Now don't be all like, "I hate Pintos" on me now. Not all of them were bad. Well, ahem, they were, actually but I mean aesthetically. Take this 1977 Pinto Squire in "arrest-me-red" for instance. This was listed on Facebook Marketplace for a scant $4,500 and if I didn't think my wife and my boys would disown me I might be inclined to kick it's tires and factory Ford Mag wheels.
I mean, shoot. Look at the amount of cargo space this thing has with the back seat down. That's a 57.2-cubic foot hole back here. With the seat up, you still have some 36-cubic feet. I don't wish I still had my 2006 Chevrolet Tahoe and it's 106-cubic foot canyon with the seats down or out, but there are times I sorely miss it.
And an off-beat little utility vehicle like this would be the perfect thing for those Saturday morning mulch runs to Lowes. The wagon canopy also, in my opinion, makes for a far better looking vehicle than the stubby, almost AMC Gremlin like standard coupe. I'd stop short of saying it handsome like a Vega Kammback, but it's close.
Again, my family would kill me but what makes this really interesting is it has the optional "Cologne", 2.8-liter V-6. Although making all of 115-horsepower and 138-pounds of twist, in a 2,500-pound car, this thing is going to be pretty zippy. I spy no power-brakes or power steering. She does have an automatic, though.
She fast? Well, not by today's insane standards but for a vehicle from the deepest, darkest throes of the so-called "Malaise Era", you could do a lot worse. Love these buckets and look at those super-clean rocker panels. This car has been adored and cared for and is one of the best looking "cheapies" I've seen in awhile. Someone hide my debit card! Steering wheel is not stock.
A buddy of mine in high school had a vomit green, '74 Pinto (non-wagon) and he took a fair share of ribbing about it. And that was in the early '80's too before the legend of the Pinto became ingrained in the public vernacular as a bad thing. Then again, our high school did have a fair amount of richie-riches rubbing elbows with us poor slobs. Thing was, his Pinto was a blast to drive thanks to rack-and-pinion steering enabling it to handle like a go cart compared to just about anything else at the time.
Ah, but she's red. And it has that woodie-wall paper that kids today hate with a vengeance. I don't blame them. And, yeah-yeah, the whole exploding gas tank thing. I get it. But if I can live my dream of living out in the country on multiple acres with no-one around and I need something to "go into town" in, this could be my muse. And a whole lot better on gas than some pickup truck.
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