Faults:

Not too much wrong other than normal maintenance items.

It's been sitting for that past 18 years.

Has some rust, but not too bad for a car of that era.

I am in the process of restoring it now.

General Comments:

I love this car!! It was the first new car I ever bought.

It's been very reliable and has never left me stranded.

It turned heads back when it was new, and gets even more looks and smiles today.

The V6 is a nice engine for this car, while not a ton of power compared to today's cars, but more that adequate, and combined with the great handling, it makes it a blast to drive.

Faults:

What's gone wrong? What hasn't gone wrong is more like it!

- Lots of electrical problems

- Car would die when warmed up (great car if you just had to drive about 5 or 10 minutes)

- Went through lots of voltage regulators

- Oil leaks

- Brakes need frequent service

- Front brakes seize if car left unused for a few months (never had that happen on other cars left unused for similar periods of time)

- Nobody seemed to want to fix this car. If they did, they charged a fortune.

General Comments:

Groovy looking car, but I got sick of people always asking me "oh, isn't that the car that blows up if you're rear ended?"

We had a 1978 Pinto sedan that my parents bought new in 1978. I drove it when I was in high school in the late 80s and early 90s. When the car was new, it was great. Once it was 10 years old, things just started going wrong.

Feeling nostalgic, I bought a 1978 Pinto Cruising Wagon. Fix one thing, two more things need fixing. Hard to find parts for now. Usually every time I drove it, something would break and leave me stranded or require immediate attention. When I sold it, the guy who bought it drove it home (about a three hour drive) and said he had no problems. Maybe everything was finally fixed?

The car got more attention than a classic Mustang or Camaro. But if something needed fixing, and I couldn't do it, a lot of garages didn't want to work on it (it's "just" a Pinto mentality, or afraid to work on it perhaps). If they did, they charged me dearly. Cost a fortune to keep this car on the road. Due to the frequent repairs and unknown reliability, we didn't drive it much.

Faults:

The car was virtually trouble free during the 5 years that I had it.

General Comments:

This was my second Pinto. This red one was very nice both inside and out. It ran great.

However, one day when I went to see my mother at her apartment back in March of 1983, some idiot in an older model Mustang hit the Pinto head on. The damage to the car was very extensive that I had to get rid of the car. I in turn only had minor injuries at the time.

I must admit that I do miss that car at times. It was a very good car back then.