Detroit automakers took notice of the rising sales in the 1960s of small, imported cars from Germany and Japan. Chevy’s response was the Vega, Chrysler went with badged versions of Japanese cars, AMC chopped some inches off the Hornet, and Ford went with the subcompact Pinto. From 1971-80, they would sell more than three million cars, but not without some unwanted notoriety. This Pinto Runabout (aka 3-door hatchback) is from 1972 and is said to have just 9,000 miles on the odometer. Without much background provided, this Ford is in Oceanside, California, and is available here on eBay for $9,000 OBO.
The Pinto was developed under the watchful eye of Ford President Lee Iacocca, who had already brought fame and fortune to the company with the Mustang and was about to do it again with the Maverick. The goal for the car was to weigh under 2,000 lbs. and be marketable for less than $2,000. While the average time for new product development in those days was 43 months, Lee’s people managed to turn the Pinto into reality in just over two years.
Ford sold more than 350,000 Pinto’s in its first year and those numbers got even better when the OPEC oil embargo occurred in 1973. The car would peak at nearly 550,000 copies in 1974. But just as rising fuel prices had helped make the Pinto a star, bad publicity about the cars potentially catching fire when involved in rear-end collisions also drove demand down later on. The Pinto was replaced by the Ford Escort in 1981 after it had managed to outsell both the Vega and Gremlin combined.
The seller’s car, with supposedly 9,185 miles on the odometer, was one of 198,000 Runabouts built in 1972. It was a hatchback with a huge rear opening for access to storage. Earlier-built Pinto’s had a 98 cubic-inch inline-4 from Europe, but a 122 soon followed, and that what’s in the seller’s little car. Originally good for 100 hp, it was re-rated at 86 when the measuring stick changed to SAE net.
We’re not told much about this car other than it’s in excellent condition with low miles. But how does a car like this, built to be a disposable commodity, manage to survive nearly 50 years by averaging less than 200 miles with every turn of the calendar? There’s probably an interesting story here. It has a roof rack which suggests it may have once carried a surfboard or two. And it looks to be stock other than the steering wheel which is cool-looking but out of place in a Pinto. If you bought it, would you try to keep the mileage low or use it for what it was intended in 1972?
Buy it and drive it! Very cool to see it in such great shape. Too bad it is an automatic transmission. A buddy had one the same color with many hop-up items and suspension goodies. (Can you say Racer Walsh? I knew you could!) Besides the wide tires and wheels the most distinguishing thing about the car was the “news paper box hood scoop”! It also has a locked rear end which made life really interesting at times!
If, which is a big if, the car is as nice in person as it looks might be worth close to the asking price. Potential buyers should be wary, the pictures were taken when the car was wet, there is no evidence of the car actually being low mileage other than the obligatory picture of the speedometer and the description is left intentionally vague inorder for people to favorably fill in the blanks as demonstrated by the header on this feature. Many eBay ads intentionally don’t give thorough descriptions because the less they say the harder it is for the buyer to get a refund or leave negative feedback due to the fact that the seller didn’t misrepresent the item..
Steve R
Appears to be missing some trim items. Repaint? If memory serves, the forward edge of the hood had the letters F O R D spelled out, and for Runabouts the word “Runabout” appeared on the sail panel. If this had some period-correct EICO performance parts and better wheels I’d be interested.
Little_cars,
The Ford letters on the hood were installed using rubber pads with glue on both sides. I worked at a Ford Dealer and we would find Pintos on the front line that had the letters popped off and re-arranged to say DORF. The letters often fall off over the years when the glue fails.
As for a possible repaint, in the photo of the steering wheel, Looking at the door opening near the lower hinge, one can see a plastic air vent for exhausting cabin air. All the ones I remember seeing were black plastic, not just Pintos, but all Ford products back then. The vents were hidden when the doors were closed, so they were not painted. That vent in the photo is body color yellow! It suggests at a minimum, the fender area has seen some repaint.
I want to say some good things about the Ford Pinto. It has bucket seats, floor mounted automatic transmission and a sporty style for an economy car. The hatchback is very handy for moving boxes or groceries. The yellow color is a burst of sunshine in a depressing sea of today black, silver and gray paint jobs. The fuel tank problem was not subject to recall until 1978 so a potential buyer would have to ensure this car was retrofitted. An easy to park and drive American car with an affordable price in a decade of oil embargo and rising vehicle and pump prices made the Pinto a sales success. As a low mileage survivor, the yellow runabout would be an attention getter at any car show and car cruise.
I owned a couple of Pinto’s. I had a dark green ’72 with a manual roll back sunroof. This little car did me well. The power was actually good, mine was an automatic too. I ran the Pinto pretty hard for 5 years. Still ran great when I traded it in for a ’72 Cougar XR7.
No “Pinto” badging on trunk lid or front fenders. No F O R D lettering on hood. Obviously repainted and badging holes filled in. Cheesy steering wheel. I’m guessing rust free with 109000 miles and a quicky paint job.
I agree with you 100% Frank B.
“runabout” missing on the c-pillar too.
Guys, The exterior emblems on all US Ford products starting in 1970 were applied with thin rubber pads using glue on both sides. No holes existed in the hood, rear hatch, or fenders for attaching emblems.
The emblems were simply glued on, and were easy to pry off. As I mentioned earlier, we used to see Pintos on the front line of the Ford dealer where I worked, and the letters had been re-arranged to spell DORF.
FWIW, I also believe this car has had a repaint.
I like the steering wheel. Don’t get the missing parts though.
Perfect for a Bob Gliden tribute car .. .
Wish it was a wagon.
Perfect car for me, I only drive to town and back once or twice a week, less than 50 miles a week. Just enough to keep it running. I had this engine in the Ford Cortina, change that belt every 30,000 miles or less.
With the kind of miles you drive you could just buy a used Leaf and never have to do any maintenance. (Then you could get a license plate like mine “I’d rather be driving a real car”) LOL!
It was a sad day when my employer bought a bug bunch of Pintos to save gas. The idea was turn in your company car and choose a nice new Pinto! Very few did and the rows of Pintos just sat there for months. With the AC on and an automatic they were a hazard on the freeway and would barely climb a hill.
The eBay photos seem to show more than one shade of yellow paint as seen in the engine bay photo and the rear hatch photo. I rather doubt the mileage claim and would definitely pass on the $9k window sticker. My father owned a Pinto and so have I. They were a decent enough vehicle.
Steering wheel is the classiest piece on this car. These cars made great race cars for SCCA road racing up to as recent as the mid ’90s. Aerodynamics weren’t bad, the car was wide, and power could be obtained per whatever rules the class they raced in had. Either way, this is a nice piece of automotive history and nice to see one in good condition.
Had a Pinto. The odometer was easy to ‘roll’ back. Buyer beware
No one puts an aftermarket steering wheel in a car and then doesn’t drive it. Mileage claim is obviously bogus.
I really like the bigger rear window on these.
There was a really good looking girl at our high school
(Eureka High) who had one like this in that metallic Blue
color that seemed to be everywhere at the time.
I think this is overall, a decent car. Lots of them around my home 40 back in the day. Not a good car to go through snow with by any stretch of the imagination. Snow could get into the timing belt and throw everything out of whack. But they were a free-turning engine and all that needed to be done was reset the timing and get back on the road. A friend of mine had one. He lived out in the country and I would venture a sizable bet that he could time up a Pinto faster than any experienced Ford mechanic.
The Exploding Pinto; the Exploding Mustang. IMO, the media sure got crazy picking on the domestic brands. By the time of the Explorer/Firestone debacle it was almost politically incorrect to find fault with anything from across the Pacific. A school classmate of mine has been a fireman as long as I’ve been a mechanic and he’s been called to hundreds of fiery crashes. He told me that they all run on gas and they all can explode. My dad built a turn table out of the rotating plates from an old easy chair. He screwed a couple pieces of half-inch plywood on so it could be used on a parade float. Mom threw that into the trunk of her Tokyo Trashcan and put a bunch of heavier stuff on top. Shortly after that the car was always permeated by gasoline fumes. Well, it turned out that those screws Dad used were a tad long. They pierced the floor of the trunk which doubled as the top of the gas tank. I took the car to work and carefully stuck a couple of sheet-metal screws in to seal it up. Problem solved, but I often wondered what would happen if that car was hit from the rear. Fortunately we never had a chance to find that out; my sister rolled it—TWICE—in the same place. Needless to say it was written off after that…
Nice Pinto. I owned a 78 Mercury Bobcat once. If I ever owned another, I think I’d rather have the small rear window instead and the hatchback which they offered.
Aren’t these things supposed to have a flammable placard on the back?
These are terrible cars! My opinion. (My wife at the time) almost was killed in one.
If it’s true Ford decided that paying lawsuits to injured and killed people was cheaper than fixing the fuel filler problem, people should have gone to prison. 9k is nuts for this thing.
Believe that’s similar to the policy General Motors adopted for the Cobalt keychain killers. Then after the taxpayers bailed them out of bankruptcy, the GM lawyers claimed they couldn’t be held responsible for product deficiencies of the “old GM”! What disgusting gall!
I live in Oside, wonder if I have seen this car around.
No way in hell I would pay $9000.00 for that Pinto, good luck trying to sell it.
Also has a Formula 4 race car listed.
The yard has the look of a business that does junk hauling or clearances.
Steve R
Russ,
Remember, before Chrysler and Mitsubishi formed an alliance, ChryCo tried to make sense (and a few cents) of its stake in Rootes Motors from England. Cricket came before Colt.
The Cricket was a “Plymouth” and the Colt was a “Dodge” (Mistubishi). They were offered about the same time.
OMG, no one posted a comment about dropping a gnarly V8 in it!
SVO or Turbocoupe 2.3 turbo swap not mentioned either.
The Turbocoupe engines are thin on the ground, the 4 cylinder ecoboost from a late model Mustang makes more sense. They are readily available and will walk all over the earlier 2.3L turbo even in stock configuration.
Steve R
Back in the day a gentleman local to me owned an early Pinto.
He went to the local safety supply company and bought a “FLAMABLE” stencil.
He used the stencil to paint “FLAMABLE” on the rear of the Pinto between the rear tailight’s!
ALWAYS got a good laugh out that every time I would see him in his PINTO!
The Pinto was a much better car than the Vega, give ’em that. Anyway, this car has missing badges, filled in holes, rolled over speedo and a $300 paint job. Not to mention the JC Whitney steering wheel. Offer them $5000 with a smile, the seller would probably jump on it.
One of Ford’s Death Traps!
One of my friends owned one. When the AC was running you could not try to accelerate or the AC would shut down.
It was nearly new. We were not impressed. He dumped it for a real car.
geomechs, you are so right about cars catching on fire. But the main issue when a lot of Pintos caught fire was that when rear ended it folded up in such a way as to keep the doors from opening. Thus trapping occupants inside while on fire. I still like the Pintos however. So many cars had the fuel tank as the trunk floor, it is amazing that more did not catch fire! We had several RAV4s come into our shop with the fuel line detached from the underside of the car and dragging on the roadway. I’m surprised no fires were caused. And yes, hit anything hard enough there will be fuel spilled and possibly a fire. Just had a new Corvette rear end I believe a RAV4 at 120+ MPH and killed the occupants down in Vegas.
Steve R, you are correct about horsepower. However, if your fabrication skills are lacking. The SVO/Turbo Coupe option is basically a bolt in. Still 165-200 ponies will make this car fun to drive.
I owned a 71 PINTO. The neighbor kid sideswiped another car and left it sitting in his back yard for a year I offered him $100.00 for it, I had to replace the front fender to make it roadworthy ($35.00), tighten the valve cover to stop the oil from running down the outside of the engine. I drove that little car for 10 years, had to replace the starter with a 15.00 used one and added 2 used snow tires in the 10 years of use. Wish I had another one just for the reliability and economy. As far as the fire issue was if you rear-ended any small car at spead most of them would catch fire!
Hahaha! “Nicest one left?” A Pinto.
Keep the POSs coming, guys!
Hey Russ…the plural of Pinto DOES NOT INVOLVE AN APOSTROPHE