This 1974 Ford Pinto has a couple of interesting stories connected to it or actually three if you consider a 48-year-old car with 4,780 original miles on it interesting. Ok, there are probably at least four interesting facts about this car or maybe more. The seller has it listed here on eBay in Mooreland, Oklahoma and the current bid price is $8,100 and there is no reserve. Thanks to Greg B. for sending in this tip!
The seller tells us that the original owners bought this car brand new and then heard about the gas tank issues and parked the car. That seems strange since the Pinto had already been on the market for two or three years by that time and the 1974 Pintos reportedly had the gas tank “fix” by then anyway. Still, they parked it and it sat until the early-2000s.
A hot rod builder from New Jersey bought it in order to shoehorn a V8 into it but after living with it for a while and seeing just how much of a time capsule it was, he decided against modifying it. That’s where the third owner comes into the picture, the seller. They bought it in 2007 to add to their future trifecta of cool, small 1970s cars having already found a nice Chevy Vega, but they could never locate an AMC Gremlin and now it’s for sale. But, not before they put a mind-blowing $14,000+ into bringing it back to life after it had been sitting for so many years!
The interior is truly where the time capsule name fits and if there’s a better color for a Pinto other than lime green or orange, I don’t know what that would be. This one has Ford’s Cruise-o-Matic three-speed automatic and it’s a sedan with a trunk so, of course, the trunk looks perfect, too. They mention that this car lived through a horrendous Oklahoma tornado and received exterior damage but they also say that it’s original so I’m not quite sure if that means that it was never painted? There is a spot visible that appears to have some runs in the paint. Thoughts?
The engine is Ford’s 2.0L inline-four which had 80 horsepower. This one runs perfectly and with so many interesting stories attached to this Pinto, your signboard at car shows might be bigger than the car is. The photos are a bit cloudy and otherwise not the best, almost like 1940s glamour shots where they’d put vaseline on the lens, but check them out and let us know your thoughts on this Pinto!
The steering wheel looks to have been replaced.
I was recently accused of being really negative here lol, so I will try not to be so negative, but with a mismatched steering wheel & potential repaint (or partial repaint), and not a quality job if there are runs in the paint, I question the authenticity of the miles. If the original purchaser was so afraid to drive it, why didn’t they sell it or trade it in?
Either way, it is a nice car. These have been exploding (see what I did there lol?) in value lately, and as a hobby car, miles shouldn’t matter anyhow. It is well preserved, whether original or not. Buy it and drive it!
Ha, exploding in value, why you, I ought’a… Good stuff, sir.
It’s hard to tell from the cloudy photos but it sure seems like I’ve seen this Pinto before but it didn’t come up on a search here.
Negative? You have a ways to go before you beat me at negativity, my friend. My negativity goes back 3 generations, that I know of, besides, let me take the heat, rolls right off a guy named Howard,,,( snif)
I never thought I am negative, but apparently I hurt someone’s feelings when I pointed out that a particular car isn’t real practical in today’s world. A lot of these aren’t, but they are still neat cars. That one was too, I was just pointing out the obvious lol.
Howard, you sometimes come across as a bit negative, but you have a practical & sometimes funny way you express your thoughts. Frankly, you make sense and you amuse me. Keep it up!
Ok let’s see if I can beat Howard here. This is ridiculous! I mean, I know it’s very rare today but $10,300 so far for an automatic ’74 Pinto that has some question marks? And anyone who’s ever had an old car knows that you will generally spend 2-3k more once you buy one to sort it out. And if Pinto ownership is anything like I remember it, the novelty will wear off in about 2 days!
Are people stopping to think about what’s going to happen when the economy slows down and they cannot sell these vehicles without taking a huge loss?
Should be green …
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stationwagonforums.com%2Fforums%2Fproxy.php%3Fimage%3Dhttp%3A%252F%252Fcimages3.carsforsale.com%252F372491%252F7515CD34-03FD-4AE4-97D6-600605EB4FDB_7.jpg%26hash%3D6af86f8a05091cfa6a7c4c45fec05e9e&f=1&nofb=1
aint it?
I agree, Stevie!
If I were looking for a 3-season daily driver, this wouldn’t be it (I’d much rather have a first-generation Malibu coupe [1978-81]), but if I had it, I wouldn’t be afraid to drive it around my small town, and even park it in the lot at the grocery store where I work part-time in my semi-retirement.
Good job Scotty. It’s worth reading the lengthy ebay write-up to get the details. A very low mileage Pinto, how cool is that. Period-correct colors, mine had the same lime interior. Apparently the mechanicals have been refurbished, now time to deal with the body panel damage (if desired). Too bad it’s an automatic. Would be lots of fun at any car show. Will be interesting to see where the price lands.
Thanks, Bob. The details sure look perfect I’d want a 1973 or earlier with small bumpers and a 4-speed for sure but this looks like a nice one.
You wonder where Hollywood gets their ideas, playing the “gas tank” card here,,okay,,it just gets better and better,,,the stories, that is. Parked it after the gas tank issue,,,and $10g’s,,It’s too easy and I should stop right here,,,oh ding dang diddly crap, I can’t, there’s no way, I’m sorry, remember the Rifleman episode where the crooked horse dealer swindles Lucas’ friend by putting a nail in the hoof? It lives on,,,ten thousand dollar Pinto, nice!
What was The Rifleman? TV or movie?
I’ve always been outta touch with pop culture, whether current or past.
I have still never seen any of the Star Wars movies!
A case of the “Tale gets taller on down the line…”
Sorry but it’s a Pinto with big bumpers and an automatic.
Nuf-sed
Now if I can find a ’72 with a 4 speed, with low miles, and in orange or another good color, I would be all over it.
I have a ’73 Pinto Station Wagon Esquire that I am currently restoring. My parents had one just like it. It has the fake wood overlay wood paneling and a roof rack. It’s going to get noticed at shows for sure.
A 74 pinto with low miles and a 73 station esquire
Wow
We really have a show here !
These were real pooches, especially with the auto. Working at a garage in H.S. I replaced a number of camshafts in these engines which were known to fail quite prematurely. IIRC, you could slip the cam out of the engine if you removed the radiator cap and jacked the engine up a bit.
Great car for a Bob Glidden tribute ..
Seventeen year old me got the hatchback, 4 speed, 2.3 litre version of this car in 1977, and drove the crap out of it for about 3 years. It stood up to the abuse pretty well, and I got a large portion of what I’d paid for it back, when I sold it. A lot of people didn’t think much of them, but I had a lot of fun out of mine.
Every car in the 70s had that wonky gas tank configuration. For some reason, only Pintos took the heat.
Proven in court via insurance claims and other gathered data that the Pinto was no more prone to gas tank explosions in rear end accidents than a Vega, Gremlin, Colt or any other sub-compact.
Pinto took the heat because Mother Jones and ambush/yellow journalism
I had a ’74 Pinto similar to this one. Mine was blue with a white vinyl top and a hatchback though. It was a pretty okay car. It was WAY better than my neighbor’s ’74 Vega which was always in the shop.
My Pinto never failed me / left me in the lurch somewhere. Never. Isn’t that really what we want from a car? That whole “car don’t fail me now!” thing.
Until, of course, I lost control one snowy night and hit, and knocked down, a 30′ foot high Kentucky Fried Chicken sign. (The owner was NOT happy.) Even then it kept running (with an 18 inch “V” in its front end from a steel support pole) and got me to a gas station. Even though I was “out of it” having hit my noggin.
Point being that Old Blue always did what it was supposed to do. Even if I didn’t.
Peace,
Bob
IIRC they “fixed” the exploding problem in the 1977 MY. Previous Pintos had to be recalled to get fitted with the fix. Was the recall completed on this one? You could probably tell by an in-person physical inspection. In any event as per the Popular Mechanics link below it was no more dangerous statistically than other similar models from other manufacturers.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a6700/top-automotive-engineering-failures-ford-pinto-fuel-tanks/
My first car (new off the dealer’s lot was a 77 Pinto sedan in poop dark brown. It had the 2.3L 4 spd manual. The only option was a rear window defroster. It had an AM radio delete (dealer removed) for a credit of $50.00. After I got tired of guys “kicking sand in my face” I replace it with a (special order) 79 Mustang Cobra 2 tone, silver (1G) above black, with a blue interior 5.0L 3 spd. And yes it had the BIG snake on the hood. Nowadays I would think someone was trying to overcompensate. At the time I just didn’t want to lose all of the stoplight drag races.
That’s right. The 1977 Pintos and Bobcats were the first to come from the factory with the updated filler neck and tank shielding.
I worked in a Ford dealership service department in the late 1970s and did quite a few recalls on the 1971 through 1976 models.
If a 1971 through 1976 car hasn’t had the recall the filler neck will be held in place with four hex or Phillips fasteners.
The cars which have had the recall (and the 1977s through 1980s) will have a filler neck with three Torx fasteners.
@ Rick: thanks for that valuable information.
I’d drive it as is until it was hit by a real car.
Hell, I don’t need a time capsule to get back to 1974. We’re already there with these gas prices.
$10k for a pinto? My 93 F150 gets about 25 miles per gallon I think I will stick with it
Really? I have a ’93 F150, with 270,000 milers on it. Has the big 4.9L six. I’m lucky if I get 17 mpg.
Mine has the 5.0 and I get 22-25 mpg I keep my foot out of it
Had 2 pintos.1971 put over 150,000 miles on it and a 74 we purchased as a dealers demo put over 135 000 miles on it. Only broke one timing belt in all the years we had them. We really enjoyed these cars
And it still ran after replacing the broken belt rather than being destroyed like our mechanical wonders of today.
I owned two Pinto’s back in the day, one coupe and one wagon. They were reliable and cheap which suited my needs at the time. Both were stick shift and we’re the earlier models without the 5 mph bumpers.
$10,300 now, with 4 days to go.
I had the use of a 1971 Pinto for almost a year in high school. 2.0 liter 4 and a 4 speed. It was pretty quick for the times. never let me down. But I had no regrets when the owner returned from overseas and I gave it back.
The Pinto recall did not happen until June 9, 1978. I briefly drove a 1976 Pinto. The engine blew on the Autobahn. The seller, an American working in Germany, had a 1980 Mercury Bobcat replacement and took the Pinto back for a parts car to keep my Bobcat running until my Army discharge. It is debatable whether the Pinto was less safe than other similar sized cars of the day. Any larger vehicle would crush a small one including the fuel tank. Safety technology was not advanced back then. What the Pinto/Bobcat had in spades was sporty looks, easy handling and parking fuel economy, an affordable price and the backing of the Ford-Mercury dealer network. People today forget that imports back then had even less engine power, were just as prone to rust, a small dealer network and foreign car parts were harder to find in the USA when they did break down. Kudos for restoring this maligned but important part of American car history.
great shape. i had bought a 73 from my mother 2.0/ 4spd, forest green exterior, and the lime interior. paid my mother $400 for this car and what pissed me off was they didn’t allow me to buy anything else. well hindsight is 20/20 as they say. i literally beat the hell out of that little car and it very seldom gave me any trouble. had the car for 4 years and traded straight up for a 72 monte carlo. probably the best car for me to have as a first vehicle. there were a lot of firsts in that little car nudge, nudge, wink, wink
The price currently stands at $12,050, with 2 days left in the auction.
Great little Pinto! Good backstory (in the ad), too. Responding to Troy, how are you getting 20-25 mpg out of a 302? I have an all original ’91 F-150 with a 351, no issues, drive it gently and only get 8-10 mpg no matter if it’s pulling a trailer or idling! Lol! The Pinto is still at $12,050 with 2 days left. Must be a “collector’s only” auction.
Auction update: this Pinto sold for $12,270!
SOLD for $12,270.