In 1970-71, three of the U.S. automakers introduced subcompact cars. That included the Chevy Vega, AMC Gremlin, and Ford Pinto. The latter would last the longest (1971-80) and sell the most cars (more than three million units). Interest in the Pinto began to wane later in the decade as Ford was readying its successor (the Escort). This ’79 Pinto wagon is the Country Squire edition (fake wood paneling on the outside) and has recently been resuscitated after a 20-year slumber. It’s ship-shape now, though cosmetically imperfect, and can be found in Robesonia, Pennsylvania. The little Ford is available here on eBay for at least $5,999 (the current bid).
As the Pinto was winding down in 1979, Ford treated the car to a refresh of its front clip. Rather than looking a bit more like the recently retired Maverick, it took on more of a Fairmont flair aided by rectangular peepers and grille work. Sales for the next-to-last year of the Pinto barely reached 200,000 copies, still a decent showing for a car that had already been in production for eight years. That included a station wagon that could be had with imitation wood siding which had been customary for the Country Squire for many years and product lines.
As the story goes, this Pinto was parked in 2003 due to a bad transmission. Fast forward two decades and it has been rescued and treated to a plethora of mechanical repairs and upgrades. These include – but are not limited to – a rebuild of the automatic tranny, new seals in the 2.3-liter inline-4 engine, brakes, tires, shock absorbers, a flush of the fuel system, and a rework of the radiator. As a result, the Pinto starts, runs, drives, and stops as a proper auto should.
The body may be okay although the seller questions the solidity of the lower portion of the driver’s side door. The paint, which may or may not be original, is far from perfect, but it shouldn’t scare small children away. The radio doesn’t work, and the air conditioning works but not entirely. There is also a small oil leak at the rear main seal, but there’s no mention if it leaves any kind of a trail. Do you see this Pinto wagon sitting in your garage?
Recently a friend went to a small show which featured Pintos, Mavericks, and Mustang II’s. Included were a few Squires, in good condition; I’m sure they were a treat to see. In nice shape, they now are fetching solid prices. For this one, the seller uses the word “decent” which is probably an apt description. It looks to have had quite a bit of mechanical work but there are more upgrades which could be done. I like it.
WOW.. 6 HhhhaaAa thousand HhhhaaAa dollar HhhhaaAa… Yikes.. I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale. Anyone interested?
No John. No one is interested.
But three times the price for a POS Vega is acceptable?
Hey John,
Unless that bridge has fau (imitation) wood siding I don’t want it.
I love Pintos and have had 3 in my lifetime. All wagons.
This would make a great toy to add to my collection. Too bad it’s to far away from me.
How is it even possible to tear the carpet near the hand/emergency brake???
Perhaps this is a Pinto from the movie Cujo.
Critters.
There might have been a console surrounding the handbrake. Putting the Mustang II seats in, may have required removal – and it’s probably no loss; plastics don’t hold up well to 35 years of sunlight.
I have a soft spot for Pintos, but not the square-eyed ones, and not from Rust Country. Hard pass.
Was junk when it was new …
My pinto is still going.. unlike my wife’s Vega that died in the mid seventies.
Those seats look comfortable!
Are they factory?
I had a Pinto Pony, the very lowest model, and the seats were worthy of an economy air line coach section seat. The leg room was limited too. Just horrible.
We called the car the Rolling Tiger Cage.
But like all my cars, I thought it was swell at the time.
They look more like the Mustang II Ghia upholstery but it’s possible Ford used up the upholstery on Pintos. I suspect they were swapped in, though, the usual cloth trim for the Pinto deluxe lowback seats was a bright, loud ’70s plaid and the rear seat isn’t shown.
It says on the eBay ad that somebody swapped them out earlier in life that they are not Factory Pinto seats.
Is there any connection between Pinto engines and a racing class I recall as named Continental?
I’m pretty confident that those front seats came out of a Mustang 2 Ghia. I don’t recall seeing that sew style with buttons in any of my extensive collection of old Pint brochures. I always liked that dark green metallic on the 79-80 Pinto’s (and other Fords). In felt it classed them up just with color.
Looks like someone has painted the lower body dark green or black. Either way, rust repair is a strong possibility. Take a magnet.
I could see two (2) ways to go with this. Keep it bone stock, just replace the carpet, find a factory console for it and drive it, or restomod it, with a 2.3L Eco Boost motor, six-speed manual transmission, suspension upgrades and a new interior. You might need to put a full frame under it, to keep the Eco Boost from twisting the body into a pretzel with every launch, but it sure would be fun! The wagon wasn’t noted for immolating itself like the coupe, simply because there was more crush space between the rear bumper, the fuel tank and the rear axle, so no issues there!
ama fan of the Lima engine (add the late head w/D shaped ports) and also the weber progressive 2v carb – both in these. Also a waggy’n ford guy. This has all that but they seemed too heavy for a subcom. Also like an ‘intermediate’ size (such as my fox-body wagon). The auto is fine but I’d think of an AOD swap-in.
Always remember that with 5 pieces of chrome this wagon becomes a Bobcat. Does that make it more valuable?
Slug. My memory of a 2.3 with an automatic was slower than molasses on a Jan morning. They did pretty decent with a manual transmission but were still no speed demons. I had a 73 Pinto wagon with the automatic, bought a wrecked 76 for all the stuff and converted it to a four speed, made it a much better car to drive. Years later had a Fox body with the improved 2.3 with fuel injection and a AOD transmission, it would have ran circles around my Pinto. Different gears I suppose.
As to all this talk about swapping in an ecoboost engine, they may make power but they won’t stay together very long. The bean counters cut the amount of metal they make the block out of, and they can’t keep head gaskets on them over 25 or 35 thousand miles. I have a friend that bought a new Mustang with one in it, has had three head gaskets and two heads put on it under warranty so far, he’s fixing to get rid of it beforehand the warranty runs out.
Always liked the Squire.
The eco boost engines are garbage. There is a National class action suit against Ford. All of them have issues with a dropped cylinder or head gaskets. GM is the same. Every Cruze, Trax, or Buick encore with the 1.4 are blowing up. Some imports like Kia and Hyundai too. They are all turbo charging lawn mower sized engines to get more power and to help them pass the Government fuel economy rules. They don’t last unless you are overly attentive to them. As for this wagon. the front seats are not original, you can carpet for it and do the mechanical work if you are able. You would probably be look at an additional 3 grand to get all the corrections done. You don’t see these every day now. They will always make people look. A definite piece of Americana.
What is not generally known is that before the first one made it off the assembly line the country squire was changed by the workers internally in the plant to the COUNTRY SQUIRT. LOL I have driven both the automatic and manual with a v-6 engine and that V-6 engined one was a great deal of fun and this was in Dallas in the summer. The Air-conditioner worked great and it was as peppy as my Alfa 2000 spider in traffic. It was bright yellow with the wood trim package and was like a much smaller NOMAD from Chev of the 1950’s. Far more fun than the SUV’s of today as it was nimble with OK power and good braking. I really liked it. As for the front end, well that is proof that you can take any good design and make it worse with effort. That front end has a face that only a mother could love and then only if she was blind.
Pintos were only available with an automatic with the V-6. They never had manual transmissions with the 6. Only the 4’s. The 2.8 V-6 was available with the manual transmission in the Mustang II, Mercury Capri, and very early Fox-bodied mustangs as they quickly switched over to the 200 in line 6 and then the 3.8 V-6. I worked overnights at a Ford Dealer for many years. I saw the very first Pintos all the way to the last ones.
People will probably hate me for this one but I’ve seen a Pinto wagon with a tunnel ram and two Holley’s sticking out of the hood and that setup looked right at home. This car is prime for a small block swap. A Fox body mustang doner car and this one could really be a blast. Of course, redo the interior as well. Keep the slotted mag look but with some slightly wider 14’s and…….TOO COOL. I know. They are only original once but ever since I seen that car I have always wanted to build my version of it and this car is perfect for that.
I don’t know why I didn’t notice that before but the carpet in my Pinto did exactly that same thing and for no other reason than apparently I vacuumed it too many times and it was thin in that spot. All the rest of the carpet looked fine even under my feet but that one spot right there by the parking brake just wore right through. Weirdest thing
Mag rims & raised wl tires on an old Pinto. I can’t imagine spending that $$$ on my 17 y.o. Honda Accord. I’ve seen it all now. LMBO!!!
Those look like factory original rims. Yes, they were optional, but you could get factory alloy rims for your Pinto coupe, hatchback or wagon! I think they cost about $300 back in the day, the equivalent of about $3k today, so they were as rare as hen’s teeth, given that the Pinto was an entry-level subcompact, and loaded wasn’t a word one associates with econobox option lists, LOL!
Yes, you could actually get Pintos with a variety of hub caps and mag wheels from the factory. In 79, there weee 3 different kinds of hub caps and 3 different kinds of mag wheels. It varied year to year.
6 grand huh?Yeah and what has that guy been smokin?It’s these listings that have me LMAO!Sometimes Barnfinds listings are good for a laugh….
You should check out some Vega listings, you just might die laughing
Convert it to front wheel drive Ford Focus. Drop about 300 pounds curb weight (No rear differential necessary, nor rear drive axle components; transmission/engine also lighter). Fuel injected DOHC 2 liter. Around 135hp. Quick. 30mpg easy. Cruise all day at 70mph..
Sold,
US $5,999.00
I was more of a V8 kind of guy, so I never owned a Pinto. But I was surrounded by them that were owned by my friends. That said, I remember doing oil changes and other light service. I did spend a lot of time behind the wheel of each of them, and while they were slow on take off, once up to speed they did OK. I drove a few of them on trips from the San Fernando Valley, to Mammoth Lakes, in both summer and winter and I never had any complaints with ant of them. They handled the road with a very sure feeling, they were comfortable on long trips, and got good gas mileage. You sat very low so seeing down the road was risky, but that’s true of a lot of small cars. The steering was tight and they were pretty reliable after several years of ownership. I had a girlfriend who had a 75 Pinto Squire, it was dark brown metallic and of course the woodgrain panels on the sides and tailgate. At the time we had a Country Squire, and a Mercury Colony Park, both full-size wagons loved by all of us. But admittedly, that little Pinto Squire was just as cute as it could be. Ford was very smart to make the little Squire look like the full-size wagons. At the time we were still bleeding from the wounds of the 73 oil crisis. The little Squire was the right car at the right time. And by the way, I didn’t know anyone that exploded in a rear end accident. Thanks for reviewing the cute little Pinto Squire.