I am gathering information for a press release, and I was wondering if anyone had any input on how many Pinto's are road worthy?
:fastcar:
let's see... in my area (northern minnesota) since the middle of 2006 I have kept a really close eye on Pinto's for sale in my area, basicly within 500 miles, plus Ebay and many other areas of the country as well. I also know of many well hidden Pinto's within a 30 minute drive of me. If I were to consider just thoes in my area and expand nation wide... I think somewhere in the 5000's easily could be considered, maybe more.
This is considering there are! many Pinto owners out there that know nothing! of the online Pinto community, don't offer their cars up for sale and are well hidden from public view. I have to think I have seen at least 50-75 Pintos for sale since 2006 just in the state of Minnesota. Met many that have cars that I still haven't seen in person, a few I have passed on the highway as I take my into trips, etc... I really do think the #'s could be quite surprising... considering many of us say... "I'm the only Pinto owner in the State"
consider this... if I can take 1 Pinto to a show, up here in the middle of nowhere and know there are 4 others that could join me within a 30 minute drive. I got to think in States like California, where 30+ Pinto's show up for the Knott's Show there has to be 500+ in california alone.
when I say "5000's" consider that's only 100 cars per state, maybe I'm PintoNutz but that's my thought anyhow ;D
Road Worthy? I guess that depends on the defination... me I am giving a lot of slack and considering any Pinto that runs, maybe not on the Pinto Stampede, but driven to some degree.
There are not many on my side of town. I have two that are road worthy. The one I sold to my neighbor makes three. Then there is an older lady that has an early sedan that I see about twice a year. Then there is Mikes cruising wagon in St Johns that I have seen parked at his shop. I know my 72 primer hatch is still on the road as well. I am sure there are others in Portland but I just don't see them on the road.
Well, there are 6527 registered members on this site. Admittedly, not all of them have a Pinto but I'm willing to bet that quite a few do, and the fact that many members own multiple Pintos probably more than makes up for those who don't. Then there are the ones owned by people who have never heard of the PCCA or FordPinto.com! There were three million built so if even only 1% remain, that would account for 30,000. Somehow I rather doubt that 99% of them have disappeared in the forty year span since they were introduced. I don't know how you would ever get an accurate count but I suspect the numbers would surprise all of us.
Dwayne :smile:
I know at least 4 including mine (ones a Bobcat) that are licensed and running around here in Northeast Pa., and I know the owners.
the town i live in there are about 54000 people and i know of 6 pintos in my town I saw one that is from a different county(i think it belongs to a college student) so i put the old i want to buy your pinto note under the wiper havent heard back yet
Thanks for all the input, I am guessing an educated guess will be the best way to figure this out. I would agree with Cookieboy that about 100 per state would be a pretty acurate guess. DGA57 has an interesting view, but i feel those that have multiple Pintos are deffinitely on this site, so they are pretty much acounted for. And since the reputation was so tainted and given it is an economy car that most would not put money into, compiled with 40 years of age. Probably not too many left. It odes score huge on the curiosity scale.
More input would be appreciated.
Quote from: Rear Ended on February 12, 2011, 02:12:28 PM
but i feel those that have multiple Pintos are deffinitely on this site, so they are pretty much acounted for.
there are several I know of that are not! off the top of my head... I know of at least 6 that have 5 or more that don't do the internet thing.
many, many, many more pinto owners out there that are not part of the online community vs. those that are.
In truth I would guess the # is between my guess and Dwayne's thought's and likely more than any of us would suspect :o
Interesting stuff, so of course their is no deffinitive number, unless someone here knows of a Database for registered vehicles across the country. So if we are to meet in the middle for a guess it would be somewhere around 10-20 thousand. We need more Stampeders :hypno:
The 100 Pintos/Bobcats per state probably isn't very accurate... Hawaii (that we know of) has one, maybe two (remember they limit the number of cars there) and Alaska is admittedly not prime Pinto Country (it's C-C-COLD up there!) but then Cali probably has WAY more than 100 roadworthy Pintos or Pintos that need a tweak here or a tweak there to get them back on the highway of life.
In thew past 5 years I have counted (in Oceanside-Carlsbad): A mint/turquoise early to mid-year sedan or Runabout (on HWY 76), a red w/white vinyl top '77-'78 Runabout, a '72 or '73 black wagon, a white '78 wagon, a '73 ginger glow wagon at Walmart, and naturally mine- Ruby, currently running- and my other two who need a tweak here or a tweak there to get them up and running. I take Ruby on 80 mile trips and am confident that she'll be fine on the Big One. ;)
Only mine and one Bobcat that i have seen here in Topeka licensed and on the street anyway. Theres several in the bone yards here. Kenny
Count one more from Califorina.
I have 2 on the road down here in South carolina. And I know of 3 others in the area.
My first car was a brown 1977 Pinto wagon. Last September I found the one I have now; a 1980 Ford Pinto Wagon Pony Steel Stallion edition. It had been sitting in a garage since it was last licensed in 1986. It has 73,XXX original miles. It is still undergoing work it needs to get in road worthy. Everything rubber or gasket was pretty much dry rotted. The only rust I found was on both front floor pans. I am hoping to have it completed by late spring and get it registered with the Pinto Club and get it to some car shows. Not to many Pintos left in the St. Louis area.
My 78 sedan is still my daily driver with 155K miles!
Good little car, though it runs a little rough when cold or humid out.
How many ya got so far RearEnded?
Well I know of four so far in my area, My 78 wagon is a daily driver and has been getting me to work for almost 6 years now.
I've seen an early model light blue trunk model around town every now and again, and I saw a 79 down by the river the day I got my 71.
There are three more that I know of - one Bobcat in MA, one 76 hatchback in CA, and another Pinto hatchback in Witchata Falls, TX. They are all running and are getting cosmetic improvements.
I sold parts to these guys and they prefer to stay off of computers as much as possible, so they are not on this forum.
well if you assume a 1% rule then at 4.5 million produced over 9 years there would still be approx 45000 units remaining on the road. I suspect the % is actually higher than 1.
That's my thinking on the subject, OhSix9! Interestingly enough, very few people on this site see it that way. I wish there was a definitive way to prove or disprove the theory!
Dwayne :smile:
It seems that ya'll are only counting Pinto's that reside in the USA, What bout the rest of us up here in Canada...Do we count too. Ok so there may not be as many but i know personally of 5 that are not signed up on this site, All running and road worthy
The 1% rule would be nice, that translates into 900 Pintos per state that are licensed and road worthy. Remember we are talking about cars that are legal and driveable, not broken down.
It is apparent we have no way of knowing, since we cannot (at least I have not been able too) access a motor vehicle database that would list how many are licensed acroos the country.
And yes we can include Canada. Canada is cool, it is where we all plan to move after this country falls apart. :drunk:
well, im thinkin that there is gonna be way more than we all think. i live here in eureka montana and i have seen bout 6 not counting my 2. penelope is a 77 trunk and i have a 74 root beer lookin wagon 4 speed. i got penelope with 28000, yea that is typed correct. on the speedo. NOT ONE RUST SPOT TO SPEAK OF. the 74 is a hellofa solid car too. there is an old fella that goes to the market and he has a 75 with 36000 on the speedo, its in good running shape but the body has drunk bumps all over it. (he wont sell it, trust me) there is a younger girl with one in kalispel, i told her to reg. on here. i wonder if she did? there has to be a way to git a data base thinger on reg. pintos on the road. tone
there seems to be very few here in Indianapolis unfortunately I have seen more Chevy citations witch is just odd