The Pinto was a tight nimble sturdy little bear in a 4 speed. Nice riding cheap car.
Never had any major problems with mine. I was able to diagnose the rear-collision vulnerability and fixed it by pulling the tank and putting in a shield plate (with the help of a welder friend). When Ford did the recall to do essentially the same thing the dealer looked at my fix and said it was better than the one Ford was offering. The only other problem was the bulkhead rusted out around the clutch pedal but that was from normal age and wear. My welder friend fixed that, too. Clocked over 100,000 miles and I think I’d still have it today if I hadn’t got run off the road one day by a FedEx delivery truck and the Pinto ended up partway up a tree. The ER neurodoc said the seat belt saved me (but I still had to fend off the hoard of ambulance-chasing lawyers).
Yeah. A female friend special-ordered one in Welch’s Grape purple way back. She loved it.