Just gotta ask - as I continue to peruse the web for all things Pinto, I notice a serious lack of their Bobcat brethren. Is this a coincidence (since this is a Pinto site), or did they make that many less of them? I am not particularly interested in a Bobcat for any reason, it's just that I see so little press on them.
...and then there are Mavericks, good GRIEF is there a LOT of stuff out there!! :wow:
Chris
They made a whole lot less of them. They were like the luxury brother/sister of the pinto and I sometimes I think people who were looking for a luxury car wouldnt have gone with a subcompact.
as a bobcat owner i agree there is not much out there about them, but so much of the pinto is the same. That this is still a great site for me as well. When i go to Carlisle i am just as welcome with the pintos. (i have been the only bobcat the past 2 years) Yes they did make a lot less Bobcats.
Phils Toys
I'd have to agree. There are a lot less Bobcats out there, even in the 80s. From the 1980s to now I've only seen a total of 4 Bobcats, including Phils wagon, and what a beaut it is too. Looking forward to seeing it again.
The Bobcat did not even start production untill 1975...
Up untill then the Mercury dealers sold Capri's
From Pintony
That question got me to thinking... and I have a book that offers production numbers on all American-made cars from 1930-1990, so I decided to see just how many more Pintos were built than Bobcats. Overall, the Pinto outnumbered the Bobcat by a ratio of just over 14:1. From 1971-1980, there were 3,150,363 Pintos manufactured. That accounts for all configurations and bodystyles. Their best year was 1974, with record production of 544,209 units. The highest production of any single model was the 1971 sedan at 288,606 and the lowest was the 1980 wagon at 39,159. In contrast to this, the Bobcat's total production from 1975 -1980 totals only 224,026. The highest production Bobcat was the 1979 hatchback at 35,667 and the lowest was, like the Pinto, the 1980 wagon with only 5547 being built. Did a little math and determined that 1,860,898 Pintos were built before the Bobcat was even introduced!!! And that, my friends, explains why there are more Pintos out there than Bobcats! :smile:
Dwayne
dga7
thanks for the insight but bobcats have a better smile ;D
but i could be bias a bit.
Phils (bobcat) toys
You'll get no argument from me... I used to be a Lincoln-Mercury salesman! I always preferred the "upscale" look of the Bobcat, although they were essentially the same car. My one and only Pinto was an orange 1974 Runabout, purchased new when I was 16 (and before the Bobcat made its debut). I had lots of exposure to others though, as my sister had a '72 Squire wagon and a '79 Runabout, with a 1977 Bobcat Villager wagon between the two. Her Bobcat was a loaded-up 6 cylinder. It was bright red but yellow would have been more appropriate... probably one of the biggest lemons Ford ever sold! I felt terrible about it because I was the one who sold it to her. When she finally got tired of fooling with it (it was towed in numerous times), my boss pulled the original paperwork on the sale and gave her back every cent she paid for it toward a new '79 Pinto Runabout that we acquired on a dealer exchange. We immediately wholelsaled it across the auction block and wrote off the loss. Sure don't envy whoever may have gotten it after that! I like the older Bobcats better because I think they exhibited more defining differences from the Pinto than the later models. Truth of the matter... Ford or Mercury... I love 'em all! :)
Dwayne
I'm covered as far as web support is concerned. 72 Pinto and a 72 Maverick. Both were the best possible optioned from the factory. 2.0 Pinto 4-Speed, disk brakes. And a V-8 Mav with auto (now switched to 5-Speed stick. I see Bobcats around here sometimes. I know where one is sitting in a yard with weeds growing around it in the Lemoore CA. area. Looks solid though. Maybe a blown motor. Should ask if it's for sale.
"From 1971-1980, there were 3,150,363 Pintos manufactured."
As someone relatively new to the Pinto/Bobcat I'm amazed at the total number of three million (closer to 3.5 million with the Bobcat), and yet the scarcity of the car. I also own a Ford, V-8 powered, Sunbeam Tiger and there were only 7,000 of them built. Yet, when I scan Ebay I find about the same number of Tiger's for sale as I do Pinto's! That is even excluding the Sunbeam Alpine (about 70,000) from which the Tiger was derived.
I 've hit about eight self serve wrecking yards since December. Six were here in So. Cal.. Thus far I found one late 70's Pinto - that's all. I did find two Pinto's in a yard in Sacramento when I ventured to No. Cal. to get my Pinto. Unfortunately at that time I wasn't sure what I needed and only got a turn signal lense.
Have that many gone to the crusher? Are they being horded in Missouri? :smile:
Three million made and about three at any time on Ebay. What's the deal? Is the Mother Ship sneaking in, - in the middle of the night and capturing them away?
Tom
Hi Tom!
Well, you're right about one thing... there IS a garage full of them near St. Louis :lol:.
Others here may disagree, but my personal opinion is that a lot of them were lost to the race track. I agree, though, about their rarity. It has been probably ten years since I've seen one actually on the road and in use in my area and they used to be a dime a dozen, so to speak. I was sort of amazed with those numbers too, but I have no reason to doubt them. I suppose a number of them may have been cannibalized for parts, as well. It would be interesting to know just how many survive in the U.S. today. I DO know that my original 1974 Runabout was destroyed in a head-on collision by its second owner shortly after I traded it in 1976.
That's one accounted for... where are all the others???
Dwayne
There are at least 25 Pinto's {2 crusing wagons} and 4 Bobcats { 1 wagon} sitting in junk yards within a 10 mile radius of my house.Several of them are in fairly good condition and a few are small bumper cars. The crusher has gotten most of them and the others have been turned into dirt trackers. I got my rust free, never hit, one owner trunk model with excellent interior for $350.00 {running} three years ago and it's the only one on the road around here. It now has a 2.3 turbo, T5 and 4.62 rear. :showback:
Turbo,
If there are that many Pinto's and Bobcats near where you live, I need to come for a visit! Just tell me where I'm going...
In the general line of this thread, I've only seen one Pinto on the road out here in Ohio in the last few years, and it was an adorable wagon, probably a 74-75 out in Greenville. I talked to the guy driving it and he said it used to be his grandmothers if I remember correctly. I would've bought it on the spot if he would've sold it. I picked up my Bobcat in between Covington and Greenville at a little used car/auto salvage yard that also sells pools, hot tubs and fences! It was sitting outside for years. But I do like my Bobcat.
Quote from: Wittsend on January 14, 2008, 12:29:23 AM
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I 've hit about eight self serve wrecking yards since December. Six were here in So. Cal.. Thus far I found one late 70's Pinto - that's all.
Have that many gone to the crusher?
Yes, they have gone to the crusher. I used to go to a couple of junk yards in Socal quite a lot in the early 1990's looking for parts for a 70 Torino Cobra I had at the time. There were so many Pintos to choose from you could cherry pick parts from them. If a bumper had a ding in it I would pass on it because eventually there would be a perfect one. Every time I would go there would be 5-10 Pintos to choose from. Sometimes I would see one that was so nice I couldn't figure out why it was in there. It was like they just drove it in and left it. Those days are gone forever.
Bob
I see one on the road now and then. I actually saw one last Saturday on my way to the DMV.
Wow, I think a 1980 Bobcat wagon would be a real find at only 5,500 made. Personally, I also like the "smile" that they have (one of the other posters said that best), the grills with the vertical bars are quite handsome, for lack of better term. On the other hand, I like the taillights less.
Chris
hi everybody i don't post often but i drive a 1979 bobcat with a 351w set back so that the last cyl is completly inside the car upgaded to roller cam forged piston 0.020 ported and flow benched the heads open plenum intake also put a cheater nox just for excitment when i'm bored aod trans 8" diff have 2.73 and 4.11 buddy is a body man and went to town with the outside only pannel not modified is the wiper cowel he's thinking of doing like the pangara hide away wiper is lots of fun to drive expecally with the rice rockets might get paint in the spring have been working on this for 7 yr's i live in canada so it wasn't a rust free car but it is now AL
Hey v8bobcat, any pics of your bobcat? If so post em up. I'm sure all of us would like to see what you're workin on.