(first posted 2/27/2011) Since the other Pinto CC is a first year 1971 model hatchback, and so epitomizes the Pinto’s beginnings, it seems appropriate to bookend the Pinto’s long run with a late-model wagon or two, especially since that wonderful late-seventies era was so colorful. These two bright little wagons are still adding cheer to our foggy days here, but sadly I haven’t yet found a retina-busting Pinto Squire or Cruising Wagon. We’ll just have to dig some out of the web, because no survey of Pinto wagons would be complete without them, but put on some shades first.
The Pinto wagon cruised into our lives one year after the coupe and hatch, in 1972. It featured a remarkable tail extension, which made the little wagon reasonably roomy in the luggage compartment. I haven’t looked it up, but I suspect that extra length made the wagons’ gas tank much less vulnerable from smacks to its hind quarters. Maybe that’s why there’s still so many on the road.
More likely, it’s because it was just a lot more practical. The Pinto coupe’s rear luggage compartment was mighty snug, given the high floor because of the live rear axle (RWD) and the fuel tank behind it. But the wagon didn’t really address the Pinto’s key packaging shortcoming, one that it shared with the Vega: both of them were designed to look more like a mini-me Mustang or Camaro, rather than a proper small car. God forbid Dearborn would have used the format of the English Ford Cortina wagon,(above) which was very like the boxy four-door wagons that Datsun and Toyota was busily filling up transport ships with.
So while the actual cargo area was reasonably roomy, the rest of the Pinto’s interior accommodations sucked. The front seating position was fine, if you wanted a to sit flat on the floor and pretend you were racing the Pinto in the SCCA B Class. The back seat was truly miserable; sorry; I should have but couldn’t bring myself to take a shot of that torture chamber. The high drive shaft tunnel actually bulged up into the seat cushion, making the center position totally unusable. There is a very good reason small cars have gotten taller and taller.
But unlike the Vega, which supernova-ed its way to a rapid demise, the Pinto soldiered along for a full decade. The gas tank problem was kept out of the public eye by Ford’s lawyers as much as possible, and other than that the Pinto didn’t suffer any serious maladies, one of the advantages to Ford’s use of tried and proven technology.
The old Kent 1.6 was never used in the wagons, and the German-built SOHC 2.0 was an adequate plant, especially so if teamed with the slick four-speed stick. Ford’s automatics were notoriously inefficient, and the 2.0 really suffered under its ability to suck up a shockingly large percentage of its power; the Leach-O-Matic.
In 1974, the Lima-built 2.3 SOHC four appeared, an engine that would be built seemingly for eternity. Looking very much like a development of the Cologne 2.0, the 2.3 would also develop a rep for Toyota-like longevity.
But as smog controls continued to sap power from the fours and the Pinto got heavier as they sprouted mega-bumpers and were more often now ordered with A/C, power steering and other luxuries of life, more help was needed from the engine room (the 2.3 was rated at 83 hp in 1975). Ford again looked to Cologne, and beginning with 1975, the 2.8 L V6 was now optional. Its horsepower vacillated as much as the hips on the disco dance floors at the time: anywhere from a whopping 103 in 1976 to a low of 90 in 1978. Hard to believe, but Ford had developed some remarkable power-sucking secret technology in the seventies.
We’ll save the two most colorful variations for last. The Pinto Squire wagon was inevitable, given how Ford was so invested in that theme. This one in red makes for a particularly harmonizing effect, no?
And the ultimate Pinto wagon is of course the illustrious Pinto Cruising Wagon. Let’s just say you had to be there, because there’s no other way to explain late seventies phenomena such as this. Sorry; can you do any better?
Well, I take back my comment from the coupe version CC. I would take the Cruising Wagon version over the V8 Gremlin, just for the kitsch value. Plus you could haul stuff in the back, too. 😉
That cruising wagon is one campy ride!
I would “dig” driving around (just for an hour or so) in one today…quite a statement!
I had a slushbox 78 Cruising Wagon for a short while in the late 80s, albeit in a plain white rather than disco two-tone, a family hand-me-down. It’s funky style never quite offset the hideously slow acceleration and rearward visibility akin to an M-1 Abrams. Speeding up before changing lanes became a regular strategy to make sure I didn’t merge into anyone hidden in the huge blind spots.
Loved the goldfish-bowl side window, lots of room in the back, and once up to cruising speed it was a decent ride, and the sitting-on-the-floor driving position gave a vague illusion of sportiness. One of my first cars, so I wasn’t fussy.
A myriad of mechanical and electrical problems killed it off at about 70k miles.
A relative who collects cars told me it would be “a classic” someday, and I’m guessing it would be two decades later given their unique styling and the low probability of more than a handful still running in the world.
One of my neighbors has the cruising wagon, along with a really horrible sounding glasspack muffler – it was just like the riced up cars we see today. The cruising wagon with the very private interior had but one purpose…(No, not that one, perv). None of the local tramps would be caught dead in it when there were plenty of customized vans with shag carpeting and track lighting around. The cruising wagon had a much more noble purpose. plenty of room to smuggle pot back and forth.
I believe the Pinto cruising wagon was a direct result of the customized van craze of the 70’s — which was itself a result of many factors ( fast cars gone or reduced to smog-addled caricatures of their former selves, 55 mph speed limit, insurance, etc. ).
I built a 1/25 scale model of the silver cruising wagon pictured above, stripes and all. It met it’s demise by ramming into a tree while being propelled by a toy rocket engine stuffed into the cargo area. Good times………
That’s good times when people never thought about terrorism back then.
There was a 1977 low-budget film “The Van,” about a hormonal teenager & his conquests via such a vehicle.
Always loved the Cruising Wagon, and let’s not forget that other Ford’s were available with that collor scheme too. http://thatcarguy.typepad.com/.a/6a0105355ab3fc970b01116853fb80970c-pi The cruising van seems to me like the right ticket to pick up those chicks who were into “if it feels good do it.”
The standard Pinto wagon is actually a very good-looking small car for the 1970s, at least to my eyes.
Ford should have offered a V6 option from the start in the Pinto. The 2.6 liter Cologne V6 was available back in 1970, and punched out 125 hp. In a car as light as the Pinto, that would have offered very good performance for the time. Of course, by the time American pollution controls were done with the little V6, who knows how strangled it would have been.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Cologne_V6_engine
Well, the 2600 Cologne V-6 was used in the U.S. Capri, so the answer to your latter question is “to the tune of 107 net horsepower and 130 lb-ft.” Still not bad with four-speed, since the Pinto wasn’t that heavy.
I learned to drive a stick in my dad’s 74 Country Squire. Lucky for me those were so slow, when I drag raced my buddy in his dad’s Corolla, he won the race…and a ticket from the officer who was watching the fun. The wagon’s fuel filler was in a different location than the coupe’s, so as you guessed, they weren’t as prone to rear-end pyrotechnics. I’d love to find a Cruising Wagon for the sheer grooviness of it.
You’re right about sitting on the floor too. I remember dad pulled the seats out and stuck spacers made of 2x4s under them to raise them up a little.
Didn’t the “Illinois Nazis” drive a Pinto wagon in ‘The Blues Brothers’ ?
I hate Illinois Nazis! 😉
A great bit of trivia concerning The Blues Brothers’ Pinto wagon involves the famous scene where the Nazi’s Pinto drops though the air for what seems forever after going off the end of an uncompleted overpass. In those quaint days before CGI, the Pinto had to be dropped from a significant height to get the right shot. Because of this, the FAA actually required an ‘airworthiness certificate’ for the Pinto to ensure it wouldn’t ‘fly off’ but, rather, fall like a brick straight down (which is exactly what it did).
That late 1970s thing sure got around.
The designer of “the illustrious Pinto Cruising Wagon” must have been transferred to Ford Australia. They sold vans versions of the Falcon, “the Ford Falcon Sundowner” and the UK derived Ford Escort Sundowner.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiefordadverts/3817321674/
http://www.uniquecarsmag.com.au/news-and-reviews/article/articleid/57444.aspx
Holden got into the act as well with the Holden Sandman.
http://www.holdensandman.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=52&sid=dd9a54d9201e5b29cb43044b8d6fcade
A popular bumper sticker for these vehicles was “Don’t Laugh, Your Daughter Could Be Inside.”
Why Glory Be!
the steering wheel/instrumentation cluster on that Holden Sandman looks identical to my old old 1984 Mustang GT with the super leaky t tops!
Its a HQ Kingswood cluster with Sandman insert on a Monaro wheel. Ironicly the HQ-Z Holden sedans were on a Camaro platform only the utes and vans had a full length chassis. Holdens best seller tough as teak.
There’s a Pinto Cruising Wagon on Craigslist right now, in Eugene. Turbo motor out of an XR4Ti, lowered, and with a paint job that takes all the kitsch out of the car.
Somehow I’ve never wanted one of these. A Fairmont on the other hand…
The Pinto wagon was, style-wise, a pretty good imitation of the two-door 1971 Corolla wagon a buddy of mine in the service had. He was smart – he actually saved money and paid cash for it, unlike me, who blew every penny I got and always owed money until I wised up a year or so later! As “majo8” stated above, the van craze of the seventies was responsible for a lot of sins – does anyone remember the wagon kit for the Corvette? Now that’s a “CC” I’d like to see! You can tell I’m old, as most of my stories are from the distant past!
My aunt had a ’70 LTD Country Squire wagon (with the double, side-facing kid seats in the cargo area!), that she traded for a Pinto Squire not long after the ’73 oil crisis, when driving a more efficient car became fashionable. She hated it, and my cousins hated the back seat, so when the crisis seemed to ease off, she swapped it for a ’75 Grand Marquis–much more comfortable, if ponderous.
About the Cortina, don’t for a minute think that it would have provided a bit of competition for the Toyotas and Datsuns. The Cortina was an attractive package, but suffered from the typical English car syndrome of that period.
My scoutmaster had a 69 Cortina wagon. He would take it on camping trips with the scouts. The paint was dull, one windshield wiper got broken off, the hydraulic clutch leaked so that after it was parked for 2 or 3 days he would pour in more fluid and have to pump the pedal about 30 times to get the clutch working. And the stick shift lever was broken off about an inch up from the base, so he shifted it with a set of Vice Grips clamped onto the shift nub.
This was in 1971 when the car was 2 years old. We once took a field trip to Chicago. The Cortina stayed home and he drove his wife’s 65 Dart.
I always liked the Cortina, but it was just an awful, awful little car from a reliability perspective. The Pinto (coupe or wagon) was much, much better.
Funny thing was that you could head to the Ford store and buy a Cruising Wagon AND Econoline painted the exact same way. If you were into that type of thing….
Later in the 70s you could get a decent auto in the Pinto. Most were French the built C3 but once in a while a C4 would pop up.
Yes, I never thought I’d miss those bubble windows on cars and vans…
Would love to have a Cruising Wagon with a 5.0 V8…..
We had a ’72 Pinto Squire wagon in the metallic brown w/vinyl wood grain over brown vinyl interior, 2.3L w/4-speed, if I remember correctly. The back seat was small but worked fine for car seats which was all we needed it for. I even had a bumper hitch to tow our boat with it (Glasspar G-3 ski boat w/75hp Chrysler, probably 1500 lbs). Today very few cars have a tow limit over 300 lbs unless it’s a crossover. It wasn’t a bad car for the times, usual carbureted engine issues and of course, RUST. Thank god for the vinyl on the sides was there to hold the rust in place! We eventually got rid of it when the doors literally rusted through to the point that small animals could climb in and out.
Wow does this CC bring back the memories. I grew up in a family of 7 kids that seemed to prefer Ford wagons. A ’61 Country Sedan, followed by a ’66 Country Sedan, and a 1970 Ranch Wagon. All used. As the kids got a little older and a second car was needed for mom and dad to go different places on the same night, our first ever brand new car was a 1974 Pinto Runabout. 2.0 liter and 4 speed. The car on which I learned to do oil changes and simple tune ups as a 12 year old car nut.
By 1977, dad upgraded to his second and last brand new car, a 1977 Pinto wagon in the light chamois color that was so prevalant at the time. The year before, we needed to add a third car to the fleet. A used 1973 Pinto wagon was found with the 2.0 and 3 speed automatic. It was a great looking car with a metallic copper colored paint, the deluxe interior, nice sport mirrors, full carpeting. But, the little engine was most defnintely underpowered, and it earned the tongue-in-cheek nickname “turbo.” The cars in our family always had nicknames by that time to keep track of who had which car.
By 1982 the two door LTD Landau I picked up as a bank repo after high school was running me dry. Dad kept that car when I found a 1976 Bobcat wagon. 2.3 liter, 4 speed. Bright red with the woodgrain just like the Pinto pictured in this CC, except it had the Mercury waterfall grille and the woodgrain was surrounded by bright trim instead of the faux wood. The best part of all was the outstanding and totally of the period upholstery – Alpine plaid. Loved that stuff, it was just so perfect for the times. It was an amazingly trouble free car, and was always in the 28-32 mpg range. With the seats folded, it could carry quite a bit of cargo. I recall taking a full twin bed mattress and box spring inside of it from our home in North Iowa to law school in Iowa City. Not sure looking back how it fit inside, but I know it did. Between undegrad and law school I put more than 70,000 miles on it. It had over 130,000 when I finally had to let it go.
I have kept my eyes open for years for just the right vintage Pinto/Bobcat, but it apears that the few that have not rusted away have been converted to drag strip cars. Yes, it was the malaise era, and the drivers of today would not tolerate the carburetor, tune-up, rust and other troubles those cars forced us to deal with. But for me it is the era of my youth, so it is fun to try and remember with some positive thoughts.
And nothing was brighter or happier than those Alpine plaid low bucket seats!!
Alright Crusing Wagon lovers, Use the link below to buy one of your very own for only $5600 obo. Looks nice in the pix, has the 2.0 engine, the drawback? Automatic. easy manual conversion though 🙂
http://www.autabuy.com/Vehicles/Details.cfm?VID=516892&Year=1978&Make=FORD&Model=PINTO
Ah, the Pinto Wagon. I had two successive wagons, along with one hatchback as a winter-beater and parts car. The first, was a 1974 rustbucket…with the Lima 2.3. Burned as much oil as gas; quite a bit of both; and the only thing between the road and the feet in back was the lightly-worn but always-wet carpet.
It was my “emergency car” – bought after I wrecked my Chevette. Amazingly, that rustbucket wagon was stolen during an ill-advised, desperate job-search trip to Houston. The thief did me a favor; and his swag was its own reward.
In Texas, I found a nearly-identical wagon…a 1973. Faded paint where the rust-pile was still shiny; and had the 2.0 instead of the new-for-1974 Lima…but in use, an entirely different car. Not having that chrome-plated railroad tie on front and back aided both appearance and balance. The Cologne engine had, for its size, GUTS. And heart…at 90,000 miles I put a full gauge set on it, and was amazed to find the oil pressure to be within factory specs for new. Always started; transmission was crisp; it could hold its own against Rabbits and Omnis. And it got me in the vicinity of 28 miles a gallon.
Dumbest thing I ever did was sell it for $400 when I got a good job and bought an Escort to replace it. Even so…allowing that I bought it for $750 and put 40,000 miles on it….the car almost made me money.
Long live the Pinto! Even if only in memory…
IIRC, that fluorescent orange color was known for much of the Pinto’s run as Burnt Orange, and was quietly renamed towards the end (79 my?).
I was the owner of a honey brown 74 Pinto wagon that was bought to be a second beater car in 1980. It had the nicer interior with the plush carpet and upgraded steering wheel, a 4 speed stick tranny, it originally had a 2.3 in it but someone had substituted an older 2.0. The car had about 90K on the clock when I got it, I sold it somewhere around 145K.
My wife hated it, I loved it but only for what it was, not what I thought it should have been. It was cheap and reliable transportation through a period of my life where I did not have much money to spend. It was cheap to fix, I even put a rear end from a wrecking yard in it for the princely sum of $75. The engine smoked off idle due to bad valve seals, a rebuilt head from Ford was reasonably cheap and I did the install in one day. A year later it was smoking again, this time I put nylon valve seals in which was a permanent cure, at least while I owned it.
It was infinitely more reliable than the 69 Cougar that it replaced and much better on gas. Power, well not so much. I used to wish it had a small V8 in it, that would have been great.
There are still times that I really miss that little car. I often wish I could have done things like put better tires on it, more maintenance, things like that. But it kept me financially solvent, there was never anything that I could not fix and I did not live in fear of it breaking.
I sold it in 1984 for $975, I only paid about $1200 to buy it, so it was a good investment in cheap transportation. To this day I still have a soft spot for Pintos.
My first car was a ’74 Runabout with the 2.0L and a stick. It was given to me basically as a bribe… learn how to drive stick and I could have it. Beat that little car mercilessly. Not enough power to get a 16yr old in trouble, but enough with that stick to be fun.
Saw this beauty parked on the street in Seattle…
“The high drive shaft tunnel actually bulged up into the seat cushion, making the center position totally unusable. There is a very good reason small cars have gotten taller and taller.”
Really? Even with fwd?
Since when was the Pinto FWD? This was 1972.
EDIT: I see your comment applied to the second part of the quote. The “good reason” small cars have gotten taller is so you can actually sit upright in them.
A copy of that last red Cruising Wagon used to show up at the annual Studebaker Swap meet in York, PA, but it has been gone for many years now. Weren’t a few later Pintos equipped with a V-8? Or was that only in the Pinto-II, er, Mustang-II?
I learned to drive on a copper-colored ’75 Pinto Coupe, 4-spd, 2.3 liter four. The first year of the Pinto-‘mpg’ version. Vinyl seats, floor coverings, dash. Only option was an FM radio! Reliable, yes; but the worst thing about the car was the incessant pinging from the engine. It was hard to find unleaded gas in any form other than ‘regular’ (89-octane back then). I suppose now I’d retard the spark a bit off factory specs. But it really did achieve it’s advertised 23 mpg. Better than our old ’67 VW. I did 100 mph with it one night back when no one drove the segment of I-95 between Baltimore and Washington (no Ft. McHenryTunnel yet).
Its demise was hastened in 1981 by a county police car running a red light (no siren or lights!), thankfully into my front left quarter, not my trunk! Other than a rusted door panel I had fixed in a back-alley body shop, the car would’ve run for quite a while longer. It’s a long, cold feeling you get when you have an accident with a police car. 75 five of his colleagues show up within two minutes. Everyone else drives by and laughs at YOU!.
Only the Stang II had a factory 302 optional.
True, but wasn’t there a V6/auto combination available for the wagon in the last few years? I never heard much about it and wonder how well they ran.
It was a long, cold feeling for 2 classmates who were killed in a VW Squareback by a speeding police car with no siren or lights that ran a red light and T boned them.
I owned a 76 Pinto hatchback, 2.3 with auto, and drove the 1st Pinto wagon (a Squire with automatic) delivered to “my local Ford dealer”. BOTH were bog slow cars; my guess from driving several German Capris and Mustang IIs with V6s is that the wagon would be acceptable only with the 6 cylinder.
These cars were better assembled and certainly more reliable than their Chevy competition but is that saying much?
BTW, ALL Pintos had a raised hump in the “trunk area”, too. The spare tire well didn’t allow the tire to sit far enough below the floor for the load area to be completely flat/level. I guess the idea of a “donut” spare tire was too radical/brand new for the expected customers.
Pintos were never sold here though some have immigrated, Cortinas outsold anything that size coming from Japan however they were a tough reliable fairly well made car (sorry JP your scoutmaster was an idiot simple repairs not done) theres even a NZ only version of the MK2 Cortina the GTE for 69 was built here only and is a collectors item now.
Sorry, but a two year old car that needs that volume of simple repairs is a complete piece of junk. Fans of awful cars love to blame mechanics for their failures too. Mechanics don’t get a chance to screw up constant depression carburetors or mechanical fuel injection pumps if they aren’t causing problems already. Electrical issues rarely stem from user error as well. Do you think Datsun 510s fell to pieces before they were paid off?
“Do you think Datsun 510s fell to pieces before they were paid off?” .
Yes . CJ , many 510’s did , IMO always because fools who hated them drove them hard and didn’t take any sort of care of them .
I didn’t like the Pinto when it was in production even though a Woman I knew bought a wagon in 1972 to carry her two kids ’round in and it got 130,000 miles on both the original clutch and the cam belt . it was the basic green thing and it forced me to realize they were in fact solid and sturdy little penalty boxes .
-Nate
The car that fell apart was an English Cortina, not a Pinto. A low end Datsun(120Y) reset the bar for the UK’s reliability index. The previous best car was the VW Beetle, with a score in the high 50s or 60/100, IIRC. The Datsun achieved something like a 78.
One bad seal and a broken weld no doubt done by a neglectful owner, two simple warranty repairs, New cars came with service contracts and mechanics had plenty of chances to screw things up every time the cars come in for a tune up, And yes Datsuns fell apart.
There is a big difference between reliability and durability, as we’ve discussed here before.
Back when most cars were lower, the Pinto didn’t seem so low. Given how tall sedans, SUV’s (all sizes), and trucks are now, I bet I’d really notice it today driving alongside them.
My ’80 wagon was fast enough, dead simple to fix, and (2.3) ultra reliable through desert summers and down to 30 below. It could haul a surprising amount of stuff and–as long as you never forced anyone to sit in the back seat–comfortable enough on interstate cruises.
If you see a clean, un-rusty one for sale, Paul, please alert us–I’d be tempted to show it some love…
Here’s a Cruising Wagon without the graphics – I like the clean lines offset by the porthole.
That port hole window would have looked good on the Gremlin too, right behind that tiny rear side window.
Interesting thought. Something like this.
’80 Daihatsu Charade
Yes, exactly !! If I had owned an AMC Gremlin, I would have taken it into a custom van shop to add a couple of port holes, ha ha.
My air conditioning company used to also do chimney sweeps and repairs. I hired a guy to do that and he insisted he could do it out of his little two door pinto wagon. He was right but he had to do some work to make everything fit. I have a hard time selling them short, even for the fiery gas tanks. Later studies determined they were not alone.
I’m not the least bit interested in buying one but I have always liked them.
I think those studies showed that the Pinto wasn’t any more likely to catch fire from a rear-end impact than any other car of the time. That sounds about right since just about all cars had the gas tank in the same location, i.e., right behind the rear axle housing with no shielding between the housing and gas tank.
The problem with the Pinto was the discovery that Ford had done a cost analysis of what it would cost to make the Pinto’s gas tank safer versus what they would have to pay out in legal fees for any potential lawsuits, and decided the latter was the course of action to take.
The Pinto wagon looks a lot like a mini Torino wagon from behind. Back in the early 70s, style was more important than passenger comfort. I remember riding in the back of our neighbors Pinto with my knees way up , because the seat was so low. A VW rear seat was higher and more comfortable
My 1980 Pinto Wagon story:
Purchased a white, 55k mile used base model in May 1985 for $2200. 2.3 with 4sp manual
In fall 1985, I loaded all my possessions, except my beloved 1975 Honda CL360, in the back, drove 400 miles to start college in Thousand Oaks, CA.
By October, decided I must have my motorcycle..found a bumper mount hitch at a wrecking yard. Borrowed a little trailer, went back home to get my Honda.
–Drove car for all four years of college. Used to pull trailer with multiple motorcycles many times.
–repeated, heavy use of trailer caused rapid clutch wear. Over the next three years I changed the clutch three times. I got the job down to about 3 1/2 hours in my dorm parking lot.
–Got tired of sweating in the Pinto. Found an after-market under-dash a/c system for a classic Mustang at a garage sale. Went to junk yard for correct compressor mounts…installed…was the coldest A/C I have ever felt.
–Used Pinto wagon/trailer combination for many cash odd-jobs and hauling around Thousand Oaks. Old widows loved me, and I was able to graduate with very little debt!
–Drove it on first date with Debbie. We have been very happily married for 23 years and are raising two wonderful children.
I know it was a poorly made, slow, miserable car. But it was a trusted friend for 6 years. I loved it, and I wish I still had it!
Thanks; that’s a great story.
The Pinto was a simple and fairly rugged thing, and served many folks well. Both of my brothers had Pintos in their early years. As undoubtedly did millions of others. An American icon.
Three clutches? Might have been better learning how to drive a manual properly.
….Or use something with more torque to drag my trailer….
That reminds me: My father remembers a ’70s or ’80s commercial for Philips 66 or some other brand of motor oil that first shows a Pinto or other subcompact pulling an enormous boat, camper, or some other trailer up a massive grade, engine revving, then next shows it up on a lift; the mechanic pulls the drain plug and nothing comes out. Does anybody remember the specifics of this commercial, or where (if) it might be seen somewhere on the ‘Net?
I do remember it. It was a long time ago. I think it was for some kind of oil additive. Possibly STP. Not sure, it’s been so long, and parts of my ’70’s memories are spotty.
Ive towed its own weight with my 50hp Hillman you just let the clutch out and go through the gears, the spare body weighed 500kg at the scrappy the tandem trailer 550kg a 3a minx weighs 1020kg.
CC effect in reverse – I went to the grocery store today and found this in the parking lot. Came home and later found this article on CC. Can’t remember the last time I saw one of these, much less one in such good shape. I didn’t get any pictures of the interior, but it was even cleaner than the outside.
Heh, the late-’70s “squaero” aesthetic didn’t really work with the Pinto’s coke-bottle lines.
don’t know if they sold many pinto cruising wagons here in Ontario. the only one I remember belonged to a friend of my dads who was about the same vintage as the pinto he bought. he always had wagons (64 rambler,67 Pontiac,71 chevelle,74 astre) but a cruising wagon????
there must have been something to attract a man of that age to buy one. don’t remember seeing it again after it was traded on his last car(an Omni sedan) but among all the zillions of pintos that were around here( including my own trusty, rusty, red rocket) it did stand out in the crowd!
As with the Pacer, the Pinto wagon is really a good deal better looking than the coupe. I don’t think the fake wood and decal packages did the shape any favors, but in more basic trim, it’s a reasonably attractive car. The early Vega wagon is better-looking, I think, but I’d say the Pinto is superior to the facelifted later Vega. (Speaking purely aesthetically, mind, not of any mechanical virtue or lack of same.)
The silver Cruising Wagon in the article was an identical twin to the one that these two very strange guys in Las Vegas drove about 1982 or so. It had recently replaced their old car, a 1961 Galaxie 500, white, with terminal Chicago rusting. They were semi regulars at the casino I worked at, so I saw them a lot. They both had heavy Chicago accents, one sounded almost identical to Dennis Franz of “NYPD Blue” fame, and the other sounded like a Joe Pesci from Chicago. They just didn’t act right somehow, they used to play the dollar slots a lot, and one night, we saw them attempting to cheat on slot machines by manipulating the reels. So we took them to the security office. They got very angry and began threatening us with, well, death. One of them tried to get tough with me, and I slammed him against the wall so hard a bucket of quarters fell off the shelf on the other side of the wall inside the slot’s office. I calmly said to him, “Next time, I won’t be so gentle”. They continued making threats and I finally said, “You know, it’s hard to take death threats seriously from two 40 year old guys who live together and drive a Pinto wagon!”. The other security guard I was working with cracked up laughing, “A PINTO WAGON? BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!” The Franz sound alike turned cherry red and it appeared that he actually wanted to fight us, then said, “I’m outta here!”, and tried to take off. I bounced him off the wall again, and said,”Don’t!”. He huffed and puffed a while, but never made any more stupid moves. After the Gaming Control people came in and took them away, one stayed and asked if we knew what they were driving, and I smiled and said, “They drive a nice new Pinto station wagon!”. He laughed and said, “I’ll tow it and search it just to mess with them. Besides, they’re driving a Pinto wagon, and that should get them some kind of punishment!”. I said, “Isn’t that already punishment enough?”. They towed the car and in the search, they found one of the underground, “How to cheat Bally slot machine” books inside, made of copied pages that were barely readable. Somehow, at their trial, they had a high dollar lawyer that must have cost half what the Pinto did, and were found NG. The two clowns didn’t take the hint and got busted again at one of the big casinos doing the same thing, and that time, the same lawyer didn’t get them off and they got a couple of years in the pokey. Maybe that taught them a lesson.
I passed a yellow/wood Pinto Squire driving to work this week, first one I have seen in years. Maybe next time I will have my camera.
Great colors. In those days people wore polyester pants in the same colors, and in plaid. How styles change.
Let me be the 20th person to say the Pinto Cruising Wagon did not look strange at the time… I remember the V6 wagons having a true dual exhaust system and being ridiculously expensive.
Whee, a car I’ve owned! Mine was a ’72, bought used, in a powder blue that seemed common to about half of all ’70s Fords, and with the 2.0. Not a bad car to drive, except for a tendency of the front suspension to try to shake itself apart above 65 mph. And yeah, the back seat was utterly useless. I only had it for about two years; memory is failing me but as I recall there were various mechanical issues and, being a Western PA car, rust was already starting to have its way.
THere is a Pinto wagon Squire edition for sale here in Indiana. They want 4500 for it. As far as the gas tank issue in pintos, my borther figured out that his 65 Lincoln 2 door had the gas tank in the same location and it was the same distance to the back bumper. I wonder how many other FOrds are in the same sitiation. The problem with the the Pintos wasn’t the car, it was the drivers. They were generally kids with no idea what they were doing and I suspect that a lot of the accidents were caused by people stopping short just to get hit and collect the insurance money.
Seeing this today made me think of this from Bloom County:
I’ll wager that no one else ever bought a new Pinto wagon and sold it almost three years later with 60,000 miles for $1,200 profit! I posted a PDF article about our 1974 Pinto wagon on my website. Click the link near the bottom of the page http://www.rvharvey.com/carstuff.htm
I never thought that a Pinto article would get so many comments! Thanks Paul !
I have had two of these — an orange/white/tan interior ’77 Bobcat Wagon with the midyear Sports Appearance package and the Capri V-6, and a bright yellow ’80 Pinto Pony. Both very reliable and rather pleasant highway cars, if you don’t push the I-4 too much — it’s willing, but sounds like a rock crusher. The Pinto, which I bought in 2005 with 62K miles, was sold in 2009 with 69K miles. It was so clean the guy who bought it from me turned it into a show car!
A girl in high school had a brand new Pinto Cruising Wagon. A lot of guys enjoyed cruising (and parking) with her in it. Not me though, dammit! Parents had a gold metallic ’72 2.0 4 speed and friend got a ’74 sedan 2.3 4 speed. When he first got the his new base model ’74 sedan (white with puke green interior) we would go out and chase each other, they were pretty much a dead heat. He had big bumpers but the ’72 had AC so the weight was probably close. The ’72 was sold after about 4 years but the much abused ’74 was kept until around ’84 at about 150k miles, and I think the biggest repair was a timing belt besides normal wear items. Original clutch as well. Interior plastics were really bad on his car, but the rest held up well to much abuse including off roading. Always wanted to drive a Pinto Wagon to see how they handled with the extra weight on the rear, the sedan was really light in the back and slippery in the rain.
I moved here to western Washington state from Ga in September. My sister gave me a 77 pinto wagon that a neighbor lady gave her. It’s a 2.3, 4 speed, with power steering. It sat in a field for about 12 years. My sisters boyfriend replaced the timing belt, fuel pump, wiper motor, and a few other small items. I have been driving ” Trigger” alot on these winding roads, and putting a good many miles on this little jewel of a car! I think i am falling in love!?
My cousin just pulled this baby out of a field somewhere and has it running as a daily driver 🙂 Rough exterior aside, the interior is perfectly preserved and it has the 4-speed.