Yep. We were a two-Pinto family, with both me and my father driving Ford's engineering disaster. My father's was emerald green. Mine was the classic color--white with a black gas cap.
A little history from the Web: There was strong competition for Ford in the American small-car market from Volkswagen and several Japanese companies in the 1960’s. To fight the competition Ford rushed its newest car the Pinto into production in much less time than is usually required to develop a car. The regular time to produce an automobile is 43 months Ford took 25. Before production however, Ford engineers discovered a major flaw in the cars design. In nearly all rear-end crash test collisions the Pinto's fuel system would rupture extremely easily. Because assembly-line machinery was already tooled when engineers found this defect, top Ford officials decided to manufacture the car anyway, exploding gas tank and all, even though Ford owned the patent on a much safer gas tank. Safety was not a major concern to Ford at the time of the development of the Pinto. Lee Iacocca, who was in charge of the development of the Pinto, had specifications for the design of the car that were uncompromisable. These specifications were that "the Pinto was not to weigh an ounce over 2,000 pounds and not cost a cent over $2,000." Any modifications even if they did provide extra safety for the customer that brought the car closer to the Iacocca’s limits was rejected.
7 comments:
does anyone remember on sex and the city when miranda comapres steve's fake ball to a pinto? maybe it's just me.
One of the ugliest cars ever made...not to mention a deathtrap. The only thing uglier is the AMC Pacer, which an ex-boyfriend used to drive in college. I refused to even be seen in it, so I always drove. Yeah, I know...I'm a bitch.
Collin, it's a close call but the Gremlin beats the Pinto and the Pacer on the ugly scale.
The Gremlin was just a squared off version of the Pacer...both made by AMC. But you're right...pretty damn ugly.
i secretly think the pinto is kind of cool looking now. i'm just excited that i knew about your friday nostalgia subject matter this week.
ford sucks. my family was a chevy family. actually we were half-chevy, half-volkswagen. but never ford.
on the old commune, The Farm, many of the pregnant women who came to have their baby with us drove in on a Pinto, which we called Shinto - and always they had a bad timing chain which actually was just a thick rubber band! But the Vega might have been even worse.
My first car was a lemon-lime yellow 74' Ford LTD that i bought in 1984 with $500 I had saved from bagging groceries at Albertson's. It had a dark green interior with a silk paisley pattern woven into the seats. It was SWEET!!! If I recall, it got approximately 8mpg. It was a two-door, but could fit comfortably 3 in the front seat, and 4 in the back, sans seatbelts of course. Spent many of weekend night cruising Clearwater Beach with my buds in that ride.
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