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Author Topic: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!  (Read 57231 times)

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Offline Cookieboystoys

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #30 on: June 04, 2013, 07:05:58 PM »
how about classic Mustangs? this is worth a read...

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500164_162-47539.html
It's all about the Pintos! Baby!

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #31 on: June 04, 2013, 09:15:01 PM »
The Mustang was Lee's project.  How could he not know?  However, the source (CBS News, 60 Minutes, Dan Rather) was not trustworthy in 2009.  Notice that they give no hard numbers.
 
Mike
 
P.S.  I still wonder what happened to the survey money.

Offline bbobcat75

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #32 on: June 05, 2013, 07:04:25 AM »
it must be true i read it on the internet!!!?!?!
 
news articles are made up with so much b/s i cant stand to watch it or read it anymore!!!
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Offline jonz2pinto

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #33 on: April 29, 2014, 06:00:55 PM »
many more cars are more of a hazard thaan the pinto.fieros engines exploded from cracked blocks.80s caprices(police) exploded when hit from behind.any car hit hard enuogh where tha gas tank sits will explode if hard enogh.even chevy pickups hit on side.thats to name a few.
Pinto-is short for pint-o-fun.

Offline sedandelivery

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #34 on: April 30, 2014, 06:10:03 AM »
I knew it, because of the GM ignition switch problem the headlines scream, GM has a Pinto problem, and a local college professor had an article in the local paper how "thousands" of people burned to death in Pintos. Some myths never die.

Offline DBSS1234

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #35 on: April 30, 2014, 08:48:12 AM »
how about classic Mustangs? this is worth a read...

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500164_162-47539.html

It is a wonder I am still alive. 4 classic Mustangs and a Pinto. Better tell my wife to up the life insurance!

Offline mcboyle

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #36 on: July 01, 2014, 10:48:10 PM »
New loving Pinto owner so don't bite my head off-
 my only question is what made this a headline in the first place? myth or fact there must have been some instances of this happening to make it a myth, right?
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Offline dga57

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #37 on: July 02, 2014, 12:39:16 AM »
My advice would be, if you haven't already, to go back to the beginning of this topic and read everything - it pretty much explains the whole story.  There's a lot of information to absorb and if you don't feel like reading it all, then at least read the posts by Scott Hamilton and Matt Gunter - they are the most informative of the bunch.  Happy reading!
 
Dwayne :)
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Offline mcboyle

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #38 on: July 02, 2014, 09:33:25 AM »
My advice would be, if you haven't already, to go back to the beginning of this topic and read everything - it pretty much explains the whole story.  There's a lot of information to absorb and if you don't feel like reading it all, then at least read the posts by Scott Hamilton and Matt Gunter - they are the most informative of the bunch.  Happy reading!
 
Dwayne :)

 :D
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Offline Keith

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #39 on: February 08, 2015, 12:13:20 PM »
Many years ago (30 or 40 years ago), there was a Pinto rear ended at about (it was estimated) 90 miles an hour. The vehicle exploded into flames. I've forgotten most of the details from the news paper article. There was a mega lawsuit. It was sometime later that the rumors started. The 90 mile an hour impact was never mentioned in the rumors (except by me). I believe that accident was the source of the mistaken belief that Pintos are dangerous.

Offline dga57

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #40 on: February 08, 2015, 01:48:24 PM »
The advice I offered to mcboyle earlier still stands for anyone interested in this subject: go back to the beginning of this thread and read everything that has been posted.  If you don't have time to do that, then seek out the posts written by Scott Hamilton and/or Matt Gunter.  They have both delved into the task of researching the subject and have uncovered amazing, documented, accurate facts related to it.  The "myth" is perpetuated by random, unsubstantiate d, vague statements by people who have not taken the time to research the facts.  ALL cars have some element of danger and the Ford Pinto was no exception, but it was no more dangerous than other similar-sized cars of the same era.  Let's face it... it is a small car and when it comes down to smaller versus larger in a collision, the smaller vehicle is going to suffer the most.  Case in point: in yesterday's collision involving Bruce Jenner, his big Escalade ESV sustained very minor damage when it rear-ended a Lexus sedan.  The Lexus then ran head-on into an even bigger Hummer, demolishing the Lexus and killing the driver.  So would we deduce from this that all Lexus sedans are death traps?  Not hardly.  Swap those two SUVs out for a Honda Fit and a Smartfor2 and the Lexus driver would, in all likelihood, have driven her car away from the accident scene.  All things are relative, but smaller always loses.  It's simple Physics.


Dwayne
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Offline pintomagic

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #41 on: March 24, 2015, 05:01:31 PM »
I really believe that who ever wanted to paint all the American sub compact cars as ugly or junk or dangerous was a good ploy and it worked to get people accepting the Japanese sub compacts and thus assures the Japanese car invasion has sealed into the American market by swaying people,s opinion about  buying more Japanese . It has opened the doors even wider , all by the sway of public opinions . To scare them into not   buying an American compact car . They especially attacked the Pinto because it was an American best seller . They did not want an American sub compact car to win over the Japanese imports . This would delay the popularity and future imports of Japanese cars . The campaign has been successful and look how many drive Hondas and Toyotas now a days . It was all a smear campaign against the American little cars .

Offline pinto_one

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #42 on: March 24, 2015, 08:14:10 PM »
Guess your very right on that, The meda destroys everything when they put their mind to it,  but in time you find out they can not be trusted telling the truth,  but I can always point my finger back at them and say, the car was fixed and safer ,where are those mid 70,s Hondas and toyotas you thought were so great, where are they??,rusted away I guess ,have not seen one since the mid 80,s .  I know more people with pintos than the other brands,  😼     
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Offline amc49

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #43 on: March 25, 2015, 03:36:34 AM »
Only the owners keeping the cars hidden away in garages and hearts keep the older ones out and in the public eye. Nothing else. I've seen old Japanese on the road as well but the mental picture there is not as clear as the one holding onto the American car.

The imports were better made cars, you either get that or you don't. They came up with clever ways of building things and why even now the OEM North American car companies use many of their methods of doing things. Why they combined with the import companies in creative partnerships. Forced to when they could not do any better. Ford bought Mazda and GM worked with Toyota on common assembly lines. Ford later bought Jaguar and GM Lotus simply to drain the companies of ideas when they could not come up with more themselves, then they spun the companies off after they had raided the mental banks there.

Yes, the media destroys everything they pretty much touch but it would not be possible if American business did not have so many things to hide from the public. The way it does business, if things don't go right then you use every trick in the book to change the mental perception there. Look at Ford even now, they have become one of the most cynical car companies ever in the way they do business. Their cars have so many things wrong with them it cannot be said and has gotten worse over the years.

Own more than one of the same model like I often do and you would have to be blind to not see how the cars have gotten cheaper and crappier over the years. Each car goes through a cheapening process to lower cost after initially being brought out, often the better parts are the earlier ones. You can pick up almost any part on a car and compare it to see that. Ford even worse, the re-engineering now shows signs of being done to make the part intentionally break faster and plain as day. The engineers are now actively being used to shorten the lives of the cars, they last too long now and can't sell new cars with that.

Smear campaign? Look at the initial Ford Focus rollout, the highest number of recalls ever done on a first year car, like eight of them. I have one and did every recall fix myself. The cars commonly catch fire from substandard battery cables, but then so did Fords of all types through the '80s and '90s, the ignition recall. I had 3 of those cars, and all tried to melt the ignitions. No need for smears when the car maker itself shoots itself in the foot over and over.

How about the Ford cruise control fires that set vehicles on fire when they are sitting in the garage to burn the entire house down? If they would simply do their electrical systems better they would come up tremendously in world as to quality, but they are focused too much on saving a few cents of cost per car on copper wire and plastic insulation, the biggest problems for them in the last 20 years being fires of all types.

The new twin disc clutch Focus is one of the most snake bit cars ever released. The cars are almost 100% guaranteed to have major clutch issues if the DCT trans and the electric power steering can stop at any point while driving on the freeway to almost kill the driver when the steering locks up. Ford has warranty issues with them coming out of their ears. Yet other car companies roll out the EXACT same technology to not have hardly any issues at all.

I've owned Ford in a long string  of eight and now will never buy another. Luckily (no, intentional actually), I never paid full price for one, only program cars with low mileages. Each one showed way more than its' fair share of issues. My fixing them all myself lowered my exposure greatly to that as loss. My son bitched about his last Ford and it had multiple issues before 40K miles, he's now driving Nissan and no issues at ALL at 90K, change fluids only and drive the wheels off it. I helped him to go there, Ford is no longer my car company or his, they do not care about their customers at all.

With the Pinto, it was the internal engineers themselves coming to Lee Iaccoca over Pinto safety issues and the 'rule of 2000', with that to put on the evening news they needed no other things to be crucified there. The media can do nothing without ammunition, only a dumb-ss company supplies that for them.

Offline sedandelivery

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #44 on: March 25, 2015, 07:12:36 AM »
I can say pertaining to modern Ford cars, I bought a 2007 Focus for my daughter new and I can truthfully say it is the most trouble-free car I have ever seen. New tires, brakes, and battery, that's it after 7 years. 

Offline dianne

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #45 on: March 25, 2015, 07:53:55 AM »
I can say pertaining to modern Ford cars, I bought a 2007 Focus for my daughter new and I can truthfully say it is the most trouble-free car I have ever seen. New tires, brakes, and battery, that's it after 7 years.

Because Fords ROCK! Having bought some Chevy's such as the Impala, I can say I am a Ford woman!
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Offline dianne

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #46 on: March 25, 2015, 07:58:14 AM »
Only the owners keeping the cars hidden away in garages and hearts keep the older ones out and in the public eye. Nothing else. I've seen old Japanese on the road as well but the mental picture there is not as clear as the one holding onto the American car.

The imports were better made cars, you either get that or you don't....

Sorry to disagree with you here. The cars that came in early when I was young were nothing but rust buckets, even worse than the Vegas. So they weren't that good and they were crappy rust buckets. At the time I bought a 78 Monte Carlo, traded in my 74 Mustang II, which was a mistake, and that was the worse POS I ever owned in my entire life. Detroit was pushing crap because I believe they thought Americans would buy anything. The imports starting coming in and I just remember them rusting like the POSes they were. People bought them as an alternative at the time for gas mileage and an alternative. I mean floorboards rotting out in a few years. I looked at a Datson 510 to race one year, it was so rusted! I couldn't buy it anyway because my dad would have been sooooo pissed.

Saying Imports were and are better cars is not a correct comment!

PS - I've never owned a Japanese car, I still remember an uncle dying at Pearl Harbor as my dad would tell me. No one remembers any more.
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- 1972 Plymouth Duster (To be a Pro Street)
- 1973 Ford Pinto wagon (registered ride 195)
- 1976 Mustang II mini-stock
- 1978 Mustang King Cobra II
- 1979 Ford Pinto Runabout
- 1986 Chevy K5 Blazer
- 1997 Suzuki Marauder

FORD: Federal Ownership Respectfully Denied

Offline pinto_one

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #47 on: March 25, 2015, 09:31:16 AM »
There is a different story on every car, some have good luck , some have very bad, I had GM cars , Fords, a Dodge , MB , Volvo , Studebaker , and one Toyota , and a handful of electric cars , to me the best fords were the pintos and ford rangers, got a 93 ranger I brought new and now has 250K , same engine and trans , the 07 Toyota Prius at 150K the rod bearings went , fixed and my wife gave it to one of her relitives , now have a 2015 ford feista for her , I take care of the cars I have like I take care of my airplanes, I do not want to end up on the side of the road , (or a smoking hole ) some place, later Blaine  :o
76 Pinto sedan V6 , 79 pinto cruiser wagon V6 soon to be diesel or 4.0

Offline amc49

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #48 on: March 25, 2015, 10:33:25 PM »
To each his own and you don't have to be sensible about it.

I am loyal to no marque out there, but I can tell pretty quick when somebody does something in a better way. I have only have been with Ford since '74, but I can back up everything I say since I have never paid for a single car repair in my entire life. That includes my own automatic transmissions and engines coming out my ears. I have never paid ever for wheel alignment, I do my own. I typically fix parts that break at far less cost than most of you, often fixing what's there without buying the part at the parts store. I stayed with Ford longer term because I understood the way they used their computer but can do other brands as well. I've been reading OBD since '91. I don't speak badly of the cars just because of a gut feeling, I have personally seen the bad things Ford does and if you can't handle it then so much the worse for you. I can see engineering fault in the simple parts I pick up almost instantly, most other people grousing about this or that would not have a clue if I simply threw the part at them and said tell me what's wrong with it?

Talk about rust? Modern Fords rust so quickly up north they typically rust nuts and bolts to not even be removeable in 3 years. The cars may be missing floorboards in five. Dangerous suspension corrosion by then too. I lost a Tempo control arm to corrosion in '97, car only 3 years old and here in Texas where NOTHING ever corrodes to ruin. Why? The engineer who located the moisture spit hole on the muffler aimed it right at the arm, brilliant!!!

Best Ford I had as far as reliability was a '74 MII, only changed a timing belt here or there. The Focus cars have something go wrong every 20K miles or sooner and began doing it at under 50K. Endless troubles and thanking my stars I can fix it all with no great cost to me. The Contour was better but broke a lot of cosmetic stuff, the trans had known issues and exploded at 125K miles. I rebuilt it to be running fine now since '07. One of 3 Tempos shelled a trans, I fixed it for a $16 pump driveshaft and $5 pump insert and been running after that since '05. One other Tempo began to slip badly in 1 and 2 and I modded the servo piston using a thirty cent washer and trans ran from then (around '98) until I just sold it last month. Of course the shop I took it too on a whim said it needed a 'complete rebuild' and what they do. One Focus began to slip going into OD, fixed with a $5 bolt to make a band adjuster and running fine now some 8 years later.

Things like that, I have never spent over $100 on anything except maybe engine components to rebuild an entire engine. Most of the time $25 or less. Today I fixed a Focus a/c clutch with a twenty cent washer and fixed a Focus window regulator for $10 in parts, they shell out about once every two years or so. The Ford branded ones are no better than the low dollar Dorman ones at parts store, just like the stat housings and plastic rad pipes that break every time you turn around. I made up copper ones from Home Depot pipe at less cost than the original and they will NEVER break. I use bulk hose only and no custom molded factory hoses other than upper and lower main rad hose. That alone makes over $100 out of thin air.

I'm ignorant too, I don't accept virtually anything told to me about how to fix a car, and then I do other things to fix it far more cheaply. They could not believe how little money I spent when I was working at the parts store and they got fairly upset when I told people how to fix their cars without having to buy the expensive parts. I can find things wrong with almost any car out there and what I do well. I then will come up with ways to fix them that have nothing to do with how the 'normal' world does things since I don't play well there.

Two Focus and one Contour at 200K+ miles, I change oil at 9500 OCI and using Walmart oil, can't kill the cars. However, every other little thing on them breaks other than engine/trans, and what I'm talking about. The small things are calculated to frustrate the owner into getting rid of car due to nuisance issues that mount up to drive one crazy. Still, I will be able to keep them running until I give up to let them go to the yards.
 
Brand loyalty is retarded in my view, it only clouds one's vision. But then I grew up with American Motors cars, no one ever realized how great they could be and we made up plenty of parts when you couldn't get them like for the Fords or GMs. The AMCs were well known for crap bodies, the doors and windows were always problems, the one ATX they had was crap (Ford had an exact copy that was not that great either), we routinely tore them up with 300 hp engines. They could not be modded to be any stronger either. Later they went to Chrysler ATX and even later GM and better trans then.

Offline dianne

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #49 on: March 25, 2015, 10:38:56 PM »
You proved you're better than all of us AMC. Must be awesome to be a smart as you looking down on us stupid people.

I'm one of those idiots that have brand loyalty.
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- 1972 Plymouth Duster (To be a Pro Street)
- 1973 Ford Pinto wagon (registered ride 195)
- 1976 Mustang II mini-stock
- 1978 Mustang King Cobra II
- 1979 Ford Pinto Runabout
- 1986 Chevy K5 Blazer
- 1997 Suzuki Marauder

FORD: Federal Ownership Respectfully Denied

Offline dga57

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #50 on: March 26, 2015, 12:06:19 AM »
I think it's fair to say that we all form our automotive opinions based on the cars we're exposed to.  Personally, I have owned two Japanese cars in my lifetime (a Honda Civic and a Mazda 626) and do not plan to ever purchase another.  In my experience, neither lived up to the hype of Japanese superiority.  Overall, my worst experiences have been with German cars, although you are always hearing how great German technology is.  I would count my BMW Z3, Volkswagen New Beetle, and Cadillac Catera (rebadged Opel) as the most problematic vehicles I've ever owned.  British cars always take a hit on reliability and yet I've owned a Jaguar and a Rolls-Royce that never caused any problems at all.  With the exception of a 1981 Lincoln (total lemon) I bought new, I have had exceptionally good service from Ford products.  Have had decent service from GM vehicles too if you don't count the two early 80's diesels I bought.  I currently drive a Ram 1500 4x4 pickup that I dearly love.  With only 14000 miles so far, it's hard to say how it may stack up reliability-wise.  I chose it over the comparable Ford and GM offerings because it was more comfortable and better looking in my opinion.  I chose my 2014 Mustang convertible because I liked it better than anything GM or Chrysler offered.  It runs great and I thoroughly enjoy it, but there again, it only has 12000 miles on the odometer so it's too soon to tell.  We all have different experiences.  I remember Dianne telling me she had a Cadillac Catera that she counted as one of her best cars.  Go figure!  I'm very happy for her because mine was pitiful.  To me blind brand loyalty is similar to blindly voting a straight party ticket - but then, that's just my opinion.
 
Dwayne :)
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Offline amc49

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #51 on: March 26, 2015, 01:48:47 AM »
Go figure indeed........ .............a nd I don't consider myself smart. I just pay more attention than a lot of other people do to things. Take a car that someone swears they've never had any trouble with it and I'll easily find fifty things wrong with it, it's an obsessive/compulsive thing tied to overtly perfectionist mentality that allows (more like forces) me to do it. My curse if you will. But why I was always picked to run huge webpresses with multiple setup possibilities, I pursued setups far deeper than others to save thousands more in material cost. The bosses loved it.

My opinion only here and not trying to convert others but I can stand my ground.

Funny, the Focus window mechanism that breaks if you so much as look at it and many times is a Jaguar setup......... ......I saw the same with German cars at the store, I had no idea the German cars were so shoddily made, the lower level Volkswagens are literally throwaway cars. I view any late Chryslers as the same, they just never have done things in a logical fashion it seems. The big Ram trucks had so many problems it's not funny, far more parts bought for them than Ford or GM trucks. The owners groused about them all the time. The Fords had their issues like the Triton plug thing of course.

I expected some trouble from the Fords I bought, they were the lower end vehicles and at one time so cheap I figured on at least breaking even with parts. I don't see it as that way any longer, the cars have come way up in price including used and I will be looking elsewhere from now on.

I carp about breaking things but I don't think I've spent more than a guess $500-$700 overall averaged in any car's life I've owned but because I do all my own work and I count that as free.

Haven't owned any imports directly but worked on a lot of them. I did mess with a whole lot of Japanese two wheel stuff and I've always liked how they pay a lot more attention to detail little things to avoid them becoming bigger problems. Sixty seconds looking at the Nissan problem solving of engine vibrations at idle as versus Ford's cockeyed way of doing things and clear who does more thinking before implementing, it's all over the cars, all you have to do is look. No wonder the Fords have so many idle vibration issues, the engine mount design they use there is pretty much garbage.

FYI, the Mazda 626 was pretty much killed off by the ATX used there, Ford then takes the same trans to mod it several times while not accomplishing any real improvement and then problems galore all over again for a stream of years. The cars failed left and right, one of the largest reasons low mileage Contours/Mystiques were in the junkyards was that trans. They then used it in Escapes to even more problems. I used to see Escapes with trans out left and right at the Ford dealership we serviced with parts.

Offline dianne

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #52 on: March 26, 2015, 07:04:16 AM »
The experiences each of us get from our ownership from cars is different. I think amc understands this himself because he's the MacGyver of the auto world taking a hairpin and some spit and raw iron and could repair a transmission. As I opened a garage, I found that everything comes in with weird problems. Problems on one car don't exist on another from a different day or week or month. My 78 Monte Carlo I bought new in 1978 was a total POS, but I see people restoring them today.

Bottom line is this thread got taken off topic I guess because if some comments. The Pinto is no different than any car out there from the 80s or 80s. My best new car ever was the Mustang II I got in 1974 and the Catera. Worse car ever was the 78 Monte Carlo.

Sorry MacGyver, but I love my Fords. Play dumb all you want, but you love to troll...
Vehicles:

- 1972 Plymouth Duster (To be a Pro Street)
- 1973 Ford Pinto wagon (registered ride 195)
- 1976 Mustang II mini-stock
- 1978 Mustang King Cobra II
- 1979 Ford Pinto Runabout
- 1986 Chevy K5 Blazer
- 1997 Suzuki Marauder

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Offline Scott Hamilton

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #53 on: July 06, 2021, 03:50:26 PM »
Norm has one of the best write ups on this, this is a must read for anyone looking for the truth,
https://pintostampede.com/the-pinto-myth
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Offline turbopinto72

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Re: Exploding Pinto is a Myth...Pinto Fires, NOT!
« Reply #54 on: August 02, 2023, 10:06:24 PM »
Just an FYI , Now , as of 2023 , there have been more Tesla's that have caught on fire then Pintos.
Brad F
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