Here's That Affordable RWD Stick-Shift Ford You've Been Wanting

by Jack Baruth

Published: July 15th, 2014

here s that affordable rwd stick shift ford you ve been wanting

For about half the price of a new base Fiesta, you can roll in a right-wheel-drive, manny-tranny (OH STOP IT) not-so-fast Ford.

$6500 for a Pinto with under 20,000 miles? It seems ridiculous, but as one eminent BMW expert pointed out on Facebook, that’s “100hp in a package lighter than a 2002.”

This appears to be a “sedan”, which is to say, a Pinto with a trunk, as opposed to a “Runabout”, which was the hatch. True story: During a Civil Air Patrol exercise in 1982, your humble author was transported sixty or so miles in the hatchback area of a Pinto. I still haven’t told my parents this.

The interior looks good. Remember when you could get actual colors for an automotive interior? Hell, remember when you could get actual colors for an automotive exterior?

Nowadays, they’d call it “Ford-Tex!”

It’s funny how low and wide the Pinto was. No wonder it was easy to turn into a Mustang.

If you’ve got the money, this fellow has the car. Just make sure you watch your you-know-what in traffic.

Jack Baruth

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3 of 83 comments

Flipper35 on Jul 16, 2014

I am waiting for one in Screamin' Yellow.

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SteveRenwick on Jul 16, 2014

Jack, were you a CAP cadet? Seems hard to picture that.

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- Jack Baruth on Jul 16, 2014
  
  Yes I was, there's photographic evidence somewhere
  
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Recent Comments

Daniel J I generally love colors outside of the normal white, black, or silver. The biggest issue we've had is Mazda tends not to put the colors we want with the trim or interior we want.
Daniel J If you believe what Elon says, he said on X that the plan is expand at current locations and make sure that the current chargers are being maintained. Like I said on the previous thread on this, they probably looked at the numbers and realized that new chargers in new places aren't cost effective.
Daniel J How is this different than a fully lifted truck? I see trucks rolling off the lot with the back lifted already, and then folks get the front lifted to match. Are there specific "metrics" at how high they can and can't be? The example shown has the truck's front lifted more than normal, but I've seen these around here where the backend is dropped and the front end is at a regular height.
Theflyersfan I think color is FINALLY starting to return to car lots. After what seems like over a lost decade of nothing but shades of gray, whites, and black, I'm seeing a lot more reds and blues creeping into luxury car lots. Except Audi and Volvo. They still have at least 6-8 shades of gray/silver. But they at least have a nice green. Honda and Acura seem to have a bunch of new colors. And all carmakers need to take a serious look at the shades of red seen at the Alfa Romeo lot and tell themselves they want that because that looks amazing.
Bd2 Well, it's no Sonata, no does it have the panache of the Optima.