The early 1970s marked the entrance of U.S. automakers into the growing subcompact car market. Two of them were introduced in 1971, the Chevy Vega and the Ford Pinto. The latter would see a 10-year production run that resulted in sales of more than three million units, aided by the OPEC oil embargo of the mid-decade. The seller’s car was sold in new in 1974 as car buyers were flocking to more fuel-efficient vehicles. It’s said to be a one-owner Ford that’s seen only 16,500 miles but has been in storage for the past three years. Located inside in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this interesting project is available here on eBay. So far, $2,551 is the top bid, but the seller’s reserve has gone unchecked.
Pintos were available in three body styles: a 2-door sedan, a 3-door hatchback, and a small station wagon. Sales of the Pinto reached a peak in 1974 at more than 544,000 copies, largely because the little car with an inline-4 engine was stingy on gasoline (by standards of the day, not the current era of hybrids). The car’s original and only owner ordered the vehicle with a 2.0-liter engine and an automatic transmission. The order form specified Polar White paint with an Avocado vinyl roof and matching Sports Accent interior. The latter is in great shape (except for one small spot) as is the top, but the paint suffered damage as the result of some fairly recent vandalism.
We’re told the low mileage of the Pinto can be substantial by Pennsylvania’s State Inspection and service documents that might go back to Day One. The spare tire may have never touched the ground, which means it’s date-coded for 1974. The vehicle was treated to Ziebart rustproofing when new, so finding any rust will require some effort, but not impossible to find. The car’s next owner will need to update many of the “consumable” parts on the car, like belts and hoses, which are nearly 50 years old.
One neat additional option is that the car came with a factory sunroof which is operated manually with a crank, not by the push of a button. Besides documentation, there is a host of spare parts that will come with the deal. This looks like a nice auto to restore, assuming a Ford Pinto is a car that would be worth the time and money. But how often do you run across a five-decade automobile with such low mileage?
Interesting Pinto. The thorough write-up claims the mileage can be confirmed, and the excellent interior condition backs up the claim. Oh-so-70’s avocado/white two-tone. Looks like there are quite a few extra parts, including avocado interior pieces. Needs its consumables replaced but I’d think that would be straightforward. Too bad about the body damage, and there might be some rust to attend to. I’d prefer a 4-speed, but as Russ notes, how often does one find a low-mileage Pinto in pretty good shape?
One owner too many!
And nobody needs to say anything more. Good one.
The close up pictures are okay at showing the rust spots/etc. but there needs to be some profile shots/side/front/rear, and a better picture of the sunroof. GLWTA!! :-)
I had a 74 Pinto wagon. A cheap used beater with well in excess of 100,000 miles, the little motor was still running great the day the driver’s seat and I fell thru the floorboard onto the pavement. Quite the way to bow out.
Pintos were nice econo boxes.
The news on rear end collisions didn’t help them but hey the early Mustangs, Torinos and all offered opportunities.
I think these are great cars myself.
I agree, the Pinto got a bad rap. They were no better or worse in a rear end collision than many other cars of the era, with the front-engine, rear-wheel drive layout, with the gas tank mounted in the trunk floor, behind the rear bumper, including the Vega, Torino, or LTD (including the Crown Victoria/Police Interceptor). They were a step above their larger compact siblings and competitors, the Maverick, GM X-Body (Nova et al) and Dart/Valiant twins from Chrysler, with newer OHC engines and Rack & Pinion steering.
Agreed
If you read the press, you would have thought Pintos exploded like bottle rockets, but was simply not true. The gas tank filler neck design could have been better, and Ford knew it. Their morbid calculations of the cost/benefits of a more expensive design versus litigation looked awful in court.
In a car that sold in the hundreds of thousands, there were probably a dozen accidents where the filler neck design contributed to passenger fatalities. I would be willing to wager that the Pinto was safer per passenger mile than many of its contemporaries, especially the VW Beetle, with its fuel tank sitting over the front seat occupant’s laps
How do you list a car and not have one picture of the complete car? It had to be intentional , because that is not that easy to do.
Yeah Steven, my wife and I had one too. Ours was that burnt orange color
and was a squire model. Although
most of the wood trim was gone except for the framing on the tailgate
and the di-noc trim it framed. It had
a 2300cc 4-bsnget mated to a 4-speed tranny. Despite being a rust
belt car, it had little if any rust. Only
thing we did to it was to have the head rebuilt after I broke one of the
plugs while doing a tune up on it not
long after I bought it. We drove it
2 years with no great trouble until
we got to Florida where the engine
finally croaked after 150K+ miles
of use. Wound up selling it to a family member for parts to fix his
Pinto Runabout. Great car while
it lasted.
$5,100. Pretty healthy! There’s a Facebook groupt which shows old collisions. There are some pictures of these after accidents, and they don’t absorb impacts well, let’s put it that way. I would definitely feel nervous driving such an underpowered car among the huge and very fast vehicles of today.
Still, a neat find. Driven around town, it could be fun.
I wouldn’t buy it for $100.00 bucks, I value my life to much.
Despite Ziebart, my Pinto Pony rusted where the front rear leaf springs mounted to the unibody. That’s New England salt I guess.
A welding shop laid down some big patches and all was well.
Otherwise the Ziebart worked very well.
SOLD for $5,100.
Either that’s amazing or the dollar is even worth less than it seems :)
When I met my girlfriend her then just deceased husband had left her a ’73 Pinto wagon with dinoc kitchen drawer paneling on it’s sides when he went out on deployment. We drove that thing sleeping in the back up and down the coast of California and to Mammoth. It never let us down and left us stranded and gas was out of control at .60 cents a gallon.on even days of course.;)
Of course we had lower expectations of car quality then. Hyundai didnt sell cars in the U.S :)
I wouldn’t buy it for $100.00 bucks, I value my life to much.
The avocado vinyl roof and interior aren’t my favorite, but I’d lose the vinyl roof as part of the paint upgrade, so we’re halfway there. I’d be better if it was a wagon with a 2300 motor in it, but beggars can’t be choosers and the low mileage is a plus. The good news is a 2.3L motor is a bolt in, so if you can find a wrecked T-Bird Turbo Coupe or SVO Mustang with a 2.3L Turbo motor as a donor, it should bolt right in! If your budget can support it, an Ecoboost crate motor might even fit! A 300 hp Pinto! Yahoo!
It may have been sold new in 74 but if it had a 2.0 then I am pretty sure it was a 73.
74 was the 1st metric made motor in the US and all that was available.
Had a brand new 1973 runabout 3 door hatch. 1600 motor 4 speed. What an awful car. My dad made me buy it. I wanted a Capri or a 240z. No performance upgrades available from Ford. This is car you would drive in hell for eternity. It began rusting before it was paid off from
The inside out . I’m sorry I need a Valium.
😄
Being a Ford man, and only owning Ford Motor Company vehicles, I have had quite a bit of experience with the Ford Pinto and Mavericks.I was a Mustang fan myself, I had a 1969 Mustang Mach I which I loved and owned for over 30 years. However I had a girlfriend who owned a 1974 Pinto Squire. It was dark brown metallic, with the woodgrain panels on the sides and tailgate, It also had very cool factory wheels on it. I love station wagons, and the little Pinto Squire was as cute as it could be. To me it looked like a full-size Ford wagons. I drove that little Squire quite a bit. I thought it was very good-looking and comfortable, it was a cute little Ford, I thought it was a fine little car. Of course I thought it lacked power, but if I didn’t ask too much of it, it was acceptable. It also had factory Air Conditioning and we put an aftermarket AM/FM stereo system. It was OK for around town as well as on the high way. It’s power steering Rack and pinion steering system made it handle very well. At the time, Fords steering systems left a lot to be desired, Fords were known for their lose steering, but that all changed when Ford started installing Rack and pinion steering on most of their cars. My only issues were that you sat so low, it was difficult to see down the road. And when using the A/C you almost had to get out and push. But those to issues were very common on small engine cars. All and all the Ford Pinto was a very good car. I never let the exploding gas tanks thing effect how I felt about the the rest of a very good car. Did I say the Pinto Squires were cute as they could be. Oh, the colors of this one do nothing for me. I used to imagine how well it could be tricked out. There could be so many things to them, like a little LTD..
I bought a new one in 1978 a wagon 4 cyl 4 speed for second car lived in Boston then Feb 1978 was major snow storm my reg car was Lincoln town car could not go anywhere in snow but that little pinto got me home 30 miles going around everyone stuck on rt 95 great car
Ah, the Blizzard of ’78. So many have fond memories of that storm. I remember the pictures of the major highways with abandoned cars, covered in snow.
I always enjoy the authors posts, but the 1st paragraph needs correcting, there were 3 US automakers in the mix, the often forgotten Gremlin, despite over 700,000 sold and was 1st US marketed econo,,car, introduced April Fools Day, 1970. The only reason foreign cars went over so well, is they were just plumb better. Once their dealer network was established, our offerings, especially Gremlin, couldn’t compete. Seems when documenting US small history, it’s always the Pinto, Vega and the Gremlin. Pinto and Vega were too new for most, OHC driven by a belt, oh, there’s trouble, no thanks, and Gremlin with its 1950s motor, no wonder people flocked for the imports. It was clear, only the most patriotic Americans seeking gas mileage “settled” for the Pinto, Vega, Gremlin, but probably secretly wished they bought the Toyota. Pintos were good, not great cars, certainly not worth fixing and were thrown out daily. I remember yards with stacks of Pintos. They did their job, and thrown away, as evidenced by the 3 million sold,,and amazing to see one today at all.
My beige 73 Wagon got me through Grad School and then some. It was a nice little car. Easy to maintain. The 2.0, 3 speed was underpowered. But what the heck. Years later a Farmer in PA called me. He found my MD Registration under a seat. He was restoring the SW for his Son to drive to college!
The AMC six dated from 1964, was/is a great engine, with Jeep using a variant up to 2004.
Find me a ’74 Toyota, still on the road. The foreign car companies undercut the American car pricing. That’s why they sold. That Asian steel rotted away just as fast as ours did. If not worse.
Sorry, but it was quality that gave the Japanese cars an advantage.
I believe the Avocado and white color scheme was a special “Spring Colors” package, also available in Orange and white
What no one seems to remember is that the wagons were exempt from the “collision fires” due to the different placement of their gas tanks. The issue only affected sedans.
And Sedans/Runabouts only before 1973.
My Dad had a 1971 Pinto with the smaller back window and a 4 speed, it had a 1600cc motor in it and we would put sandbags in the back so he could drive in the snow! good memories