Just read a cheap (free) book on my Kindle called Snagglers Paradise. In chapter 32 the books namesake, Jack Snaggler has hitched a ride toward Atlantic City, NJ with a mass murderer named Boris Crane in a dented green Ford Pinto.
Another one is Railroad Man and in chapter 13 (prophetic?) the recently retired railroad man is given access to a rented 1978 bright yellow Pinto that he describes as a 'tin can'!