The fact that he’s kept that car so beyond period correct is incredible. It’s the car nobody saved. Nobody WANTED to save. Back in the 90s and 2000s we turned them into dirt track cars. Throw a fuel cell and a cheap homemade roll cage in it and go
There's a similar thing in the UK with old British Leyland cars. BL sold millions of Morris Marinas, Princesses, Maxis etc, but only a few dozen remain. And they're all either brown or orange or lime green. It's not so much that people didn't want to save them, it's that people wanted to get rid of them.
My dad told tales of one he had back in the day, it was the first and only car he’d ever bought brand new. He hated it for the entire time he owned it, constantly having to bust his knuckles working on it, only for it to completely rust out in a flash; it likely soured his opinion of buying new. I think he even [slightly] preferred his Corvair, also regarded a death-trap but with a rear-mounted engine, over the Pinto.
@@misorodzinak8829 more appropriate would be a Bronco II, but that would work as well. to be fair a lot of if not most/all SUV's and offroaders (like jeeps) in the 80's and early 90's were prone to rollovers but eh oh well
@@hulkhatepunybanner I doubt it's a rack - it's very likely a recirculating ball and nut type (gearbox for those who are still 12 years old) and it just comes with the territory. I have such a setup on a Hyundai Pony and the manual calls for IIRC 2 inches of play in the steering wheel as OK. I tightened mine up by shimming it, putting a smaller steering wheel on, and wider tires up front - it makes a noticeable difference.
Right? This is the SAME model my grandmother had in the early 80s but a 2 door. Same colors, same "wood" panelling, same interior. Crazy nostalgia here.
This feels like a new format. The owner interview is quite natural and watchable. And the historical details seem quite well balanced. Even the obligatory college humor shit sandwich imagery seems more apt than usual. I think Mr Regular has an actual soft spot for actual underdogs! Cool.
You can tell when they resonate with a car on a personal level. The shitpost humor takes a back seat to really getting to know the car and why it’s story deserves to be heard.
When I was 26 years old; I nearly bought an EV converted Mercury Bobcat that had Miata suspension and a 150 mile range. If you are the owner of THAT car; I will 100% buy it from you.
@@aDistantLight That's not a 'hero' and I would not expect fifty year old suspension bushings to be good even if they didn't handle like crap from the factory, electric batteries or not. That's really not the point.
(Also, btw, for some reason I have a hub center cap for a Merury Bobcat, ...it's all cracked and damaged, but it's here for some reason. I only mention it cause I doubt anyone younger than me would even know what it is. :) )
I was a Ford mechanic in the 1970's. They were great little cars for the time period. I owned five Pintos over the years. The early ones had either a 1.6 liter engine, or the 2.0. The 1.6 was only available with a manual trans and no A/C option. I bought a brand new 1973, fully equipped with an automatic and A/C and manual sunroof for $2800. Sure, it wasn't fast, but we didn't care back then. The oil embargo had just happened and gas prices on Long Island shot up from about .20 cents a gallon to .55 cents. And we started car pooling to work and school. The old mechanical gas pumps would only go to .99 cents a gallon, so they started replacing them with the digital displays that could read over $1 a gallon. Ah, memories of the good old days.
Agreed, I loved those old Pintos. We had one just like the on in this video, except with a 4 speed manual trans. The automatics gave people a lot of trouble. The engine was not big/powerful enough to give up the power loss to the auto. If you got on it, the 4 speed manual would scoot, for what it was. I could squawk a tire popping it into 2nd if I wanted too. When I had my learners permit, I would pull a 14 foot Terry bass boat behind one. While my dad was asleep in the passenger's seat. Today, they are ugly as sin. But they were great little cars. They got a terrible rep because they used something like 6 inch bolts to mount the rear finder. So if someone rammed you from behind the bolts rip the gas tank open and gas would go every where. They did this for ease of manufacture. Once you got one recalled, IE they replaced/cut the bolts to a normal length, they were really safe. Wish I had a good functioning one today....
@@staijo Actually if I recall correctly wasn't it the fact that the fuel filler neck was a solid tube bolted to the rear quarter panel and that an impact to the rear would tear the filler pipe from the tank and that a $14 modification would have fixed it?
Actually you both are kind of right, the filler neck wasn't mounted solid, but only went an inch or two into the tank, so for the recall they put in a longer one so if the tank got pushed forwards, the filler neck would be able to slide out a bit before loosing it's seal, and the other issue was the differential bolts ripping the tank open, for this they put a thick plastic shield in-between the tank of differential. I did a lot of research on this for a school project a while back, the more you know!
Nice to see a person in the younger generation appreciating, respecting and maintaining an uncommon and rare classic car in original condition, well done sir.
and how low the design got. I mean this is a cheapest car of the era, still it looks kinda nice. All modern plastic ugly cars, with few exceptions, look like shit. I know its the regulations and stuff, still todays cars are all ugly, they just are. Even my small kids see it, they like the older ones better.
@@KillbillyA my gosh man, the boomer levels are off the charts, the cheapest new cars sold on my 3rd world country look at least 10x better than that pinto, and of course people like the looks of even the ugliest old cars, it's different, it's a novelty
@@lithobreak3812 Im glad you know your stuff. Im born 1982, im actually the "old millenian" category. Even my dad isnt a real boomer. Im from a 2nd world country myself. Please name a car you consider it looks better and is sold in a 3rd world country. I can take a guess ... VW Golf? BMW 3? Or Toyota Yaris?
The interior of that car looks IMMACULATE! Good for him for trying to keep the car as classic and original as possible. That interior looks like a perfectly preserved time capsule from the 1970s.
It’s crazy how far separated quality control was between Japanese manufacturers and American manufacturers. I mean literally bean counting reputation away at a time when literally that’s all Ford had.
This is why you shouldn't be allowed to run a automobile company unless you are an engineer...also, being a car enthusiast bumps you up the list. The malaise era is what you get when you have bean counters running things!!
All of them could have been raked across the coals...The Japanese had good quality control however the side impact and gas tank placement made them just as dangerous....The Japanese cars back then rusted so fast in the Midwest it would blow your mind, I am talking about main structural components that could cause the things to fold in half....Don't ask how I know.
Still remains to this day. My 07 Ford Fusion ran me over $8,000 in maintenance just to get it to 100K, not counting oil changes or tires. American cars don't hold a candle to Japanese.
The first car I was allowed to drive at 14 was my grandfather’s 1974 Pinto, his was a manual. Seeing this car reminds me of him, if he were still alive he’d be 103. Thanks for posting this video.
This is what family is all about. Interacting with your grandfather letting you drive his car. It's still with you today as a moment you cherish with him. Simple moments can create a lifetime of memories.
You were a lucky person. My Grandparents only had their "Ukraina" bicycle and my father would never let me drive his "Polonez 1500" car. He was acting like that car was more important to him than his wife and children. Keeping it in the garage and taking for a spin maybe 4-5 times a year... He was always taking me with him to fix the brakes before the inspection. Dad, can you teach me how to drive? Can we take that car on the side road? Hell no.
I've owned 6 Pintos in my life, a 1973 Runabout, a 1974 Squire Wagon, a 1976 Runabout, a 1976 Sedan and two 1979 Pony Sedans. Still one of my favourite car models of all time. It doesn't take much modification to get the power up enough for them to be quite capable. The Manual transmission models were better to begin with. Thank you for finally reviewing the King of all Regular cars.
People who didn't grow up then don't realize that small cars with automatic transmissions were as slow as hell at that time, no matter who made them. It isn't like that now.
That’s awesome! He got that from my town I used to drive by it daily because of my delivery job and I always thought it looked so clean, it sat there for ages! I’m happy he saved it and actually appreciates this obscure little Pinto. I’m glad it’s not wasting at that shady little dealership anymore, small world lol
My mom had a late 70's Pinto when I was growing up, it eventually became so rusted out that dust would come through the holes when driving on dirt roads. But I'll never forget our Old English Sheepdog sticking his head out of the sunroof like some ridiculous ornament.
The scene from "Top Secret" with Val Kilmer where the German Jeep rear-ends the Pinto ... eeeeeever so slightly ... and it EXPLODES is what immediately comes to mind...
it was like a go-kart compared to Mom and Dad's Cutlass Supreme. Every crack in the road was a jolt. Very well documented, solid, corporate. The more I understood the amount of thought put into it, the more disappointed I felt.
"Oh sure, it's just like driving a really big Pinto." - Annie from _Speed_ on the GM 'New Look' bus. "Handles like a bean bag." - RCR on the Pinto. Sounds about right I guess.
I think she was referring to the fact the bus was rigged to explode more than the lack of handling. I have a feeling that bus handled and accelerated better...maybe? 🤣😂
Some people might be surprised that Ford didn’t issue recalls for all of its flaws because Ford thought it would be cheaper to pay lawsuits. But car manufactures do this a lot. GM had an issue that caused ignition failures and caused deaths due to cars shutting off abruptly. GM knew about it but also thought it would cheaper to pay out lawsuits. Just goes to show that manufacturers see you as a number and don’t care if they ruin your life.
The entire free market is buyer beware. Business and investors produce profit against a balance sheet. Non profit may be in it for the 'consumer' but only in the non profit's best interest to survive and exist. As to 'gov.regulated', this is in the .gov's best interest, not the 'we' evidence by the regulatory structure. A giant bureaucracy w/ bloated salaries/PENSIONS/all union scale to the gold embossed business cards they carry that what .. Fines and pockets the coins, licenses, permits .. umm, where does the consumer come in ? .. get your money out, Court .. doing your part supporting the dem machine. Otherwise if it were consumer oriented the fine would include something punitive to protect the citizen consumer base, ie., first offense 90dy shut down. The internet is the same way. If it were 'regulated' to protect 'we' and not benefit dem there would not be special Constitutional law exemption carve outs for 'social platforms'. -imho and with all due respect MiniAddict
The GM ignition shutting off did almost kill me and my dad. It was his diesel truck, some sensor was located so deep in the engine bay that it would detect a fraudulent overheat issue and shut off something, I'm thinking fuel supply. Well this killed power steering and power brakes going steeply downhill towards a 90 degree corner with a bridge over a river. Not too fucking cool.
Unpopular opinion: I actually like the look of the 3-door Pinto hatch. I know they had issues, but they were better looking and maybe a little more reliable than it's competitors of the time (Pacer, Gremlin, Chevette}. I also found them to be easy to repair, which is always a plus.
Pacer's looked and were called aquarium and hot as hell with all the windows, Gremlins were ugly as sin but not the chevette watch what you say about the chevette I miss my 81 chevette. I traded it for a piece of junk an 82 Honda Prelude with tons of issues. Back than dealers were (and still are) rip off and this piece of shit cost me dearly when I took it on the road. All brakes were done, valves needed reajustment, it needed a new valve cover gasket, this thing always died on the corner at a light because humidity did not work with this car, I left home and drove to work 1/2 hour drive before I started to get a little heat in the winter. My first and last used car and my first and last japanese car but today in 2021 I still miss my 1981 chevette so I'm in a Facebook group that talks only chevette
I agree, and did at the time. The Chevette was so flimsy it made the Pinto seem sturdy and well made, and the Gremlin was just odd, a half-assed effort at making a subcompact out of compact mechanicals. I much preferred the less goofy Hornet.
Well ,certainly better than the Vega [ which was horrible], and the Chevette, but quality-wise, the Gremlin had it beat. AND , add the American Motors “Buyers Protection Program” - an Industry FIRST. [ and I was a proud owner of a ‘74 Pinto Wagon]. 📻🙂
In 1977 when I was 16 my folks went car shopping one Saturday. Dad was a "Ford Man" and was looking to get a Pinto for my Mom to run her errands in. You can imagine my surprise and delight when she pulled in the driveway in a bright yellow Toyota Celica GT with a five speed. Fortunately there was a Toyota dealership across the street from the Ford and it caught her eye. She test drove the Pinto and then the Celica and said there was no comparison. The Celica was vastly better in every way. Thankfully she overruled my Dad on that purchase.
@Ban this youtube Not really. My Dad was about to buy a dangerous, slow, poorly made piece of shit and my Mom overruled him for a much better car for the same price. A 2021 Corolla is not a piece of shit.
My family went car shopping circa 1973, test drove a VW Rabbit, but dad chose a blue Pinto wagon because at $3500, it was $1500 less than the VW. Not sure it was the wrong decision. That Pinto did well enuf as a fambilymobile, we bought another one a few years later. Both rusted thru in 3 years, with piles of mank falling out of the rocker panels every time you opened a door (upstate NY). The rust clock started on this Pinto as soon as it entered PA.
@@robertmcgovern8850 Our Toyota was a California car so it never got rust. Had a friend who moved to California from Iowa and his Datsun literally had holes behind the wheels in the body panels where the rust ate the metal away from the salt on the roads there.
Wow, this brings back memories. We had the exact same model, color, and options in a '76. First car my Mom bought after the divorce. It was always packed full of kids and their hockey gear, going from one rink to another. On hills, anyone in the car would be encouraged to lunge forward to help preserve momentum! Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
For anyone else interested in the Pinto story, look at "the Halo Effect" on the RadioLab podcast. It goes in to some really interesting stuff in regards to the decision making process at the time.
I recall reading that the Pinto was on the precipice of being on the safest small cars at the time. Ford engineers developed a nylon bladder for the fuel tank and an early drivers side airbag system was tested on the Pinto...and due to cost cutting both were removed from consideration.
I drove a pinto wagon in the late '70s for several years. I loved that car. I discovered that the carburetor had cracked in half and still ran like a champ and was not leaking gas. I wish I had one now.
Hey, the Vega had a TWO speed automatic. Had one for a rental for a couple of weeks. I don't know which would win in a drag race, but drag would be the operative word.
@@angelgjr1999 The infamous "powerglide" transmission. My dad had a 69 Camaro that had that transmission. He said even with a V8 in it, it was still a dog because of the crappy transmission.
@@digitalfootballer9032 Powerglide was the "poor" little brother to the Dynaflow that had ONE speed. (All torque converter). SEE RCR's video about the 1962 Buick Lesabre for a demo of the ultimate "slushbox" tranny!
The fuel tank of the Pinto wagon wasn't prone to rupturing. The tanks themselves are pretty tough, the filler tube could rupture, but when the tank was only partially full the risk of fire was low. The occupants of all '70 sub compacts occupied the crumple zone, and they rusted. I never see TE27 "Mango" Corollas except on YT. The fuel tank scare is a reason that many small front drive cars place the fuel tank under the rear seats, but in a rear end collision the doors might not open and you better not be in the back seat. 27 deaths by fire in over 3 million Pintos is actually pretty low - there probably were many unreported incidents in which the passengers did not burn. Last week I saw a late model car burning along I-35 near Austin, and every flaming Tesla gets billing in news stories. Pintos didn't get great fuel economy. The 1.6 English "Kent" four wasn't common, the relatively large 2.3 "Lima" was very popular. VW bugs didn't get great fuel economy and I doubt that VWs were as safe as a Pinto. VWs often caught on fire because the rubber fuel lines were above the exhaust manifold and should be replaced when the rubber cracked, but many owners were neglectful and they often torched.
@@timothykeith1367 For their time, VW Bugs got good mileage. 27-29 mpg was pretty high for pre-1979 vehicles. And don't forget, by the time the Pinto came around, the Bug was decades old. The first Bugs sold in the USA were in 1949.
Any industry. But by the same token, much of the regulation is idiotic (square sealed beam headlights. Really?), where the shit sandwich analogy really comes into its own.
@@quintessenceSL The square sealed beams were pushed by the automakers, not the government. They wanted another styling trick to make cars look more modern.
I think though a take away I always get from the pinto story is that ford and the pinto ended up being the sacrificial lamb required for improved safety equipment for subcompacts. I have read the UCLA professors report on the pinto and according to NHTSA data the pinto was just as dangerous as other cars of its class in the period. Full size cars with no safety equipment are scary enough as it is, sub compacts of that period sometimes feel like a big tall bag of nope.
I loved all three of my Pinto wagons, they were very easy to work on, got good gas mileage (that was easy to adjust via the carburetor) and held my then young family. The best part was that it was low enough that elk and moose could jump over it in the middle of the night.
I can relate to THAT experience of seeing an ORPHANED car that no one loved. There were at my local Ford dealer in the late '70s a couple of Pinto Panel Deliveries (same as the Pinto Wagon, except without a rear seat and without side rear windows) that were on the lot at least 18 months without selling (both were white and in nicer condition).
I had a '71 Pinto coupe with the 2 litre 4, automatic and a AM radio. Was my work car. Bought it with a NEW set of Michellins on it. When I got it home, I adjusted the valves [EASY to do!] and rebuilt the 2-barrel carb. For the test drive, filled it with 93 octane and off I went. Holy Moley, this thing SQUEAKED the tires on take-off!! Shifted well, too! Handled pretty good, it was those tires mostly, I believe. Drove that thing for a bit over 2 years and really enjoyed it. Decent gas milege and it ALWAYS started. Someone jumped a light and hit me up front, took out the right fender and headlight. Guy I worked with bought it for almost what I paid for it!!! My first Pinto, but not my last; had a '77 Squire wagon in white like this one. That 2.3 was a DOG engine, but that 2 ltr. was a pretty good engine for around town. Fond memories of this lil guy!
I owned a 1978 Pinto sport model with a V-6 engine, factory mags, sunroof, automatic. It was a cheaply made car without question, but since it was so light, the V-6 engine would spin the rear tires from a stop and hauled ass up to 90 mph (top speed with the rearend gears). It was a very cool oddball car that always drew smiles when I would peel out from the stoplight. Alas, I traded it in on a 1973 Ford LTD Brougham sedan that had only 27k original miles on it, but that story is for another day. Nice video guys!
True, though I wish it had four doors. These two-door wagons were still fairly common in the Sixties, and there were a number of Japanese ones, but this was one of the last ones made. I thought the Vega wagon was even slicker, and easily the best looking Vega. Too bad they were such reliability disasters. The Pinto lasted so much longer.
There are a ton of cars that look better in wagon version than sedan. Opel astra j and k , opel insignia a and b , porsche panamera , mercedes w124 and the list goes on
There is an old guy in my area, who has a 72 Pinto wagon...not a Squire. It's blue, and he still drives it a lot. Looks new!!! Super cool car. Same guy has an Opel Manta, which also looks new. Funny how that these cars were kinda ridiculed for years, are now cool! To me...anything that has been kept nice, and well maintained...always gets my respect. Particularly when they were not anything special, at the time. Truly treasured, and loved. Sooo cool!!!
My stepdad had a old pinto wagon that he motor swapped with an 80s thunderbird turbo 4 cylinder and some kind of 5 speed transmission. It was still painfully slow but sounded cool.
@@iceman5117 He has a different definition of "slow" than I do. The 2.3 was a tough motor and you can increase the boost. The 2.3/2.5 Lima is about as tough as the Toyota 22R
@@iceman5117 and you can certainly soup them up even more! my 87tc, i just did a garrett t3 turbo swap and a boost controller with 3inch exhaust and its pushing 240 HPs. With chip tuning, etc. I think i could get 300 hps. Thats not too too bad for a little tinkering there folks!
That Pinto also kinda paved the way for the EcoStang: that 2.3 Lima was turbocharged for use in the SVO from '84-'86, and that turbo Lima by the end of the SVO's run was making Mustang GT-level power at the time: 200hp, which the 302-powered GT was also making from factory in '86.
Had an 82 Mustang GT for a while, as my first car. But. About a decade after I got rid of it, I had the chance to drive an SVO in good working order. It was like, everything good about the GT (except that 302 shove at 1000 rpms) but it handled. For a Fox Body. Still prone to spin, but lively and way more fun to toss around (in an 80s car fashion) than the GT. The SVO was like Ford seeing the future for a couple of moments, building the car in that vision, and then deciding, "nah son, that's just heartburn."
They also used the turbo lima in the merker xr4ti, and thunderbird turbocoup. There was a guy in the early 2ks that used a 2.5 ranger crank, volvo dohc head, and bored it over to get an 8 second svo. Stock the non turbo lima was slow, but they could be hotted up a good bit with companies like esslinger.
My '73 Corolla actually had the fuel tank behind the back seat. There used to be a video of a rear-end collision test of a Corolla of the same era. You could see the dyed liquid from the tank spray throughout the interior.
The Datsun B210 Had the fuel tank in the same place. Ahead of the crumple zone. I still laugh at Ford trying to claim the Pinto was safer Any safety advantage was simply because a Pinto was a larger car than a Datsun B210. Ironically, the Datsun also weighs around 2000lb despite having paper thin body panels vs the Pinto's thick body panels (to give the illusion of solidity) on a flimsy chassis design language.
I had a 71 Corolla 2 door hatchback with a 5 speed manual trans. Very rare for that year I was told by a dealer who wanted to buy it from me. I think the fuel tank location was better than the Pinto's, but I'm not aware of the test you mention. It was a better car in many ways than my 71 Karmann Ghia that seized up on my way to work, but it had absolutely zero ability to go in the snow. I imagine the Pinto was useless in the snow too, but at least it was easier to place the two 40 lb. bags of sand in the back. And studded snow tires. My beetles and Ghias needed no help to go in the snow, other than an engine that ran!!
@@halnwheels and maybe a heater. (r.e. the VW's) Used a VW pickup for work in Germany in the 1980s never could get enough heat from it's heater in the winter months.
Of the "hundreds" of people that died in Pinto fires, the NHTSA determined there were 27 that actually did. Given the cars production numbers (which were over 2 million) it was determined the Pinto was no more fire-prone than any other car of the time and was less fire-prone than cars like the Datsun 1200, B210, and the Toyota Corolla.
I've had 5 Pintos. The first one had gone through a tornado up in Omaha. I bought it and had it repainted, then it was wiped out again in the Plaza Flood (1977 KCMO). I found a hatchback with a bad engine, so I took the engine out of the flood car (a 2.0l with solid lifters), rebuilt it, put in headers, new intake, new bigger carb, dual cherry bombs, and G60-14 tires in the back (on '68 Mustang rims). Top end was close to 90 and didn't take all day to get there either. Fun to drive and I got 45mpg out of it too!
The wagon didn't have the same combustiblity problem the hatch did... and my dad had one when I was a real little kid! It became impractical when my little sister was born because rear doors exist for a reason. Also, the foundational mythology of the quintessential Elvis Impersonator/ Reggae /Classic Rock Cover band relied on a Milkman rear ending a Pinto and the subsequent kablooie transforming everyone into Dread Zeppelin the band, and the powers that be showed this at least once on MTV. I defy you to call me a liar.
I used to take my box-stock, 1973 4-speed A/C Pinto wagon up to Mulholland Drive and chase MGs, Healys & Triumphs. It was a blast. The stick made a big difference, and the steering seemed at least as good as my '65 Mustang. On its 3rd head gasket, I got $100 trade-in on it for my first new car! Thank you, Mr. Regular. So many shots, so many views of the car, artfully edited. Keep up the good work!
Man, that's a blast from my high school and early college years. I haven't seen one in ages as most were driven into the ground then left to rust away or sent to the crusher. Amazing to see one with low miles and in good condition!
'70s kid here. I rode in a few Pintos back then. It was called, among other things, the car that nobody liked, but everybody bought. Oh, that interior, LOL.
Great touch with the interview with new owner.Really like the format you've got here and a breathe of fresh air .Truly thank you, especially for myself whom is an collector of 70s Ford's.
These econo boxes were not the best this country had to offer, but they were made of metal & returned 20+ mpg in a time of history when this country needed it.
Hopefully they listen! I enjoy his comedy at times, but sometimes they go way overboard with the penorrr jokes... and it just drags the video down into the gutter. going more serious gets more respect, end of day. And they had a beautiful car provided so that helped
About the Pinto safety issues. It effected the coupe version. Station wagons had the extra room in the rear to make it safe. Or at least safer. Another problem was that the body would flex and crumple at the B pillar during a straight rear or front impact. This would jam the doors shut. So, along with burning, it was possible that you would have to smash your way out through a window.
i imagine with stuff like subframe connectors and bracing that people already do for chassis stiffening to improve handling would also improve the rigidity of the chassis in a wreck, or i would think but that's just me thinking out loud. i suppose if you also could find a way to use a different gas tank or protect it properly by other means, that would help. Unless Ford's recall fix was enough to actually solve that issue?
'95 Deville will overlap the doors, jamming them in a hard enough collision too. Pried one open to have a dead, cool skinned womans arm touch me....yikes.
Iirc the wagon had a different differential fm the coupe…the coupe had a bolt sticking out that would puncture the tank in an impact. The wagon had a more traditional cover plate. My Dad bought a 72 in great shape for $200 fm an acquaintance in 79 because no one would touch it. Was the first car I drove, though on his lap, as a 10 y/o
I owned two of them. A '75 wagon and a '78 wagon. The '75 was a daily driver for 10 years and the '78 was traded in on my first new car in '93. One of the most basic cars to work on and was so reliable.
I still got a picture at home of me with my parents when I was a little kid in the late 70's in front of our Pinto wagon with real wood grain paneling!
Oh man, the dark irony as I’m watching this of Mr. Regular being interrupted in the middle of talking about the inherent design flaws of the Pinto causing multiple deaths by…a Ford ad
My buddy had a '73 wagon with the 2L engine. It was zeibarted when new, which you could see through the giant rust holes in the doors. We took his mother to the airport in Chicago and were racing a guy in a Porsche 944 on the expressway. He never could pass us!
My first car was a '78 Pinto wagon that I got from my mom after she was rear-ended by a Lincoln Mark 5. Few people will know the freedom of driving a car that can't get any worse, but can always get you where you need to go. Sometimes I miss that thing.
I live in the area where this was filmed and have seen it on the road before, props to anyone who would drive a Pinto on Route 61, taking your life in your hands.
I normally don't comment on regular cars videos despite watching most of them but I'm compelled to point out what a good job you guys did on this video. Keep up the good work!
The owner is really cool and the interview is a nice touch. A great channel continues getting better. Also, seeing a Pinto in this pristine of a condition is awesome. ETA: GOTDAMN Ford was sloppy. Shameful.
When I was in high school i wanted a Pinto Delivery. I thought they looked better than they get credit for, minus the wood grain this one has, when fixed up.
@@penguinsfan251 You might want to stay away from the Clamshell Wagons (1971 - 1976 G.M. Large size,) then. They're probably the most expensive of the bunch; full of issues from the time, even before wear and rust.
My sister and I pretty much grew up sitting on the wheel well of an International Scout Traveler. Fiberglass top. No seatbelts. Huge rear hatch. Big Igloo ice chest between us. Every weekend my dad driving us up into the mountains of Gila National Forest while drinking a beer...or two...or three.. Ah, the good ol' days. I don't really miss them.
RCR on a Sunday night; woohoo! I'm not even a minute into the video! Also pretty good to see another quite regular car. I wish y'all'd do an 8th gen Accord because that's my daily; I'd submit mine for review, but I'm all the way over in New Orleans.
Hey, I had a '74 Pinto wagon that got me through school. Working nights, going to school days, sleeping in the back of that pinto between classes. It would cruise up and down the turnpike at 70 easily.
Your videos make my heart feel a little less heavy in a way a beer does after a long night before high school graduation sets in. Keep making your art please
In college here in UK we worked on pinto engines in the stands (likely from escorts or whatever) the old 2v OHC crossflow stuff and they ran surprisingly well, especially considering they were often timed WAYYY out and if a valvecover bolt went down the intake... "well I guess it lives there now" That was how much they were appreciated by teenagers. (not me, I brought a car aerial with a magnet to pull FOD out but the pistons still looked like they had goose pimples from previous students). Then you leave college and realise people are porting them and feeding them boost and making 180-200hp+. If I could get a modern car with one of those engines I wouldn't even be dissapointed (might not like the fuel mileage), because if kids can't kill them nothing can.
The T88 engine really has nothing to with the Mazda L/Duratec engines though. The T88 came out of Ford in Europe and saw many changes in its development, from a 1.3 all the way to a fuel injected 2.5l in the 1998-99 Ranger. The Mazda L engine evolved from the Mazda F engine which was unrelated to the T88
Thank you for this. Other than 4 cylinders and a displacement of 2.3 liters these engines have absolutely nothing to do with one another. Ford still has the rights to sell Mazda's MZR engine, a variant of which is found in the Mazdaspeed3, as the Duratec, but this engine dates back to only 2001. I have a 2.5l MZR in my Mazda5 and it's a wonderful engine, and with the balance shafts it feels absolutely nothing like a Ford LL23, an engine I experienced firsthand back in the '80s in a Pinto wagon just like the one featured in this video.
Regular Car reviews just makes up "facts" about cars all the time. Like when they did the Ranger review and stated it was a redesign of the Courier when a 30 second Google search will tell you it's not. Also commonly misidentifying engine in videos
My neighbor has one of these in green, and he’s keeping it in immaculate shape. I haven’t been able to talk to him about it, but I can tell he knows what he drives and he doesn’t care because he loves it regardless of its flaws.
The crazy thing is I owned a 1972 Pinto that we (my father and I) installed a 1971 2.0 liter engine in! And the crazy part is the 2.0 liter engine was actually "faster" with a stick shift!! Maybe it was "just me" being hard on the engine and the clutch, BUT I could do wheelies in the little Pinto I had!! The car I owned had the nine inch Ford rear end, and I know that, that was the standard rear end that came in the 1972 which my dad bought with an automatic and a blown 2.3 liter engine!!! Meanwhile the original car he bought was a beyond rotted out 1971 Pinto Runabout (which had a rear hatch) where the 1972 had a trunk! Basically the thinking behind my dad's logic was "A safe car for his son" (me) when he bought the 1971, but only afterwards did he realize how bad the body of the car actually was!! So that is why the 1972 came into the picture because the body of the 1972 was in far better shape but the motor was toast!! Ultimately the car ended up being a 1971, 1972 and a 1973 Pinto ALL in one car!! Because the first two cars had lousy interiors on them, and my father ended up buying the 1973 to steal the interior out of it!!
@@williamconrod8998 Yeah, although I can't see how in only 40K miles. I learned to drive in one in 1979, the car probably had 50K miles, and the steering was just fine.
Dad drove one of these when I was born. It was olive green but a 4MT. Only time it let us down was when the radiator let go on the way home from picking up a Christmas tree (it was on the roof even). End of the road was when it literally was stolen from the bus park n ride in 1987 and completely gutted when the cops found it. Ended up with Grampa’s VW Squareback as the backup car.
Im a Dodge guy. A V8 musclecar guy. But, I can appreciate somthing like a 30k mile Pinto wagon. If I had unlimited time, space and money, Id kinda want it. Owner seems pretty cool, and has fun outlook on the car. Edit: This was a much more fun vid than the abyssmal and misinformed/unfair reveiw you gave the Dodge Stealth a while back...
I bought a new 1973 wagon that was the best car I ever owned. Perfect size for a small family. Living in North Dakota at the time I found the automatic transmission could start out in 2nd and never got stuck in deep snow because the wheels didn't lose traction. Limited slip differential helped, too. The only options I got were AM radio and automatic transmission. I could easily do tune-ups and oil changes easily by myself. I wish I still had it!
I feel like the 70s was where it all started to go wrong for American car manufacturing. Powerless, mass produced, soul less, garbage designed to be used for a little while and thrown away. You know how bad it is because you can still see some cars from the 30s, 40s, and 50s on the road. Meanwhile, I can't even remember the last time I saw a Maverick, Pinto, or Vega driving down the street.
Yeah the 70s were overall a dark time for the car industry. They cared more about short term profits over long term customer satisfaction and loyalty. This is why Toyota outsells every American brand.
Powerless, sure, but soulless is a little bit harsh. 70s cars have a lot more soul and character to them than anyone really gives them credit for just because a lot of people are a bit nostalgia blind for street cars from the late 1960s. The modern type of American car, being post war year by year releases, were always meant to be bought and driven and thrown away when the next one comes out. The reason you see more rigs driving around from those earlier times is because they're just more popular. A lot of times the people that can afford to drive cars from the 1930s or 40s or 50s can because they're older guys with the money to do so, and they already experienced those 70s cars. They were boring for them when they came out and they aren't interesting now because they still view them that way. These guys grew up reading magazines and watching drag races of model As and Tri-Five chevies, and it's the same nowadays for chevelles and dodge chargers, but I bet with a little hindsight and interest you can have a lot of fun driving around say a '75 Delta 88 if you just gave it a chance. this turned out to be an essay whoops lol
TBH the 50s and 60s cars were designed to be disposable too; they just had better engines and a few other such things to keep their devotees for the handful we see around today.
In 1982 ,when I was 16, my parents had a grey Pinto 2 door hatchback with a 4 speed stick. A manual transmission really helps that little 4 go ... a little bit faster or at least lets you feel like it does. We lived in San Francisco where the streets are often slick with fog. I used to do handbrake turns on the wet roads in Golden Gate Park late at night. It was a kinda fun car to learn how to drive (improperly). I bought a 1966 Chevy Nova 4 door straight 6 with a three speed on the steering column (3 on the tree) in 1983 for $600. I've only owned one automatic car in my life. I had a 1970 Toyota Corona station wagon from 1987 to 1989. Every car since has been a manual, it feels weird to drive an automatic, my foot keeps looking for the clutch peddle
I have been driving a 1972 Pinto Squire wagon for nearly 20 years. Mine has the 2.0L SOHC inline four, and a 4 speed transmission. The paint is sort of a copper color. The woodgrain has faded over the decades, and so has the paint. I'm going to have it repainted and have the woodgrain replaced. The interior is in amazing condition. This is an amazing car. It is the most reliable car I have ever owned. It's amazing just how much you can get in it with the rear seat folded down. I did have to replace the engine about 10 years ago, rebuild the brakes, and install a new steering rack. It should be good for another 20 years without anything major. The body is solid as a rock after 50 years. Ford built these things right, unlike the tin cans on the road today.
Sounds like a great little summer runaround car! Big-Box Store time! . You MIGHT be able to save the original paint... There are some reviews on Meguiars M7 "Show Car Glaze." On, as I recall, either Autogeek, or Autopia; maybe Mequiarsonline, they brought the shine back to a gold '73-ish Lincoln Mk IV, and on one of the other reviews, they show a red Mercedes. Faded-to-almost-white back to *RED*. A lot cheaper than prep & paint, and "it's only original once," and a weekend of accomplishment!
YT nuked my reply-with-link, but here's the title of the article on Autogeekonline: . The Secret to Removing Oxidation and Restoring a Show Car Finish to Antique Single Stage Paints . Note: Needs a good wax after glazing & polishing to keep it nice; glaze isn't protective.
@@randymorobitto5453 Unfortunately the paint on mine is too far gone to bring back. I already tried it. But at least it is evenly faded, unlike the spotting that happens in a VERY short time with clear coat paint. It just looks more like a matte paint. I live in AZ, which is why it's not rusted, but the AZ sun is very hard on paint. I've seen 5 year old cars, even really expensive ones, with all the clearcoat burned off them. Clearcoat paint was a really bad idea. For now I may just leave the paint alone, and just replace the totally ruined woodgrain. I'm going to have a sign shop do it with vinyl body wrap material. Just that will make it look 100% better.
@@geraldscott4302 - Agreed about the clear coat! About 2 years after getting into the sealants and waxes, my own clearcoat failed... 😒 Of course, I SAW it hazing, but it was my own fault; car was a leased appliance, so I didn't even wash it for the first 2 years that I can think of - maybe a drive-thru, or pressure washer place... Yeah, I know... . Apex Detailing channel has a couple of products highlighted that MAY be helpful, if the paint isn't TOTALLY toast... . ▪ "First Detail In 37 Years!! Mercedes Turbo Diesel Returned To Glory!!" (Three-part series; takes an MB from chalky beige to SHINY. Obviously depends on how thick your paint is.) ▪ "Optimum Clear Coat Restorer!! (CCR)" that might help to keep it shiny - until you get it repainted, anyway. Haven't tried it, but only because I don't have an indoor ("wind-free") space to do it. Might be worth investigating. If nothing else, they beat watching most of what's on TV! . Last part: Two nice resources (both are dot com): oldcarbrochures autocolorlibrary
