My sister had one and never really had any problems mechanically with it. I had a girlfriend in 1981 that had one too. The girlfriend’s Pinto had the “wood grain” siding and what appeared to be a couple bullet holes which should make it an instant classic.
I never had any problems with mine until it reached about 80k miles and a connecting rod end cap fell off driving down the road....................
Our family had one when I was young. I remember there was a persistent ‘wiring burning’ smell coming through the vents, and my brother and I took turns chasing after the hubcaps that flew off.