even the thrashy pushrod Volvo like to rev more than the Vega. The Vega was a veritable hot rod compared to my sister’s 1600 crossflow Cortina; I’m not sure I ever drove a 1600 Pinto.
Your parents may have thought you crazy and impulsive (I might have agreed with them), but it also sounds like they were incredibly supportive of you and your adventures. Hopefully, that’s a lesson/example that paid off for you in later life. As a parent, I think my head would have exploded over the “quit college after the Junior year” thing. Fortunately back then it was more possible to finish off a degree at night school than it might be now. Now, transfers after two years generally pay a significant penalty in terms of time and money involved in having to re-take many courses. Different times back then for sure.
That’s a nice-looking Pinto wagon. Too bad that quality was decidedly not “Job One” at Ford then. I have a feeling that you were much more happy with the Dodge van that replaced it. Hopefully, we’ll see (read).
Great story/series Mr. Case.
Well it appears that you and your parents were pulling in two different directions all right. Since you survived to be able to write these articles it appears you made the right decisions for you.
When I was a kid I recall my neighbor tearing his Pinto engine apart and Pinto parts all over their driveway, maybe it was the same issue. I don’t think it got put back together and the car disappeared..
While my new ’74 Pinto wagon didn’t quite fall apart like yours did; it was feeling old and SLOW by 10K miles! $old it and bought a very used ’69 Nova 230/6 with the “semi-auto” trans. It was a good car given what I paid for it…..unlike the Pinto. 🙁 DFO
I wonder how many of the fleet-only 2.0L/4-speed Pinto wagons were built, and if any are still plying the streets and highways today. Surely, they would rank up there with other CC unicorns, like the usual, bottom-feeder intermediate/full-size, six-cylinder/3-speeds.
With that said, with the 4-speed Pinto wagons being such slugs, I can’t imagine how slow the automatics must have been. Fords sure had a history of some of the slowest cars produced for the times, beginning with 144CID Falcons that had the 2-speed Ford-O-Matic. Imagine a car so slow you could have it floored ‘all the time’ and still be barely moving.
The 2.0 came standard with the 4-speed; it was not a “fleet only” thing.
I drove plenty of early Pintos; the 2.0 4-speed was relatively zippy, although the wagon did weigh a bit more. the 2.0 automatic was of course slower, but it was still quicker than many/most comparable imports with automatics.
The text referred to the Ford guy who ordered it as the fleet manager, and the author stated that his Pinto wagon, 2.0L/4-speed combo was a special order, so I just put two and two together.
The author said It was a special order because the 2 liter (122 ci at the time) engine normally came with the automatic and that is correct in terms of what dealers were getting from Ford for dealer stock Pinto wagons. This also applied to ’71 and ’72 Pinto coupes: dealer stock Pintos then came in 1600/4speeds and 2.0/automatics, for obvious reasons. If one wanted a 2.0 4-speed, it was often a dealer order (not a “fleet” order), although some 2.0/4 speeds may well have slipped through that pattern and ended up as dealer stock. This may have varied by geographic location if a dealer expected more interest in 2.0/4 speed cars, most likely the coupe from sporty car buyers, but not so likely the wagon. This is from my experience as a car jockey at a Ford dealer at the time.
By the early to mid-80’s when I had several friends with used Pintos, both wagon and coupe/hatchback, they were all 2 liter 4 speeds.
Thanx for your story .
I remember these wagons well although I only ever saw the smaller engines with automatics .
Buying an old Jeep with a plow anywhere in snow country is russian roulette from the jump, sorry you got burned, I was expecting to read bout the badly twisted frame and many welded up cracks in same .
Looking forward to reading about the Dodge, those were crude but very stout .
-Nate
Got a ’72 Pinto wagon in 1980 with 2.0 and auto for cheap when a friend who worked for NSA at Ft Meade moved to Japan for 2 years. I was working in Balto City at the time in a very sketchy neighborhood and needed a cheap beater that would draw no attention. Had to rev the bejeezus out of it to make it go but with good radials, stiff wagon springs and rack & pinion it was actually fun to drive. When it got rear ended by a kid going 30 and not paying attention it folded up in the rear, a huge kink on the roof. I bent the rear fender off the tire drove it home, and got more from insurance than I paid for it… owning that little Pinto turned out to be a good experience all in all!
My parents bought a used ’74 Pinto sedan in ’77 for my twin brother and I to learn to drive on. It had the new 2.3 with automatic. What a piece of crap. It was pathetically slow, and the transmission was so weak that on any slight hill I had to put my left foot on the brake before putting my right foot on the gas. If I didn’t, the car would roll back, and the engine would die when I hit the gas. My dads ’69 Country Squire with the 390 was a different story. That was a blast to drive. Luckily my brother got into an accident a couple of years later with the Pinto and totaled it.
The Consumer Reports dot charts from 1976 (for whatever they’re worth) show a noticable improvement in Pinto engine reliability beginning in the ’74 model year when the 2000 cc became standard. So, was the small 1600 engine problematic?