The Ford Pinto was NOT a Bomb on Wheels! 

The Pinto was only a joke for those who never owned one. My first car was a ‘71 bought in ‘84. I kept my eye out for a CA one years later and found a clean ‘73 in 2020. Slow, yes. It’s also extremely simple, ride surprisingly well, and indeed well built. It’s built like a 60’s car with more metal than plastic. And the doors are classic 70s Fords, they shut with a satisfying click. Designed at a time when the national speed limit was 70MPH, and is happy and economically capable for that all day. If one could avoid salt covered roads, a vintage Pinto is still dirt cheap to keep on the road indefinitely.

Haha!! Oh my.. I hate to show my age. I bought an 1976 Pinto wagon new. As an 18 year old,,a lot of friends didn't understand why. I've always liked a long roof car,,looking at the Nomads and other 2 door station wagons they just were cool to me. It ran well for what it was. Manual transmission made it fun. Loved that car! Thanks for the memories.

My affluent high school parking lot was filled with Camaros and Cutlasses. I had a puke green Gremlin and my best friend drove a yellow Pinto which we affectionately called "The Bean." We weren't the coolest but we had a ball in those cars.

The Pinto was also one of the first American cars with Rack & Pinion steering, which almost all cars have now. when I was a teen, I convinced my mom & a girl who was a friend to buy a Pinto each, then another friend of mine introduced me to his friend who had a Pinto & worked for Ford as a mechanic, then later in life I got married & bought a Pinto wagon, I have always been drawn to the Pinto & would like one today as a second car.. Thanks for the Video, I am a follower of both your series..

I love Pintos - especially the first two years with the smaller bumpers and engines. That is a fine example and so nice to see it well maintained. Thanks for being realistic with the review. Great car? No way. Good and competent car for what it was designed? Absolutely.

I agree with you one hundred percent Donald. I worked in the service department of a Ford dealership in the mid seventies and these cars were very durable and rode drove quite well for the time. They definitely don’t deserve the reputation they have been labeled with.

I raced a Pinto in SCCA B Sedan and did quite well. They were low and wide with huge wheel wells. The 2 liter was easily tuned although it fell way short of the Datsun 510. I added Mustang II front brakes. I was regional B Sedan champ one year. I got to race against Paul Newman a couple of times and was awed by the Datsun's power. They had about 100 horsepower more then the Pinto although I could stay with him in the twisty stuff.

That looks exactly like the '72 Pinto I bought new for $2200, even same color. My father-in-law said it wouldn't last 100k miles. When I traded it in it had over 140k miles and still ran like new. It was easy to work on. I did my own tune-ups, oil changes, etc. With the help of a manual I even overhauled the engine. I added a tach, oil pressure guage, and some sound stuff. Lot of memories in that car, thank you.

I'd much rather see reports on vehicles like this that the average person may have owned then all the super car videos. So what if a car can go from 0 to 60 in 3 sec. and go 200 MPH. Where in the US are you going to be able to do that and not get a ticket?

Thanks for the video. It's nice to see the pinto get some love for a change instead of all the hate that's been thrown at it over the years. I went from a 67 Dodge R/T to a brand new 72 Pinto hatchback. Talk about shock! The Pinto cost me under 2 grand. The day I picked it up brand new at the dealership and drove it out and off of the lot the pointer for one of the gauges fell right off. I had to turn around and drive it back in to the dealership where they fixed it. Other than that It WAS a good car and gave me zero issues. I was actually able to find quite a few aftermarket performance parts that were being produced for the Pinto. I remember getting a very nice Hurst shifter that made it way easier to shift and easier to get into reverse and also found a set of headers and intake manifold with dual carburetor options. Also was able to find some handling options too. So it ended up being pretty quick and handled really good. I lived in Arizona at the time and it was fun to drive on a twisty mountain road. It was a really nice looking car too. Metallic blue with white stripes along the bottom. Hard to keep the stripes clean but it was a nice looking car if you took the time to polish her up every now and then.

The pinto a very well built small car, I have driven pintos, sold, did maintenance on them. I have owned a large variety of pinto wagons, hatchbacks, trunk models, mercury bobcat's the pintos cousin's. I have enjoyed you and your beautiful 72 pinto with a 2000 engine german made. I appreciated your respect to review the pinto as a sound car. I am glad they notified everyone about the gas tanks so people would drive safely. I have been rearended at 60 mph, the 15 mph shock absorbers bumpers collasped, we got whiplash slightly in our 79 pinto the gas tank was fine. I know about other vehicle recalls on truck gas tanks that were fixed. I know accidents happen, any car or truck with live fuel can ignite if hit. I also think if people had been driving safely most accidents would never have happened don't you? We were stopped at a red light in a 35mph speed limit in our 79 pinto, the police measured the black skid marks they determined they were speeding 60mph. Thank you for having common sense while driving a pinto, they weigh at least over a ton to be exact 2, 270 lbs, pintos, station wagons, 2300 or V6 different rear axles different weights?The pintos all drove very uniquely different built by special hard working people. I love pintos thank you Donald. I have a love in my heart also for pintos. I have enjoyed watching you drive a pinto, the way they are to be driven in the owners manual in there glove box. The recalls on the gas tanks have been fixed and was only on certain year models. The pintos driven safely are perfectly fine and when others drive safely you will get a lot of miles and use. Ford pinto and Mercury bobcat 1971- 1980 shop manual says in chapter six clymer shop manual, fuel and exhaust systems page 153 a special note. It says Ford motor company has indicated that the fuel tanks and filler necks installed on 1971-1976 pintos and 1975-1976 bobcat's are subject to failure when vehicles are struck from the rear. See your Ford or Mercury dealer to have this problem corrected, if not already done. Ford motor company good pinto engines, good transmissions, good rear ends beautiful quality cars to drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, love, LOVE the Pinto, especially the early body Pintos. Thanks for another great video Donald, as always you know exactly what true car aficionados love and appreciate from years past ☺️

Donald, I was highschool sophomore in 1972 and a friend of mine got a bright orange Pinto a year later (the Runabout) which we had great fun in. And my girlfriend’s dad had a white Pinto Squire wagon. A few observations: The matching “key wallet” that is tangling from the ignition is classic! We all had those! The monochrome interior that matches the exterior, again classic and so common back then (ah….when cars were just more colorful!) The hexagon front light bezels, something I never noticed before is a neat design touch. And finally, who would have thought back then the lowly Pinto would ever become a collector car? This was fun to watch! Thanks.

I bought a new off the showroom floor 1979 Pinto Pony sedan. It was red with a red interior. It had three options: high altitude emissions, front disc brakes and tinted glass. I've had forty cars and the Pinto was the one I put the most miles and kept the longest. I loved that car and wish I still had it.

I had a dark metallic green '72 hatchback that I bought in '75. It was a 4-spd with ac and a sun roof. Can't remember the price, but I had $48/mo payments. I drove it for 2 years and thought it was a great little car.

I had two Pintos, a 1972 Runabout and a 1974 Squire --both with manuals. I liked them both.

My first car was a 1973 Pinto 4 speed. It didn't last long though I got hit and it was totaled. I also had a 1979 Mercury Bobcat that I drove while getting my trucks engine replaced. I should have kept the Bobcat because the truck was terrible.

A great perspective and review! I've owned two of these -- a '77 Bobcat V-6/AT wagon, and an '80 Pinto Pony I-4/4-speed. Both great cars in different ways, but one thing they shared in common was how comfortable they were to drive on the highway.

Well said! I bought a luxury Pinto, a Mercury Bobcat Runabout new in '75 with the 2.3l and four speed tranny and drove it daily for over twenty years until it got T-boned by a drunk. I sure miss that car and would probably still be driving it if the accident never happened.

I agree 100% with you on the Ford Pinto. Great simple little cars! Handled excellent. I drove a couple of the early ones back in the late 70s early 80s. I drove them everywhere for work, vacation trips up north and beat the hell out of them for fun. They just kept on going and going. I had a few friends who also owned Pintos and also did the same. None ever exploded. I believe the fake media blew that all out of proportion as usual like they did the GM pickkups. The recall was a simple plastic shield that bolted to the rear end to keep the rear end from cutting the gas tank in a rear collision. I seen several Pintos in junk yards and some still driving that been smashed in the rear end and they didnt explode. One that was in a junkyard was smashed right up to the rear seat! No sign of fire. That Pinto you are driving is a FIND!! I just told a buddy the other day, I wouldn't mind buying an old Pinto (pre '74) with a 4 speed to add to my 2 old car collection. If I found one like that, I would probably have to buy it. The buddy I was talking with owned 5 of them in his younger days. He drove all of them like he stole them and he also said he would also like to buy one now.

Was born in the wrong era. When this car was new. People like me could afford to buy a new car at least once in their lifetime. And you could get a bare bones base model for even less. And for people like me, that would be great. I don't like electronics and other options. I would rather have a blank canvas and add what I want. And do it one part at a time when I could afford to. But base model cars today have more stuff than I want. And they cost so much I couldn't afford one if I wanted. I'll just stick with my old used beaters and enjoy them

I think one point you're making about the Falcon and Corvair and Valiant competing against the imports is a bit off or misguided. They were fighting the Rambler and that's about it. The manufacturers realized that there was a market for smaller cars, but they weren't targeting the imports. There were relatively few Imports brought to the USA in the 1950's. AMC Metropolitan, VW Bug and the Renault Dauphine were really the market makers of the foreign cars in the USA, the Sports car segment wasn't the target either, MG or Fiat or Triumph. Those Subcompacts from Detroit were to fight the Rambler which was really starting to grab market share. Studebaker Lark came along too in 1959 but that really wasn't a competitive car to the Rambler. Pinto and Gremlin and Vega were definitely designed to compete against the VW and others, they were introduced for a different reason than the Corvair or Falcon or Valiant.

I had a 1973 Pinto Wagon. The one with the wood grain and had a lot of rust and dents. This was Buffalo. I used to sleep in the back for camping. I took the wood grain off and had to fill all of the holes from the trim hardware. It ran great the entire time. I paid $150 for it in 1978. It got me through high school and part of college.

In a world where falsehoods create false perceptions of hopelessness and hate - The truest Joy of driving and independent thought of car ownership is a bright shining light. The courage to admit unabashed enjoying and the pride of buying, selling and owning a Pinto stands our perception vs reality on our heads. I say Amen Rev Osborne! 🦊

We had two Pinto’s. They were both Squire’s one was a 74 and the other was a 78. They were easy keepers for transportation. Change the Oil, Keep it tuned and Rotate tires and change your wipers every 3k miles it lasted a long time. Had a lot of great memories. Thanks Donald, Great Videos!!!

Exactly the type of video we crave👍 Love cars that non-enthusiasts ignore or disregard! I smile now when seeing one (rarely) in our temperate NW climate. Some are still driven unironically here.

The concept of the Pinto certainly sounds cool... But unlike the host, I don't think I have the patience to deal with an 80-something horsepower 4-banger. Heck, the 302's of the smog era seem underpowered. Now take a 1970's Pinto, swap in an old school 302 with a set of GT40 heads, a modern hydraulic roller cam, and a good 600cfm 4 barrel, and you'd have a fun little cruiser with something like 250-300 horsepower. That's a Pinto I could live with.

Having owned three Pinto wagons and a Bobcat hatch. All were wonderful and, except for the Bobcat, all 4 speeds. Aside from the fantastic handling characteristics, the wagons in particular were excellent vehicles in terms of basic utility. As a young man my work included sign painter/installer and some light remodeling. These little beauties could swallow up a stack of 4'x8' sheets of drywall or plywood !(hatch open of course) Most modern SUVs & crossovers can't even do that. Thanks for giving the lowly Pinto some much needed love. Those of us who know, already know...👍🏁

Sir! I could not agree with you more. I think those little Pintos were a fantastic bargain for the time period. Maybe even more today. And of course, I totally agree with you in regards to the reputation that was foisted on them. I wish they would go back to that formula for making cars NOW, today! I'd sure as heck buy one!

I owned 2 different Pinto wagons, a ‘74 and ‘80. The ‘74 was my college commuter car. I had it for 6 years and put about 150,000 miles on it. I then bought the ‘80. I had it for 7 years and about 175,000 miles. Loved them both but I preferred the ‘80. An issue I had with both of them was a weak original radiator that lasted less than 2 years.

My first brand new car was a 1980 Pinto hatchback with the glass back door. Red, sunroof, 4 speed. Loved that car and it never gave me any problems.

Always loved the Pinto, and its bigger Maverick and Mustang early 70s stablemates.

I had a 1972 Pinto Hatch back in the same green you are driving with a 2000 cc motor . It was a great car . Except the starter needed replacing about every 9 months. I got very good at replacing the starter, LoL . Back then they sold things to get a little more power out of them . I had a Header , slighly bigger cam , and a very small 4 barrel seem quick . Had about 140 HP .

My parents bought a 1971 Pinto brand new that year, it was orange. I thought it was pretty cool, our family had only one new car before, a 1971 Ford Thunderbird that we still have! The Pinto was a solid car, ran great, never any problems with the engine, it ran strong. My dad taught me to drive a stick shift in that car. Those were fun times!

I sorely miss my 4-speed Pinto. If I could buy one today it would be my first choice. Solid, light weight, peppy. And it didn't explode - not even once! 😆

Great review. I had a 75 Pinto wagon and loved it. Great handling. I kept it until my family grew larger.

I had a 1980 Ford Pinto with the glass back hatch. I owned it for 4 years and the only problem I had was a leak in the heater core. Easy to fix and parts where inexpensive and easy to find. When I sold it, I got almost as much as I paid for it. At the time some of the local motor heads were starting to play around with 4-cylinder engines and kits were starting to show up that increased horsepower and torque. I saw one pinto that the owner had squeezed a small V-8 engine. It was incredibly quick on the take off and just got faster from there. It is too bad that Ford got away from that kind of car.

I worked with a guy years ago who owned several Pintos. (I've had one) He said, "The only weak point is the timing belt". "I always carry a spare one". "I've changed them on the side of the road in twenty minutes".

I owned a 1974 mustang II Basically a redesigned pinto. It was a pretty decent car. Never really had any issues. 2.3 litre 4 cylinder auto trans. Good mpg

Okay Donald you said that it was just as safe and design as other cars of the era with the gas tank between the rear bumper and the rear axle. The pinto hair design flaw more than one and combine this in my opinion with the bigger cars being out in the road have an opportunity to smack this little car harder and even go up underneath it. I have a 72 pencil wagon and the big bone for one is a 77 I think. I also have a 74 mustang two. The 72 pinto has a skinny bumper and both pencils are station wagons. Which if I heard you're right or safer than the runabouts according to the numbers. The problem is the angle of the gas tank. Take a look at where it sits in there and instead of hitting the edge of the tank you're more likely to go up under and hit the bottom face. Now the problem was with the earlier pintos, that's my understanding more so than the later pintos. You got that big chunk of bumper to put on the later pintos. The engineered Band-Aid that retrofitted to pintos affected by the recall in my opinion is laughable. I did put something more to help protect the tank. Now police crown vics much bigger cars got a bad rap because people flying down the road with rear end that thing sitting still and cause the car to erupt into flames. The pinto did not have to resetting still in order for it to be hit and go up in flames. I also proposed that the sheet metal tank should have been thicker. The reason why I say this is that my 72 was setting on blacktop driveway with some limestone underneath it as well sitting on top of black top inside of a privacy fence roughly 8 ft tall at the end of my house. I had one of those portable metal carports over it parrot but leaves built up under the gas tank. The front of the gas tank developed pin holes I suppose first but they're bigger than that. I love the car set dry in the gas tank. Lily ran it out of gas and there's always some left but a jacked car up as well when I ran it dry in order to get more of the gasoline out. My point is the leaves filled up underneath and rotted the gas tank. Thank you. That was a short amount of time. I didn't touch car for around 3 years. Record been stored inside most of its life and even today doesn't have a rust hole in it! Except for the gas tank! I had it on my trailer and was hauling it to put it in a building a couple of years ago. I stopped to put diesel fuel in the gas tank. This is an old trick that I learned a long time ago and it helps to cut the junk in the tank. I heard it start pouring out on my trailer so I stopped and being a truck stop they had a fuel catching after I set up so it was contained. Talking about a couple of gallons anyway. And yes I reported to the attendant. My whole point is this you said that it was built to be a competitive car in the import market. At that time it that meant cheap. Now I like the body style especially of the pinto wagon. It has nice lines. I'm glad that the pinto and the mustang 2 are getting more love and appreciation. So my point of contention is to say that it was no difference in safety Factor compared to other cars of that era with the gas tank loaded between the rear axle and the rear bumper. Let's not rewrite history. They're being reports that Ford produce inside company information that show they knew about this problem. I like how people say that as fact but yet where are these reports.? So take a look at the angle of the gas tank in the way it would have been struck in a rearing collision and in my opinion there's explosive Factor more so than the fact of its location. Back when these cars were new they are much smaller than the other cars on the road. After the OPEC gas crunch crisis we went back to bigger cars. Why didn't the imports explode a whole host of reasons but yourself so they made nearly $500,000 of these pintos and I dare say for the same time period the individual imports numbers were probably less for each of the manufacturers. That point I could be mistaken. I do like the way you produce or explained the details of the Ford pinto otherwise. I agree for what that's worth that the pinto you're driving is probably the best example on the planet at 17,000 miles. By the way the pencil wagon I refer to skinny bumpers has less than 70,000 miles on it and has been in the family since about 1985. Our wagon is hot as it may sound for a pinto it was always a trailer Queen even before we got it. The original owner just kept it in the garage.

The Canadian built pintos didn't have the problems associated with the US models as the Canadian government required that Ford put in the necessary safety fixes.

Bought a pinto new in 72 and drove it 213k miles without a problem but it was using some oil by then.Those 2.3 engines were bulletproof and so was the rest of the car.The competition couldnt hold a candle to these cars especially the chevy Vega which turned out to be one of the most unreliable cars ever made.

I had a 1972 pinto as well mine was very sporty had a 4sp with a hopped up 4 cyl with racing parts so it wasn't a slug light to light kinda funny I was eighteen years old back in 1985 was my first car very reliable for what it was I know it was only a 1972 pinto but it was a fun car for the time thanks for the memories jeff from saint francis mn

I had a '77 Mercury Bobcat with a 4-speed. It was a great little car, thank you for sharing your opinion!

I had a 72 Pinto in the mid 90s. Someone had modified the engine and that thing would really scoot. (for a Pinto) I loved it. It was a really fun car to drive.

Donald, I loved my 1970 Pinto. There were some quirks with it. The two dash knobs on the left. One was for the head lights and one for the wipers. Mine had two round knobs. I would pick the wrong one when for the wipers. I went to a Ford dealer and bought the newer wiper knob and installed my self. After reading an article in Popular Mechanics, I reset the timing to 10 deg. advanced and turned the vacuum valve around on the distributor. It did help with performance. The two liter 4 was the engine to have. I would shift to the next gear when the car wouldn't go any faster in the gear it was in. haha Mine was medium green metallic. It cost $19,500 on the road. I didn't like the Vega's engine design and the VW wasn't giving any discounts. In '73, I got a Pinto wagon automatic, BIG mistake. A terrible combination.

The Pinto suffered mainly because of 'yellow' newscasters and a Val Kilmer - Zucker/Abrahams movie gag. (Audi had suffered similar problems, exacerbated by a member of the 60 Minutes presenters paying a mechanic to rig a device in order to 'demonstrate' an issue. He had also been previously kicked out of Fort Lauderdale, by the city, and told never to return because of his 'yellow journalistic style' that resulted in lawsuits, etc.) Of the 1.53 million afflicted Pintos and Bobcats (Mercury version) 6 people actually died from collision related fires. Compare that to Chevrolet and GMC pickup trucks that mounted their fuel tanks on the outside of their right-hand frame rails which were related to over 2,000 deaths. There were 10 million pickups vs. 1.53 million afflicted Pintos & Bobcats but still... 1/10 of a million trucks, 1/10 of 2,000 killed = 200. Six out of 1.53 million suffered from the Pinto's problem. Both were horrible problems causing loss of lives but the point is, in comparison the Pinto didn't deserve top billing and they weren't exactly the firebomb so many portray them to be. Pinto's #1 competitor was the Chevrolet Vega. The Vega's quality (shoddy build quality, brakes, NVH and corrosion) and engine issues are well known - rust buckets and and engine that was such a total POS the government MADE them extend its warranty from 12/12 to 60/60,000. Clutch cables would pull through the cheap, thin firewall, etc., etc. The reason you don't see either very often is the Vegas mostly rotted away in a few years. Pintos, on the other hand, were picked up and turned into race cars. A LOT of race cars. That went on for a number of years, especially after they had aged into inexpensive cars. Dodge/Plynouth had nothing, they were pretty much on the skids until they cut a deal with VW and began selling Rabbit/Golf variants - Horizon and Omni - in 1978. Talk about late to the game! Neither were glamorous, sporty or special in any way imaginable. If it wasn't for those two models and Lee Iacocca, the Pentastar Corp. would have died a sad, horrible death. Back then there wasn't anyone willing to take on their burden for more than a Whopper with Cheese. Those two cars, and their later spin-off big sibs, as ehhh as they were, are what saved Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth. Regarding Corvairs, they were a large gambit at the time they came out. They were also comfortable, kinda sporty when compared to the three-ton Betties that were so common at the time. Leaving Ralph Nader and his commentary aside, they handled.... kinda sorta. On dry roads they did o.k., steering was light (no weight up front) and they rode fairly soft. However, a little snow, a heavy rain or autumn's wet leaves would keep them from being able to turn very well. Well, the steering wheel would turn the tires just fine but, at any speed higher than that of a riding lawn mower, that was about the end of the transaction as the front end would just push/slide straight until the rear brakes could stop you. Now you can rethink your Nader conspiracy, if you had one coming in. Oh, and don't forget to carry a fan belt or two and a couple quarts of oil at all times. Plymouth introduced their Valiant in '60. A good reliable car with a slant six and looked like a Chrysler got hammered and spent the night in the back row of a drive-in with a Studebaker. Ride- o.k., handling - somewhere between the Corvair and Falcon. Excessive rattles included at no additional charge. 🙂

My first car was a '76 Pinto Squire wagon with the 2.8 V6 option. LOVED it!

Great video on an underrated car!😁👍 I saw these in Car Craft as hot rods with V-8 engine swaps years ago!😁🛠️

My first car was a green '72 Pinto that looked almost identical to the one in this video. Thanks for the memories!

YES IVE OWN MANNY FORD PINTO AND FORD ESCORT THE WORLD 🌎 CARR I CANN PERSONALLY SPEAK FOR MYSELF ABOUT THESE CARRS BEING EXPLOSIVE AND DANGEROUS IM STILL HERE UNLESS THIS IS THE AFTER LIFE

Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane, Donald. You're right, they were better than Vega and (arguably) Gremlin.

Just Say NO To Drugs Man.

Donald in a PINTO?! What a great Christmas week treat.

In the early 1970s there were lots of pintos everywhere. Must have rode in at least 20 of them.

I have a lot of nostalgia for the Pinto. My family had three different Pintos when I was growing up. A 1972? blue station wagon, a 197? green Mercury Bobcat, and a 1978 blue Runabout. All three had automatic transmissions (mom couldn't drive stick) but the Bobcat didn't have the power steering option (mom hated that). The blue runabout is the first car I ever drove at around age 9 (in an empty parking lot with my dad in the front passenger seat. He wanted me to be able to drive if there was ever some kind of emergency. I was very tall for my age and could comfortably reach the pedals with the seat forward). That was the same car I drove to High School when I got my license circa 1992. About safety: my understanding is that the Pinto was statistically no more dangerous than any other small 1970s car, and much safer than a VW Beetle. All 1970s cars were death traps compared to modern cars and the pinto was no different. Sure, in the 1970s a Cadillac would have been safer but only because of it's size. I wouldn't want any 1970s car to be my daily driver today, but would love to have a restored Pinto to drive occasionally and take to shows.

I love every word you've said about the Ford Pinto. Thank you for your video. My first car was a 73 Runabout; a gift from my dad, he bought it used for $800. Great car and I thank my Father for it..!!

I love pintos and have owned several of all models. Great little cars if taken care of and super dependable.

Never owned one. Had a brother who had two of them. 1972 and 1980.

Always loved the little Pinto (1980) I owned. It had the 2.3L and 4spd and with the addition of some wider wheels and tires it was a blast to drive. And it usually gave me exceptional fuel mileage. Even by today's standards. I worked back then at a Ford dealer around that time. The ironic part of the story is that even then the parts department was required to stock the recall parts for the 'fix'. It was a package with two screws and a roughly 4 x 6 inch plastic flap that installed between the tank and bumper. That was it. All the cars made after the initial few early cars came with the flap. Simple fix. Another fact was that the 70s-80s square bodied GM trucks with side fuel tanks actually killed far more of their owners when hit by side impact that rear hit Pintos ever did. Something like 2000 truck deaths to 27 Pinto fatalities. Those are the recorded numbers anyway. My '80 pinto had deluxe two tone orange and brown paint and I installed mag wheels and a factory front air dam. With the later restyled grille people often mistook it for an early Fox Mustang. Thanks to Donald for giving these cars the credit they deserve.

I had a 74’ Pinto, metallic brown with a brown vinyl interior (I wound up adding brown shag carpeting, a cassette player and Goodyear rwls) and a 4 speed stick. I, too blew the engine because of oil starvation (the oil filter loosened). I replaced it with help from my father who paid for a new stocker. I should have put a 289 in it. Have a lot of memories around that car when I was in my late teens. Wore out 2 sets of tires driving all over Texas in all weather in the late 70’s. Wish I could drive one like Audrain’s example. It was a great car to have in a special part of my life.

I loved my 1973 Pinto Sedan. Very durable, and very high performance (after I modified the engine and suspension).

i owned and worked on many a Pinto . great machines. long lasting and well made . i was impressed 👍🏼

We also had a Squire wagon, also a 72 with the same drivetrain. Loved that thing. Manual rack and pinion was precise and responsive. Put around 160k - very reliable too.

Wow! I'm so glad I stumbled on this review and this channel! I LOVE the Pinto. I agree that it has an undeservedly bad reputation. One minor quibble - I note that this car's keys are in a leather key holder. My father, and most men (yes, men) of that generation had those. My dad had his leather key holder until the day he died even though he gave up driving several years earlier. I'm pushing 60 and no one in my generation has ever had one of those. I haven't seen one of those in years, and they wouldn't make sense today anyway. That leather key holder is as much a museum piece as the Pinto is. Pinto and the key holder... I'm awash in nostalgia tonight. Thanks!!

Trunk? Nope. Exterior glovebox! I had a 74 sedan 2.0 OHC and 4 spd. LOVED that car! But the 'trunk' was too tiny to get my toolbox into.

I stumbled across this video quite by accident. I had a 1973 Pinto Hatchback/Runabout that I got from my father. He replaced our venerable 1963 Falcon with it. Questionable move at best. LOL I learned to love that car! Why in the world I ever sold it is totally beyond me! Oh yes. I remember. It was the height of the Carter Era and we had way too many cars and since we were moving from Ohio to the Northeast, we couldn't take all 12 of them. The Pinto had to go. Stupid me for selling it and for moving to the Northeast! I digress. My wife had her 1971 Pinto Sedan. After I made a few minor modifications to it she was able to get an average of 40+ mpg while mine was able to get a bit more at 44 mpg, average! It wasn't rocket science, either! The Pinto, just like the Corvair, was given a bad rep by the news media! That and accountants! The engineering in each vehicle was wonderful However, the F-N accountants made changes to some small parts by getting "deals" on undersized or reversed parts. "Hey! A deal's a deal!" (Kelly's Heroes. LOL) Those small changes are what screwed the pooch on these cars. Both were perfect for their time and I would be happy to have at least the Pinto still in my possession! If only I could find another 1973 Runabout with a 2.0 and an automatic at an affordable price I'd be all over it! You are very correct that the Pinto was actually a really well designed and well built vehicle. It was unfairly judged and then given an unjust and undignified sentence of death. Vive La Pinto!

I had a 1972 ford pinto. The exact same car and color that gentleman is driving. And I loved it and I wish I still had it.

My sister had a matching green Pinto. Would love to have another one.

I can attest to that. As many times as we wrecked a friend of mine's, if it were, I should have been ash by now. However, we never got rear ended...and it was an early Pinto...

The Pinto Memo isn't enough for the reputation to be deserved?

I agree completely with your evaluation of the 1972 Pinto. I also had a '72 Pinto 2-door sedan (not the "Runabout" hatchback). Mine had the 2.0 liter engine and automatic transmission, and the standard interior (mine was two-tone black and white vinyl) - your green one looks like it has the deluxe interior option. It handled well and it did not need power steering or power brakes. I miss mine! Not a car you see in good condition anymore.

We had a neighbor when I was growing up who was a GM man through and through and he always had Suburbans and Cadillacs but during the fuel crisis he bought a Pinto wagon,, shocked everyone... He drove it until the early eighties and then got another Suburban,, he still says that Pinto was the the most reliable car he ever owned....

A Pinto! I never expected to see Donald driving one. My first car was a 1974 Pinto, brown, a trunk and manual transmission bought for $1100 in 1977. I had money for a nicer Truck that I wanted but my dad said better to aim low for my first car as I would likely beat up and neglect it. He sure was right. The porthole Pinto wagon was the best model to have back then.

Our neighbours bought one of these brand new with the trunk in (what I think I remember) a lime green. (Hey I was around 8 years old. They were the only friends we knew that had purchased a brand new car! I always liked these first models of this car.

Absolutely agree with your assessment Donald. I bought a 72 sedan brand new that year and autocrossed it for a decade before moving on to a Mk 1 Fiesta in 1980. Aside from the gas tank fiasco and the way Ford handled it, It was a very solid and reliable vehicle. As a technician who worked on many of them, I found the biggest problem with them, like so many other cars of its ilk, was owner neglect and abuse. It was cheap, basic transportation, but still required the same amount of maintenance and care as any car. But as a bottom tier vehicle, they were often neglected, both for financial and aesthetic reasons. Owners who were barely able to afford a vehicle in the first place were hard pressed to maintain them, and second/third/etc. owners refused to keep them up, driving them until they quit and discarding them. They were far from perfect, or even great, but certainly undeserving of the reputation they were saddled with by an uncaring manufacturer and neglectful public.

When the fuel embargo hit my Dad traded in his 1970 Pontiac GTO for a 1974 Pinto wagon.

Loved my early 70s hatch. Indeed a blast to drive. With oversized snows, nothing I ever drove before was better in the snow. My PA columns fit in the back.

THANKS for THIS! Pinto's were great "not too little" cars. Owned a few and a cruising wagon!

Spot on Donald. The two liter engine was the best. Both of the early Pinto run about s I had were pretty good overall. I liked that the pinto didn't need power steering or power brakes. The rack and pinion steering was tight and precise and the front disc rear drum setup was very good and trouble free. I always felt that Ford could have made it more profitable and sportier if they had offered an option package with better front seats a more performance oriented gear set for the manual transmission and a suspension with better shocks,springs. That would have made a huge difference in how it was perceived..

I got my drivers license in 1984 in a 74 Pinto wagon, brown with wood on the side. My dad always had at least on Pinto around. I had lots of performance cars during that time, but the Pintos were very reliable and economical and I always enjoyed driving them. I found a clean 1977 low mile 2 door manual last summer but my wife did not share my enthusiasm so I let someone else purchase that affordable classic.

Thank you, Donald, for another very informative car video. I have never owned a Pinto, but knew several people who did, and like yourself, loved it. It’s ashame it failed, along with the Vega, to which I briefly owned one in 1972. I agree we other you, that it really needs to be looked at again, and who knows, maybe bring it back as an EV?

The Pinto remains my favorite car. I had that same model in brown and with the 1.6L engine. The more complicated cars get the more simplicity I want in my car.

THANK YOU! I have always felt greatly outnumbered on automotive groups when I defended the Pinto. I too had a Pinto wagon, a 74 with a 4 speed. I bought it with a bit over 90K on it for $1,100, and put 50K on it, then sold it for $975. Sure, it had some repairs along the way but it was exponentially more reliable than the 69 Cougar it replaced. It got me through the 1980 recession and tough years that followed with reliability and economy. It was well made, very suitable for its purpose and was vastly superior to its domestic competition and probably its foreign competition.

I had two pintos back in the ‘80s. I miss them. Good little cars.

I've owned a couple of Pintos and share Donald's enthusiasm for them. I will add that with some suspension work and engine work they could be turned into really quick and nimble cars. The 2300 engines were bullet proof and could be seriously hot rodded. Really fun cars to fool around with and I love the sound of a built 4cyl blapping out of a straight pipe!

In high school, 1981, a friend of mine was given a '71 Pinto coupe with no engine, so he put the built 289 and 4 speed from his recently wrecked '65 Mustang into it. I remember it having 5 lug rims so he did more than just drop in an engine. The way he drove it, it didn't last two months. The final straw was when he forgot to put the hood pins back in and the hood opened at a very high rate of speed. Did a huge amount of damage.

My dad had one for many years , it was a great car, wish I had it today. And if you're a northeast NASCAR fan you know how great those Pinto modifieds looked ❤

Dude, you are awesome! I myself owned a 1971 Pinto GT. It was similar in color to the one you were driving here. I have to say, it was so much fun to drive, and I'm not sure that I've enjoyed any other car ever. Such a shame this cute little car has been vilified as much as it has. Thank you for setting the record straight!

About a year ago, I was at a Lowe's with a large parking lot and there was a two door station wagon parked by itself away from everyone. It had a striking style...sort of european. I hadn't seen one in many years, and I was really impressed.

I had a 1971 (first year ) with the small 1.6L British Kent engine that liked to be revved up. It felt like driving a bigger car, and was wide with big heavy doors. Hatchback with lots of storage with the rear seat folded down.

This is so strange. I just saw a Pinto driving through town a few days ago and now this video pops up on my phone. Not to mention that my mom had a 2 door Pinto Wagon when I was too young to remember. I saw pictures though. It was orange with the porthole windows in the back. I would love to find one like it

Why aren't you wearing a seatbelt?

Work at a Ford dealer back in the day the pinto in their last years were extremely nice with nice manual shifters and fancy interiors and they drove really well in fact had a buddy that raced it at Riverside international raceway the pinto had a wide stance and was stable and my buddy was actually a Chevy Vega guy but preferred the pinto

Enjoyable, honest segment. I knew several Pinto owners in the 1970s, and it was reliable and well-liked. My grandfather had a new 1974 Squire wagon that was a very solid-feeling car despite its small size, and he loved it, except for the acceleration. With automatic, A/C and California emissions, it struggled a bit in freeway merging scenarios. The optional V6 of later years improved the power and refinement considerably.

One of the worst cars ever. My mothers 72 Pinto broke down 27 times. It was a POS. Goes to show you what Detroit was putting out in the 70s

My wife had one and loved it in the day. Never gave any trouble. Cheers 🇨🇦

What a refreshing video. Thank you so much for making it. I owned two Pintos, both with manuals, in the early 80s. The first one (first car I ever owned) cost $400 and the second one $420. I got 30 MPG on the freeway from a 1976 model. With rear wheel drive and a manual transmission, a Pinto was a fun car to drive. I was defending the Pinto for a long time after I sold mine. Just had to make sure the fix was done before you bought one used. It was a great car for the time period for sure.

Great video that revives memories of the wonderful visceral feel of driving a 4 cyl/4 spd manual Pinto. A 4 cyl/4 spd Pinto was (is) a comfortable vehicle to ride around town in, and it differs from modern small cars because of its rear wheel drive and low widely-spaced front bucket seats divided by a tall transmission tunnel. I also owned the follow-on Escort, and it was certainly more powerful and practical, but the Pinto had a superior wide driving feel with a low center of gravity. You were “in a bucket” in a Pinto vs “on a bucket” in an Escort. I slept several nights on the perfectly flat and long surface the hatchback model Pinto provided with the rear seats folded. 80s Escorts didn’t provide a comfortable rear sleeping area. Where the Pinto really shined for me was on my pizza delivery job while I was going to college in the 80s. I delivered pizzas for Dominos in a suburb of Detroit when Dominos was new to the area and super popular, and one of the few vehicles that could reliably handle the stress of a long delivery vehicle shift was the humble Pinto. Chevrolet Vegas were long extinct by the mid-80s. I also owned a couple of V6/automatic Pintos. V6 Pintos had factory dual exhaust which led to a two in / one out rear muffler. You simply had to replace the muffler with two glass packs for a great sounding low restriction dual exhaust. When I drove a V6 Pinto at Dominos the other drivers called it the “Super Pinto.”

I agree! I had a 1971 sedan and it was very durable. One time I was in a very sever rain storm and the streets had become rivers and cars were stalling out right and left but not my Pinto. At one point water was coming near the top of the doors and sometimes washing over the hood I had the excelorator floored going only 20 mph I could smell oil and transmission fluid, the engine was over heating because the water pump stopped turning because the fan belt was slipping and the fan blades being in so much water created to much resistance for the fan belt. I finally got to a street that wasn't a river and within a minute the car was running normally. The next day I started the car but it kept staling, I took the distributor cap off and found a lot of moisture had formed on the inside of the cap so I wiped it with a rag, put it back on and the Pinto ran fine.