PINTO CAR CLUB of AMERICA
Shiny is Good! => General Pinto Talk => Topic started by: mcboyle on July 01, 2014, 11:06:03 PM
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I just Bought a 1974 Pinto Wagon I love. Im just curious how rare are they to find really? I Poached it from my local craigslist. Did i get lucky? or not? Did it take some of you a while to find one? Just a curious question.
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It all depends on your location. I live in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and I have had a total of three Pinto sightings in the past ten years - that's pretty rare! In other areas, they are apparently more plentiful. I have bought two (a '72 sedan and a '72 Squire wagon) in the past six years and had to travel quite some distance for each of them. I've been looking for an orange '74 Runabout for about ten years without success. Enjoy your new Pinto!
Dwayne :)
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There are a few on craigslist phoenix most of the time.
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They made like 3,000,000 of them so not too much so I would think.
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They made like 3,000,000 of them so not too much so I would think.
True... but a lot of them were lost to rust issues and racetracks.
Dwayne :)
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True... but a lot of them were lost to rust issues and racetracks.
Dwayne :)
Well, how many do you think are still around? I'd be curious!
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3,173,491 Pinto's to be exact (according to Wikipedia). To put that in perspective there are 21,529,464 VW Beetles (the old one). So, there were about 7 times more VW Beetles produced than Pinto's. And, that being said how often do you see the older VW's these days? So, in terms of availability, yes, somewhat rare. In terms of total production, no.
Frankly back in 2007 when I went looking for a Pinto I was surprised that they weren't as plentiful as I recalled. It seemed like I had seem more around than there actually were. When I got my car people kept saying to me, "I haven't seen a Pinto in a LONG time." It was only then I realized that like anything that has aged, it becomes more scarce. Also, I see the numbers declining in the self serve yards I frequent. Again, going back to 2007 I was finding 1-3 Pinto with every trip. Recently it takes about 3 trips to find a single Pinto.
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There is always one or two in my area and into Oregon from where I am (about 20 minutes)...
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I believe they are more rare than production numbers would imply. After the Mother Jones mess, you could not give a used pinto away. I believe hundreds of thousands of good cars went to the crusher. I have no proof to back this up.
Bill
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A good general answer that I just thought of.... Not as rare as some cars are but more rare than what they use to be and more rare than other cars.
Example. My 1985 Dodge Omni GLH Turbo is more rare than my 1980 Ford Pinto but my 1980 Ford Pinto is more rare than my 2008 Pontiac Grand Prix.
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You also see more listed for sale in areas where the weather did not take its' toll on these 40 year old cars.
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Running, driving & nice Pintos are rather rare IMO. Projects, basket cases, junk ones & race cars are plentiful.
I own 6 & have chopped up 3 parts only cars so finding them is easy. Out of the 6 only 1 runs & drives & it's a so-so parts car. The other 5 are projects bought for cheap but are worth saving.
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According to Car & Driver Magazine, the 1974 Pinto Wagon was the best selling Wagon in the US at the time.
They sold a lot of them.