The Ford Pinto | More than a Punch Line
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ส.ค. 2022
- This is the story of the Ford Pinto and its twin the Mercury Bobcat.
Of course, we all know what the Pinto is most famous... or infamous for, but I hope to shine a slightly different light on this pintsize pony.
I hope you enjoy.
Ending theme song by the incredibly talented Tommy Laszlo a.k.a. Thomas Labadie. Tommy can be found on Spotify at the link below.
Tommy Laszlo
open.spotify.com/artist/5KyEW... - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
Thanks for your support and please do consider becoming a supporter of my efforts... www.patreon.com/TofersCarTales
The Pinto remains my favorite car. The more complicated cars get the more I crave simplicity.
Even with all the hyped up bad press regarding fires from rear collisions, which was also a problem with all small cars of that era, the Pinto was more reliable than it's main competitor, the Chevy Vega!
That is for sure. Every one I had was a dependable car.@@TheOzthewiz
I owned a 1977 Pinto hatchback 4 cylinder 4 speed manual from 1977 to 1980 and it was a good car and I never felt unsafe in it. The people that trash the Pinto were not even alive back then and certainly never drove one, and they just parrot the same stories they've heard from others.
Or just Chevy guys, lol
Given the, to say charitably, indifferent build quality of many domestic cars from this era, including Ford, it’s entirely possible others had very different experiences than yours, and it would not be unreasonable for it to be so.
Isn't it interesting how LITTLE bad press the VW beetle received at that time, being WAY more unsafe than the PINTO?
Been waiting for this one,My brothers and his buddies all had 71 pintos at one time or another back in the day.For some reason they looked for that particular year,don't know why.The last one in the family was a 79 2.3 automatic that my Mom had.I have to admit the 71 manual was much cooler.
I had THREE different Pintos; one of each, sedan, hatchback, and wagon. The wagon was my favorite, but I loved them all. Great handling, good gas mileage for the time, easy to drive & park. I often wish I still had a Pinto.
No law against buying another Pinto. They are out there and do have their own club and enthusiasts group!
I knew several people that had pintos, great cars!
its 2023 and im 63 yr old man to this day i still have and drive a 1978 ford pinto runabout its been and is a great little car the blowing up stuff is funny
My family had 71 and 73, then later I had 79. We loved our Pintos. Great video.
I enjoyed this very much. It was refreshing to watch this and how you just focused on the car and its soul and not the literal firestorm it brought to drivers, FoMoCo and the automotive industry .
Well presented overview of this car. It was produced during a time when US car companies just HAD to do SOMETHING to beat the imports. I'm proud to say that I lived thru those years with nary a scratch.
Long live the memories of Gremlin, Vega and Pinto. They were a good first attempt.
Nice.. I remember my 73 Runabout, never had a problem..
A great story very well presented, we still have a nice Pinto and it gets a lot of attention everywhere we drive it, especially at local car shows, everyone has a Pinto memory and a story to go with it.
My parents had a couple of Pinto wagons in the seventies, a 73 and a 77. We really liked them even though my dad was a full size country squire aficionado. I owned a 73 runabout and 77 cruising wagon that were automatic and manual transmission equipped respectively. I had predominantly positive experiences with them all.
These videos deserve to have many more views.
My brother owned a '77 Pinto Cruising Wagon like the one depicted in silver paint with the stripes and porthole window. 4cyl/4speed manual.
Woohoo! I’m grabbing the popcorn for a perfect video to watch before bed
I hope you enjoy! Thanks for the support as always sir
I bought a yellow with black trim 1976 Stallion Pinto new the same year I graduated high school. 2.3l, 4 speed, AM radio and AC. I really liked that little car, fond memories dating my wife in that little hatchback. Would buy one again if I could find one.
They are out there! If you had one today you wound be questioned about it ever time you parked or stopped to fuel it. People who had them in their day have generally fond memories of them.
cool, my Aunt and Uncle had a 1978 Yellow wood grain Pinto Wagon 😀
Well done mate, I enjoyed that a lot. Very informative and it showed the Pinto in a whole new light.
Cool video with the TV and film 🎥 culture of the time in the background m
You really captured the feeling of the 1970's, great video; Thank you!!
Your production values are excellent, thanks for another great one. We had the gold one you lead off with, purchased in spring of '71 and dad let me take it to school with my brand new license. It drew a lot of attention and really was a decent car. Funny, I had to keep a spare de-cel valve diaphragm in the glove box as it frequently failed...10 minute fix, four screws, sometimes while even on the road. We had three others too. I bought my own option-packed '73 that looked like a vanilla-orange shag rug cream sickle and put 160K on it with no major problems. Thanks for the memories!
This guy has the coolest into on his car reviews. It's like an 80s music video. Badass!!
Here's one of the tracks our host used:
th-cam.com/video/gYfbQNbmtwA/w-d-xo.html
Deff enjoyed this vid like all his others, his Editing style, visuals n historic at time pics n etc it jus blows my mind when i feel like im reliving an era n time when i was only 9-10yrs old but can see the that times fabs, struggles n fads aswell but how things weee done back then, love this Channel ❤❤❤
Top quality again, Tofer. Audio and Visual jewel 💎👌🏼😀
Sometimes I look just to make sure i have the 🔔✅ed because I CANNOT wait for more _Tofers Car Tales_ to hit. There's NOTHING like them on TH-cam, they're more like a history documentary meets Motorweek with a touch of retro MTV music video shown in 3D inside an IMAX theater! I mean a REAL production here!! I have always and will continue to appreciate the amount of work and love you _squeeze_ into 20 minutes for us Tofer4🙏🏽
Thanks Much
Stay Safe ✌🏽
Thanks so much! I am so happy you and others find these enjoyable. I love producing them for you! Definitely a labor of love.
Beautiful story and amazing lil pony car I want one
you make best videos abut cars on all of TH-cam
The Pinto was unfairly maligned. It was no more apt to go afire in rear collisions than most cars of the day, and that infamous “memo” wasn’t what Mother Jones said it was.
Ahh, such memories. Thanks again for this walk down memory lane. I love your use of the much loved TV and movie segments throughout. And now I need to watch Exorcist.
I'm so glad you enjoyed, particularly the Exorcist reference! That part seems to have annoyed some. Probably too scary lol
No one could have done a Tribute to "The Ford Pinto" any better than what I have just Viewed... Great Job Man...👋
The Pinto was da bomb!!!
I've only seen 1 pinto before parked at an O'Reilly's
You changed my perception of the Pinto. It’s refreshing to see the positive side of this very cool little car. Now excuse me while I watch it again!!
Back in the mid-80s, Dad bought a $500 used '73 3-speed pumpkin orange, black vinyl roof, white racing stripe model that then went through my 3 younger siblings. Our baby sister covered it in alternative band and yellow/white daisy stickers calling it the Spooky Pinto. At age 50 she still has the knack for taking something outdated and making it funky and cool.
My cousin had one of the silver wagons with the round side windows and stripes
I ALWAYS associate Pinto with the movie Cujo!!!
I had a 1979 Pinto. An old one, though.
The last Pintos looked way better than the original, my opinion
The Pinto bucked the industry trend of being cheapened and offering fewer options and models as it progressed through its years on the market. It actually was offered in many more variations and models than it was at the beginning. Ford dropped the v6 option because it was smoother than the four cylinder model but it was not fuel efficient or even much faster.
My dad had a 79 or 80 orange Pinto in the early 90s. It got hit and totaled by an uninsured drunk driver while it was parked outside our house one night. I can still remember the smell inside of it!
Excellent job without focusing on the negative, made me feel good about the Pinto!
Another great episode 👍 there are certain channels on TH-cam that I look forward to seeing videos from, if I don’t see anything from them I go and find them to see if I have missed anything from them. Tofer’s always brings a smile to my face because I remember most all of the cars in the stories. In this day in time that’s rare. (The smile after watching something on TH-cam) I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person on here that thinks these videos are underrated. If more people would watch stories like this and not political stories as much, I’m. Pretty sure our days would have a better outlook.
I'm so glad to hear you found and enjoyed this video. TH-cam has absolutely not been sending notifications of my latest posts. Not sure why that is, but again... thanks for the support!
@@TofersCarTales rite on, TH-cam has not been recommending like it used too. But I will always try to find the channels I like watching and will keep up my support for them. Thanks for bringing back the cars I haven’t thought about in some years. 👍
james hamm Your words/my thoughts SAME THING, sometimes I look just to make sure i have the 🔔✅ed because I CANNOT wait for more _Tofers Car Tales_ to hit. There's NOTHING like them on TH-cam, they're more like a history documentary meets Motorweek with a touch of retro MTV music video shown in 3D inside an IMAX theater! I mean a REAL production here!! I have always and will continue to appreciate the amount of work and love you _squeeze_ into 20 minutes for us Tofer4🙏🏽
Thanks Much
Stay Safe ✌🏽
@@averyparticularsetofskills 👍 I have found TH-cam is unsubscribing me on certain channels. You & I are not alone in knowing that channels like Tofers are & will continue to make great entertainment for folks like us. I hope he keeps up the great work 👍
I have owned many Ford Pinto's 2 wagons, one l modified with a 2.8 litre V6 and crusing wagon panels , mag wheels and custom interior. One car with a trunk and the other one that l still have that has a hatch and a metal sliding sunroof. I never had any serious issues with them. I liked them, and l still do.
Can you imagine paying $2,000 for a new car nowadays?
Ford made over 3 Million Pintos.
Had the Mercury version. Can't help but wonder what a Lincoln version woulda looked like!
Another great video. I had a 71 - the first brand-new car I bought. Eventually I put MacPherson shocks on. Handled pretty good. I didn't have to brake when cornering.
Thank you for another great video, with facts, personal experiences and nostalgia.
This is a good channel for car geeks like me. Lol
Very well done
Great Video
Thanks Walter! Glad you enjoyed.
19:35
Speaking of CHiPs, there was a funny goof in an episode involving a Pinto. 2 women accidentally put one in drive instead of reverse and crash through a garage into a pool. They then can't get out per the story because the power windows have shorted out. No Pinto from the factory ever had power windows and the door panel.shown is clearly from a 4 door car or a 2 door hardtop with roll down rear windows as it has 4 power window switches. 🤣🤣🤣
CHiPs was one of the worst fake 70s shows. I still loved it, because it had cute girls, wrecks, and explosions.
@@genericsomething th-cam.com/video/zzyCEGjpsS0/w-d-xo.html doesn't show the whole scene but this is what I am referring to.
@@pdennis93 ~ That's the best part!
@@genericsomething yeah but doesn't show the power window thing.
If I had to drive a Ford Pinto I would have the wagon variant. I wish that The big 3 would make wagons and minivans again. I mean it would be nice to have a brand new Chevy Astro or a brand new Chevrolet 2 door station wagon. People sooner or later are going to get tired of SUVs especially when gas prices will get ridiculously high. The Toyota Prius is an OK car but many people have different tastes and it's a good idea for car companies to satisfy those tastes. As for Tesla a lot of people can forget about affording those cars because the prices are set way too high
my mum had a pento in the 80s one day she turned on the radio the hole car coat on firer after that she got a hoda civic
Liked 💯👍
I thought you would have mentioned that the Pinto did live on through its engine, employed in the Fox Platform and Ford Ranger.
Sorry to disappoint, I'll work more on the mention of similar facts and figures for future efforts.
One of these would make a cool driver, maybe with a newer 2.3 turbo setup from a s550 Mustang
👍👍👍👍👍
Hey Brother I was your 170th "Thumbs Up"!!
While I won't defend their reprehensible choice too not at at least put the iron safety plate in front of the rear axle to prevent it from penetrating the fuel tank in a rear end impact the simple reality is that even today its impossible to produce a commercially viable 100% safe fuel system in any car or truck unless car makers were to switch too racing style fuel cells which are literally so expensive that they'd raise the cost of a new car by $20.000 at minimum for a 25-30 gallon tank.
Fuel cells were even more expensive back then because they had to be made out of titanium which made them obscenely expensive, not even F1 teams liked using them back then because of the expense and dry weight they added too the cars and they wouldn't start using them until 1982 after the horrifying fire death of Riccardo Paletti at the canadinn grand prix..
And if you consider the fact that almost all of the fatal crashes involving pinto fires involved very high speed impacts (usually being rammed on the highway or at a stoplight) which are exceedingly rare too begin and for the time almost certainly fatal, which is the same story with the squared body Chevy/GMC C/K series pickups that were made from '73 until '87.
When hit hard in the rear the doors of '70s subcompacts would jam - not just Pintos, and the occupants could not get out, it they were unable to climb or be pulled out a window they could be trapped inside.
Were there any similarity between Pinto and Escort (European) under the skin given the very quick development and the use of the Kent engines?
I had a 1971 Ford Pinto that was the best running little car because it was like a Jeep it went everywhere I wish I could find another one that was running
My dad drove a pinto 20 yrs all rusted out no bumpers but it hauled ass.
Awesome vid👍we never saw Pinto here in Australia n I can’t think of smaller car then Ford Falcon been sold before Escorts. Leyland mini n Holden famous Torana , Gemini were best small cars. With us Aussie shoe horn 308 V8 into Torana, what a weapon LOL. If Ford did bring Pinto to Australia I would go for rally pack with blackout grill, less chrome please LOL n best part the interior with cool fabric seats. Oh wear did that type of fabric seats go, the 90’s were 🤮.
I hade one with a v6
The biggest problem with Pinto was Dearborne management. They approved strange and impractical (for a compact car) design as well as cut costs everywhere. By 1968 Ford already had the decent compact car overseas (the Escort), so why not make their own car similar by idea? But hey, they're mUrRrIcAn and pRoud oF iT(c), so in the end they got what wasn't a competitive car against Japanese wave.
Let's remember another story: GM's Bob Lutz brought the Opel Kadett/1900 (Ascona) to the US and they were very popular. The only one thing that killed those cars was exchange rate. I think they could've tarnished Vega/Monza sales by '77-78.
Ford sold more Pintos in the '70s than Toyota sold for all of its lineup
@@timothykeith1367 so what? GM sold a lot of X body cars in 78-80, but they rusted to hell in 5 to 6 years or went to the junkyard because of expensive repairs.
I can find 10 Pintos for every '70s Toyota - Pintos have renewed popularity. I like TE27 Corollas - but few survive. The only Datsun in any number are 240Z and 280Z
@@timothykeith1367 you can find'em where, in small towns? Of course they're easier to keep going because it's a domestic car, but it doesn't make them any better.
@@runoflife87 the pinto completely spanked the imports of the time and was aside from the bolts on the diff tearing the tank on the hatchbacks , brilliantly executed. The suspension design lives on in thousands of street rods and aftermarket copies. Its the most successful scca mini stock racer in history and a 72 panga would dust a porche. Oddly styled in the back , sure but otherwise just a rock solid car
Was that fire @1:05 the result of a rear collision with or without the help of an incendiary device?
Some would say... yes, the incendiary device was the Pinto.
Cars built by real people, not robots.
wasn't it only the 2 door sedan there was inpacted by the designflaw that made some Pintos selfcombust when rearended?
Wagons are not a part of the recall.
@@scottbrown7415 so the Runabout was also a part of the recall
The barbecue that seats 4.
Look up the first gen Mustang then get back to me.
Sadly soon all combustion cars and trucks including classics will be banned from public streets in entire EU and Scandinavia :-(
In Germany the Green Peoples Party gave order to shorten fuel supply from 2025
on by reducing all conventional fuel stations to only one state operated central gas station per city or county. Car washs will be forbidden too because they are climate killers, now they want to slow down all the gas station pumps from 20 litre per minute to 2 litre per minute...From 2027 on in the EU certain car spare parts will be banned too....as exhaust systems, turbo chargers and even some engine and gearbox oils...California and New York will do the same from 2027 on.... So no investments should be done in oil burning cars any longer....They even created a new kind of crime here, called emissions and smoke crime.!!! (BABVVEN & TEBBVEN & BEFVO laws)
....vote those people out. Politicians are not Gods.
The production quality of these videos is always undefeated. The Pinto was a good idea, just poorly conceived.
The 5 million they sold says otherwise
Sorry, but I HATED the Exorcist clips in the background of this video. Served no purpose. The video itself was GREAT! And the other graphis were okay. Thank for the video
I thought the ABC Saturday Night Movie one was awesome. Someone on TH-cam actually did an HD remake of that!