I learned to drive on a 74 Pinto Station Wagon with a standard. Nowhere near as ugly as the regular Pinto, plus it had the added bonus of not blowing up if it got rear-ended.
I had a Pinto wagon, as well. I agree that it looked better than the regular model and was safer. It had a 2000cc engine, that I joked, stood for 2000 chipmunks churning.
We had a regular pinto- lucky to have survived it I guess.