“Your car awaits you, Squire.” – as I’m sure no 1978 Ford Pinto Squire wagon owner has ever heard from their hired help. This isn’t exactly the car you’d buy if you were a trust fund baby or won the lottery, but I’d have a warehouse full of these leisure suit-era cars, there’s no question about that. Thanks to our own Squire, Gunter K., for sending in this tip!
I’ve always wondered what a second-generation Ford Pinto would have looked like, has anyone else? Hello? The Pinto was made from the fall of 1970 for the 1971 model year until the end of the 1980 model year and there were slight updates over that decade but that’s it. The bumpers got really big after 1974, and they added a slanted grille in 1977, three years after the similar 1974 Chevrolet Vega Kammback Estate wagon got a slanted grille. That’s about it.
If you’re going for a kitschy car, by all means, get the one with woodgrain on it, why wouldn’t you? Speaking of wondering what a particular Pinto may have looked like, here’s a quick Photoshop four-door Squire wagon. I’m breaking my own rule about never showing work that isn’t your best. This particular ’78 Pinto Squire looks like a really nice example and it’s much better with just two doors.
It isn’t perfect inside or out as you can see, and the seller, even though they’re a dealer, doesn’t give a huge variety of photos, sadly. But, what they do show looks nice. This one has a Cruise-O-Matic three-speed automatic as you can see, which isn’t the end of the world, but a four-speed manual would have given it more thumbs up at car shows. The automatic was the only option with a V6 engine.
The engine looks suspiciously like a perfect back seating area, which is weird. Yes, the seller uploaded 23 photos with the elusive 24th photo of the engine being missing. I don’t get it but it’s 2024 and I barely get anything anymore. This car should have Ford’s 2.8-liter V6 with around 90 horsepower and 143 lb-ft of torque. The seller has it posted here on craigslist in Fort Lupton, Colorado, just northeast of Denver, and they’re asking $19,977. Here is the original listing. Let’s hear those Pinto stories! Just remember, the wagons didn’t “blow up” and the sedans had been fixed by 1978…
That is my old Pinto! In fact it was a story here on Barn Finds a couple of years ago. I had it at the annual Touchmark Car show where the staff writer spotted it.
Just so all know, I was the 2nd registered owner and had bought it from the original owners family out of Southern California. I later (last year) sold it to a Pinto collector in N. Carolina that owns a dealership making him the 3rd owner. This seller would be the 4th, however I think being the last two dealers held them in their inventory perhaps that doesn’t count as another owner? Bottom line is that it’s not a one owner as stated. I actually made the paper showing the history for it. I will confirm that it had run, drive, and work perfectly. It has power steering and the AM radio did work at the time of my ownership. It always got looks. I think I sold it for 13k ish. That dealer probably made a couple thousand? Funny how the next dealer thinks he can top it since he probably paid 15k or a little bit more?
Fun to see it pop up again.
That’s incredible, Greg! Thanks for sharing that. Would you buy it back for the amount of money that you sold it for last year? Eventually, this car will be worth $50,000 if every owner adds a few thousand to the asking price…
Hi Scotty,
I would not buy it back for that amount of money. I had fun with it and got a chance to enjoy it. I like collecting and with only so much room and money I need to sell one to buy one. I am always up for something different and have only purchased two cars back over the 30 years of collecting. Those two I went on to sell later again.
We owned and drove the exact model/year with the dinoc in yellow, camping in it up and down the coast of California with a foam pad in the back. I knew dogs that were faster :) Of course that was 1980 and it was only a couple of years old. Hard to believe people pay so much for an old Pinto wagon no matter how good shape its in :) Time keeps on keeping on.
Love the four door Pinto image you created. Having owned a Pinto wagon a very long time ago I think the back doors would have been very small unless the car got stretched to create a 4 door.
I liked my pinto. I got it for $150 bucks in 1988. It was really really basic and crude but quirky, fun and surprisingly reliable.
I can’t imagine anyone paying almost $20k for one no matter how nice it is.
You can’t imagine anyone paying almost $20k for a Pinto no matter how nice it is?
I never dreamed I’d jump at the chance to buy gasoline when the price dropped below $3 per gallon. ;)
Gas is $3.57 in mid-Michigan this morning and looking mighty tempting.
$6.60 a U.S. gallon in the Greater Toronto Area. I would probably buy a stupidly large pick up, like you folks south of the border, if it was under $3.00. Either that or a big block powered wagon!
Good point. Things change. Here in where I am in Canada gas just came down a bit to $4.56 (USD) a gallon ($1.65 a litre) and I jumped on it like it was some kind of great deal.
Same gas station is $3.89 on Monday 6/24. No benefit in living near the capitol.
You are way too kind, Bo, thanks much! I need to tweak that one, the back door is a bit small or out of scale or something is off. I didn’t think that anyone clicked on those Photoshop creations when I put them in there.
I always look forward to your creations, Scotty, as I’m sure a lot of us do.
$15,000 to $20,000 seems to be the going rate for these wagons that aren’t roached. I’ve owned two, paid $600 for both of them, altogether. Back in the late 80’s. Not as nice as this one, but not bad. I guess I’ll just be satisfied with the memories.
I bought a new one in 1978 not a squire just a reg pinto wagon 4 cly 4 speed stick drove it 45 miles home from work in the blazed of 78 in Boston north shore area it was only couple of months old got me home no problem past many cars on rt 95 that where stuck that little wagon just keep going great car
Those pictures of 95/128 from the Blizzard of ’78 really captured the moment, with all of the cars stranded.
Sweet !
I briefly owned a 79 regular Pinto wagon with the 2.3 and a 4 speed. I really liked it too. The 79s got the single rectangular headlights and a nice finer mesh grill. Mine was a dark shade of blue, and came across rather European.
Sorry Scotty but my memories of Pintos is pretty sad. In the 1970s the company had a bunch of Torinos in the pool. Then one day they all disappeared and were replaced with Pintos. We all thought it was kind of comical. No one would touch them. They had already replaced our F250 pickups with Couriers. With any gear loaded those Pintos would barely make 80 MPH and would only crawl up hills. They got lousy mileage and would only go about 200 miles on a tank. I guess they must have gotten better over the years but that bunch of Pintos were pretty worthless.
You think loading them up and driving at 80 mph had anything to do with the poor fuel economy?
plus you can’t consider how many miles to a tank of gas unless you know the size of the tank I believe my pinto only had a 10 gal tank so at 200 miles a tank and I sure you didn’t drive it dry you probably only used 19 gal that’s over 20 miles per gal not bad for in the 70s
$3.00 and 9/10 in Davenport, Iowa yesterday, Sunday June 23.
Just cause it’s old doesn’t mean it’s worth a lot of money. You can’t tell some people that but they will probably eventually sell it for their price.
I knew a Robert West from Morrill Middle School in San Jose, California in the mid 1970’s. Same Robert West?
For a group that supposedly doesn’t care about the price of gas when it comes to collector cars, gas prices for NON-Americans sure seems to be a hot button. Gave me heck on the Riv post, but the Pinto, with so many made at such a crucial time, just about everyone had some experience with one. As said, my old man repaired Pintos on the side, and I saw a few. Never one burned, however, and wagons were far more popular, it seemed. Or at least involved in more accidents, front end damage, mostly.
Now, hold your snide comments, several sites claim the cost of a ’78 Pinto wagon was about $4,050, again, options pushed them higher, but still cheaper than a Corolla wagon at almost $4500. Of the almost 180,000 Pintos sold in 1978, almost 55,000 were wagons. Another great example of a car that was once so popular, and scrapped as fast as they made them. Say what you will, the Pinto racked up a lot of miles for Americans, that YES, were concerned about gas mileage.
having bought a new 1978 pinto wagon I must say that one for $4000 was well equipped as I only paid without a trade $3500 it was a 4 cyl 4 speed stick it was a great little car
I had a 72 pinto squire with the German 2.0. I rebuilt the engine at 100,000 miles: not because it needed rebuilt, but because the front cover gaskets were leaking and taking out the timing belt from oil saturation. I had the engine precision balanced, installed tuned headers, msd (multiple spark discharge), Mallory dual point distributor, and a Holley Weber economaster carb. My wife got 32 miles per gallon. I only got about 30, I drive more aggressively. The 2.0 engine was a much better engine than the 2.3. The stock head could be bench flowed because the ports were identical and the 2.3 had ports that were different shapes. For the 2.3 to breathe well you had to replace the head with a motorsport competition head. The 2.3 had cam issues too. The 2.0 had a stronger block too. The high nickel content made the bottom end more durable. After 20 more years of research for made the 2.3 a good engine too.