On 9 Nov 2005 15:46:34 -0800, "Brain-washed Americans Drive ****ty
Cars." wrote:


drive a foreign ****box wrote:

then dad got a job, the weekly paychecks started rolling in...

and he bought a Ford Pinto. snip

Actually, and don't laugh, the Pinto, in the 2000cc and 2300cc, circa
'72 to '75, was a pretty tough little ugly car. I know one gal that
used to own a dental lab (before the mexicans invaded and ruined the
business) that used a fleet of Pintos with 2000cc engines in them as
delivery cars. She got over 300K on them on the original engines with
normal maintenance before they were retired. That $2 steel skid
placed on the rear end pumpkin eliminated the infamous "exploding gas
tank" problem. Pintos also saw service in Pacific Telephone's staff
fleet, and lasted longer than the Japanese cars that replaced them,
the Mitsubishi built Plymouth Arrows. Mitsubishis have never been
good, reliable cars...ever. Biggest problem: engine failure.
Chrysler learned this the hard way when they started using Mitsubishi
2.5L 4s to replace its domestic built 2.2L 4s in the K car era. Due to
warranty claims, Iacocca ordered that the 2.2 be retained and
enlarged, while the Mistubishi 2.5 disappeared.

Problem with the Pinto was it really didnt' do anything well, except
run forever...bad space utilization, not-so-great economy, lousy
handling for a small car, so-so ride, mediocre seating. She used to
average around 26 MPG in delivery service on the Pintos, while a 200
cu. in. '70 Maverick got about the same and did things a bit better
all around. Part of the problem was Ford's hosed up smog system,
using air injector pumps designed for big V8s, unsophisticated Holley
2300 carburetors and dual diaphragm distributor vacuum advance units
that would always leak. After around 1980, parts support for smog
equipment for Pintos became non-existant, so most of them went to the
scrapper during the '80s when they couldn't pass smog.

The BAD car in that era was the Chevy Vega...quite possibly the worst
US car ever made, period. Most barely lasted three or four years
before being scrapped. The Chevette ("Shove-ette") that replaced it
was a bit more reliable, but even more cheesy and crappy, which became
a GM trademark in the '80s.

dB