Tuesday 16 June 2020

A Pinto Story

Back in 1980, I was stationed up in Tacoma, Washington.  One of the folks I associated with in the barracks....had a early-70s Ford Pinto.  He'd bought it used for around $300.

I rode with him on maybe a dozen occasions.

Everything about the car....said 'failure'.

It had a v-6 engine and burned an entire tank of fuel every five to six days, yet this guy was just driving around the base and maybe a mile or two off-base.  I doubt that he got more than eight or nine miles per gallon.

The engine burned oil....probably a can every three weeks.

The backside of the car, at least near the muffler....had this smell.  It was somewhere between a dead possum smell (Alabama folks know this scent) or a burnt rubber scent.  He felt it had something that came off the muffler.

The steering was marginal.

If you applied the brakes....it generally pulled to the driver's side.  He'd wasted two trips to the mechanics....trying to have this resolved, and then finally gave up.

On the rear, rust was already starting to develop (6 year old car).

The seats had issues and he had a cushion there on each to make up for lack of comfort.

I brought it up one day....shouldn't you just dispose of it and give up on the $200 a month that you were spending on maintenance or repairs (on average)?  He liked that idea, but didn't have the cash to afford anything that was better.

I kinda look at theses riots, the Antifa folks, and the looting, and see them as a 1974 Ford Pinto....loser mentality and nothing to attract me to their cause.  The problem for them......probably 75-percent of the general public think the same thing.  They aren't attracting folks....they are repelling them.

The folks sticking to the Antifa/Pinto deal?  They just don't see an alternate situation.

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