Car Spot: Ford Pinto

America’s answer to the Japanese car invasion …

Let me set the scene for you if you weren’t around for the late 1960s to early ’70s. Up until this point, gas was cheap in the US, about 31 cents a gallon, and we drove cars with big engines that got crappy gas mileage.

But then came an oil embargo and gas prices shot up, to almost a dollar a gallon! Wow, what I wouldn’t give for that now.

So, the Japanese car manufacturers figured it out first as they already were making small fuel-efficient cars for their market. They flooded the US market with reliable low-cost cars like the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, and Datsun B210, which also got great gas mileage. Americans loved them. They were basically eating the American automobile manufacturers’ lunch so the Big 4 US car makers (AMC was still around then) needed to figure it out and fast. Ford’s answer was with cars like this week’s spot, the Pinto.

Known inside Ford as “Lee’s car,” this is another one of Lee Iacocca’s brainchilds. His directive was to have a car that weighed no more than 2,000 pounds and cost no more than $2,000. So on Sept. 11, 1970, Ford introduced the Pinto under the tagline “The Little Carefree Car,”

Chevy’s answer, the Vega (not carefree) beat it to market by one day, while American Motors’ Gremlin beat them both by being introduced on April 1st, April Fool’s Day. Chrysler answered with a captive import, the Dodge Colt, a rebadged variant of the rear-wheel drive Galant and Lancer made by Mitsubishi. The Colt was initially offered as a two-door sedan and stripped-down models were priced at $1,850, undercutting GM’s Chevrolet Vega and directly targeting imported models such as the Mazda 1200 in 1971, the Subaru DL in 1972, and the Honda Civic in 1973. The base Gremlin had a suggested retail price of $1,879, and as a four-seat hatchback with an opening rear window, went fort $1,959. The race was on.

RELATED SPOT: A very hot Vega!

Magazine reviews were mixed. Road & Track didn’t like the Pinto’s suspension and standard drum brakes, calling them a “serious deficiency”, but liked the proven 1.6-liter Kent engine, taken from European Fords. Super Stock Magazine found the fit and finish to be “superior” and was impressed with the car overall. Car and Driver found the Pinto, when equipped with a larger 2.0-liter engine and front disc brakes, to be a nimble and powerful commuter car with good visibility and sports-car feel. Really?

RELATED Spot: Ford relaunches the Mustang and goes small.

But then there were the exploding gas tanks and how Ford dealt with the issue. Ford knew of the problem going in. Ford had crash-tested various prototypes, to see if they would meet safety standards proposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to reduce fires from traffic collisions. The standard would have required that by 1972 all-new autos be able to withstand a rear-end impact of 20 mph without fuel loss and that by 1973 a car be able to withstand an impact of 30 mph. The prototypes all failed the 20-mph test. The only Pintos to pass the test had been modified, with a rubber bladder in the gas tank or a piece of steel between the tank and the rear bumper.

RELATED Spot: Another famous car from that era, the AMC Pacer.

Well that would have been the fix and everybody lives happily ever after, right? Wrong. Instead of doing the modification, and missing the production deadline, they let it go to market. Ford not only pushed ahead with the original design but stuck to it for the next six years. Here’s where the lawyers come in and say let it go because the lawsuits will cost Ford less than the fix. The cost of recalling the Pinto would have been $121 million, whereas paying off the victims would cost Ford $50 million it was estimated.

The Pinto went on to sell more than 100,000 units by January 1971, and 352,402 for the entire 1971 production run. 1974 was its biggest year with 544,209 units rolling off Ford’s Edison, NJ, assembly line. When production ended in 1980, there were just over 3.1 million Pintos sold, not including 134,508 Mercury Bobcats its corporate twin. Pinto then was replaced by the Ford Escort which was an equally crappy car, but not prone to gas tank leaks or explosions. Trust me, I had a couple of Escorts as news cars while working at a Green Bay TV station.

Pinto’s competitors sold well too. Chevy’s Vega production, mainly from its Lordstown, Ohio, plant was 2,006,661 while AMC’s Gremlin reached a total production of 671,475.

Pinto has a place in automotive history though, a 2004, Forbes story listing Pinto among its 14 Worst Cars of All Time, noting that its problems helped create an opening in the US market for small cars from Japan. Also on the list, were Ford’s Model T, Edsel, Explorer and Excursion, the Amphicar, Chevy’s Corvair, and SS, along with AMC’s Gremlin and Pacer (go figure), plus Plymouth’s Prowler, and Pontiac’s Aztek. So Pinto was in good company.

What are they worth now? Surprisingly, in decent shape, I found several from $8,500 to almost $14 grand for a wagon. It’s a car from the ’70s and right now, cars like this, the Gremlin, and the Pacer, are seeing an increase in sales.

Hey who wouldn’t want to be seen driving one of these cars? My wife owned a ’77 Pinto and I had a ’73 Gremlin and ’75 Pacer. There’s no accounting for taste, but you can be sure these are conversation starters at any car gathering.

Thanks for stopping by and reading about this week’s spot. Check out my other spots and be sure to come back next Friday for another car I’ve found on my travels. Have a great weekend.