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@augieray By the way, the Pinto gets a bad rap. I've owned two of them, never exploded. Only the Station wagon version ever "exploded" IIRC, and who would buy a Pinto station wagon.
Anyway, they are sure better than Swasticars and Trucks.

@jab01701mid Well, there was a well-recognized design flaw in several years' models. I, too, owned a Pinto. (If I recall, it was a 1980, the year they changed the design), and I liked the car.

@augieray @jab01701mid I had a friend in high school who had one of the old “exploding” pinto models. It had the added feature of having a hole rusted through the backseat floor board so when he drove through corn fields dirt would fly in.

@Michigander @augieray Yeah, but when you dropped your beer, it would drain out by itself. That's what I hear anyway.

@jab01701mid
I had a '72 Pinto (in 1985-1988). It had a hole under the driver's side floor mat, and more holes under the seat itself. I once soaked myself and all my high school friends, hitting a puddle at 30 mph. I also nearly wrecked it avoiding a raccoon in the road, because I knew it would come up through the floor either in pieces or very angry.

The passenger seat adjuster was broken, so the seat just rolled forward a bit when I stopped, and back again when I accelerated. Luckily, the adjustment wheels were rusted, so it didn't roll quickly, but it was known as The Ejector Seat, and I got very good at easing up to stop signs. The Pinto did have seatbelts, but that was pretty much the only safety feature. It was clear that, in an accident, the only thing the Pinto would bring to the table was an added risk of tetanus.

My rule of thumb was to drive fast enough to never be rear-ended. And that thing could go, too, shedding rust flakes and small nonessential parts all up and down I-95.

@Michigander @augieray

@eedly @jab01701mid @Michigander @augieray Your last paragraph describes the US over the past decade or so.

@Andres4NY
So many things feel like metaphors these days.

Amusingly, this car had previously been an Official Government Vehicle. A family member had been mayor of our town, and city officials insisted he have a "city car". He thought this was dumb and wasteful, and authorized the purchase of the cheapest thing he could find. I'm not 100% sure why he still had it, but I think the same officials who insisted he get it insisted he take it with him.

@jab01701mid @Michigander @augieray

@eedly @Andres4NY @Michigander @augieray Pictures or it doesn't count. Here's mine.

@Michigander @jab01701mid @eedly @augieray I thought it was Van Halen!

@Andres4NY @Michigander @eedly @augieray You guys are making me cry, I was going for Kenny G.
No seriously EVH or Jimmy are high compliments for a wannabe guitarist and Pinto mechanic.

@Andres4NY @Michigander @eedly @augieray Fun fact. When I owned my first Pinto, a neighbor of my drummer (namedrop) Brian would give me a joint every time I would play Eruption for him.
And I always did that.