Rusty But Trusty

With the benefit of hindsight, Ford’s Pinto was an interesting attempt at beating the Europeans and Japanese at their own game. What the Big 3, 4, or 5 considered “compacts” in the past were, by comparison to most imported cars, full-sized and often sported six-cylinder engines that, while fuel efficient compared to their V8 siblings, were by no means miserly with the dino-juice. And while Ford previously offered the Cortina as an economy option, the Pinto was their first North-American designed subcompact offering. And that’s as good a reason as any to feature a Pinto on July 8, Collector Car Appreciation Day, so let’s take a look at this 1973 Ford Pinto for sale for $2800 somewhere in the vicinity of Portland, OR.

(more…)

Recent reader feedback included a request for more Ford Pintos, specifically, early small-bumper wagons. Since it’s been a while since the last feature Pinto, the search was on, and it didn’t take too long to expose why there have been no recent Pinto features: Pintos are actually quite thin on the ground, and when you narrow the criteria down to small-bumper (pre-1974) cars, you get very few results, and if you filter out everything but wagons, you’re left with a few project cars and shells that don’t fit with the spirit of things here. With that, one of the listings was quite interesting – check out this 1971 Ford Pinto for sale for $3500 in Denton, TX.

(more…)