AMC Gremlin vs. Ford Pinto: Who Ya Got?

[Rhiannon12866]

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day, compact hatchbacks? You were the hottest thing around until everyone got extremely parched and sunburnt and decided they were done with this shit and couldn’t wait for fall. It’s time to revive the good souls of the AMC Gremlin and the Ford Pinto and let you all decide who shall reign supreme.

Today, we’re kicking things off with two of my most favored hatchback tragedies in car history, the much maligned AMC Gremlin and Ford Pinto. Both experienced a charming rise in popularity, only to fall from grace in some particularly spectacular fashions.

In The Red Corner: AMC Gremlin

The Gremlin was introduced to the world on April 1, 1970 and saw a formidable amount of popularity before it became the butt of everyone’s favorite car-related jokes. Here was the progenitor of the compact hatchback craze—both the Pinto and the Vega were yet to be released. People wanted small, economical cars. AMC was here to deliver.

AMC kinda... tossed the Gremlin together. It were originally just going to re-release an updated version of the Hornet before realizing that people actually dig things that are totally, all-around new. So, AMC chopped down the Hornet down to a more compact size and reworked it into a suave new wedge shape.

<snip>

In The Blue Corner: Ford Pinto

Now entering the ring on September 11, 1970: the Ford Pinto! Lee Iacocca wanted a car that could compete with all those damn economy cars rolling in from Japan and Germany, and he wanted it to cost under $2,000. And what Lee Iacocca wants, Lee Iacocca gets.

While the Pinto wasn’t the product of a chopping down of any of Ford’s other vehicles, it did fall victim to an expedited development cycle—what was typically 43 months was supposed to be completed in a mere 25 in order to have the car in showrooms by 1971, Hemmings reports. Not ideal!

More: https://jalopnik.com/amc-gremlin-vs-ford-pinto-who-ya-got-1835704813

[comradebillyboy]

1. The Ford Pinto the Molotov cocktail of cars.

[Auggie]

8. +1 ... and why I'd take the Gremlin. But this is what I drove:

A great car. On the wish list was a 2.0 L engine and 14" wheels. Though the stock version was still very fun to drive.

[Mopar151]

46. Not a bit worse than others of it's era.

I was a GM dealer mechanic then - Chevettes had a major recall with gas tank safety, dreadful brakes & front end. Early production Citations had 14 different "campaigns".
Also did some of the Monza/Vega recalls - like the motor mount which sagged enuff to bind up the steering, and installing upgraded front wheel bearings in the V-8 powered cars.

Ford screwed up badly, in several recalls in that era. And the Mustang II.....

[Auggie]

52. Chevettes?

Last edited Fri Jul 26, 2019, 08:27 PM - Edit history (1)

I remember when the Chevette was introduced. My dad worked for a division of GM, and he told me the company's internal memo said Chevette engineering had been a top priority -- GM needed a product to compete with imports and the Chevette was their answer. Good grief -- are you telling us GM couldn't get it right even when they tried?

We seriously looked at it as a second car, but settled on a 77 Buick Regal instead. 350 V8 -- a work horse. I drove it across country a few years later.

[Mopar151]

58. A piss-poor try at that

Trans and rear crude, fragile, appear to be Opel leftovers. I did alignments, and DESPISED Chevettes Very limited adkustments, lawnmower - quality control arms, rear brakes.

[yellowcanine]

60. I had a 76 Chevette. Automatic. What a piece of crap.

Put 4 timing belts on it in about 90 thousand miles. Had to replace both front brake calipers because the bleed screws rusted fast and twisted off. Lots of other stupid shit which never happened on any other car I owned.

[TexasTowelie]

2. We did have one Gremlin in our family,

but my father was a Ford Falcon man. We had three 1965 Ford Falcons during my early teenage years.

The first vehicle I drove was a 1966 Chevy II with the under-the-dash air conditioner. It was also the oldest car on campus when I was a college student and I was only one year older than my car.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. My Dad was not a car guy, he'd have a company car and would eventually buy it

But when my mother got her first new car, she wanted a Pinto - my Dad said no, because it was "too small." So she eventually got a 1971 Plymouth Duster. And I inherited it 10 years later when she got her second new car (Pontiac Sunbird) and I got my license and she no longer had to drive me to work. I loved that car and was grateful that my Dad talked her out of the Pinto.

[Bob Loblaw]

17. We had a '66 Falcon in my youth with "three on the tree".

The name was a great disservice to the bird, for which I did not regain respect until I was in my 30's. My older brother had a '72 Pinto and has a lot of stories about what it took to keep that heap running. He married a woman with a Vega, they've made better car buying decisions since then. Upon retirement of the Falcon, the family "upgraded" to a '72 lemon yellow Maverick, the first car I ever drove (at 14 and unlicensed). The color could not have been more appropriate.

[TexasTowelie]

20. Of the three Ford Falcons in the family,

two were 1965 while the other was a 1966 model. All of the models were "three on the tree." When they were getting older my father would cannabilize the worst one for parts. Those Falcons were pretty easy to maintain for someone with modest mechanical abilities.

[Bob Loblaw]

23. Yeah, I remember "helping" dad

change the oil, plugs, points and timing, there was a lot of room to work under that hood. I enjoyed spending the time with my dad, and it wasn't uncommon for the test drive afterwards to end up at an ice cream parlor with the instructions not to tell mom or the siblings.

[mr_lebowski]

4. One of my dads friends still had a 70's AMC Pacer in the mid 80's and I'll tell ya

Despite being one of THE UGLIEST vehicles ever made, that was a SURPRISINGLY comfy and roomy vehicle ... at least, compared to how it looked from the outside. I'd been in some Caddies that felt smaller.

In college in the late 80's one of my neighbors in student housing had a tricked out old Pinto, with a beefy V8 in it ... it was lowered with stiff shocks and sway bars and I'm here to tell ya ... that thing HAULED ASS, and cornered like a MOFO. I can't tell ya how many times I thought I was gonna die in that thing, but dude knew how to drive it (and how to scare the shit outta me). I thought it was a joke at first but I came to respect that vehicle.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. I certainly remember the Pacer!

I used to pick out what car I'd like when I learned to drive, LOL, and I really liked Pacers! I thought they looked pretty cool - and, yes, comfortable! And when I was first working, a woman I worked with bought a used Pacer for her daughter - she brought it to work and let me drive it - I was thrilled!

And I said upthread that when my mother got her very first new car, she wanted a Pinto. But my Dad said no on the Pinto because he thought it was "too small." So she eventually got a 1971 Plymouth Duster - which I was lucky enough to inherit when I finally got my license 10 years later. I loved that car - and was grateful she didn't get the Pinto!

[AllaN01Bear]

24. i was just thinking of the pacer .

[Danascot]

42. I had a girlfriend who had a Pacer

It rattled so badly I was convinced that if I looked behind us I'd see parts strew all over the road. But my favorite feature was that if you opened the glove compartment it would dump the entire contents on your feet.

[True Dough]

6. Aesthetically, neither is pleasing to the eye

Some might even say they're butt-ugly. But if one just applies the right color scheme, the most undesirable automobile is more becoming...

[WePurrsevere]

7. I've owned 2 (used) Gremlins & 2 (used) Pinto Wagons...

I absolutely loved both cars, put a lot of miles on and beat them both, but 'young love' sentiment leans me heavily towards the AMC Gremlin.

[NeoGreen]

9. No love for the Chevy Vega? (nt)

[ChazInAz]

11. I owned one

The body was in a race with the engine, to see if it could rust out before the aluminum engine block cracked.
They tied.
Got $75 for it at the scrap yard.

[NeoGreen]

12. Sounds like you had a pretty special and intimate relationship with this...

...vega and that losing it was almost comparable to losing a loved one.

[Rhiannon12866]

32. I sure remember Vegas, they were a very popular car!

My friend had one and I went lots of places with her, I didn't drive yet. Hers was yellow with stuffed animals in the back window. I think the point of this article was a vote on which turned out to be the worse car, the Gremlin or the Pinto - Vegas were around for awhile.

[Mopar151]

47. Very little...

Nor its misbegotten sibling, the Monza. Wretched 4 cylinder engines, or "Buick" V-6's that were junk in '`64.

[Tikki]

10. Gremlin...both were planned obsolete the day they left the lot...

But the Gremlin was awesome looking.

Tikki

[mgardener]

13. My husband had a Pinto

I had a Vega
They were cheap cars for those just buying their first car.
We bought American till about 2000, have been buying Toyota or Subaru ever since.

[rocktivity]

14. "Do you know what kind of women you get in heaven by driving a Ford Pinto?"

"The kind of women you get on earth by driving a Ford Pinto!"

-- Sam Kinison/Married With Children

rocktivity

[MrScorpio]

15. I had a Gremlin

I loved it

[Rhiannon12866]

34. That's the one I voted for on this article

I don't understand the dislike for AMC cars - I thought the Pacer was pretty cool back in the day. And a woman I worked for bought a used one for her daughter - and when I told her that I'd always liked them, she brought it to work and let me drive it - and I was thrilled!

[murielm99]

16. I had a Pinto.

There was always something wrong with it.

[machoneman]

18. Vegas! Let me tell you.....

that in the day at Brigance Chevrolet in Oak Park, IL I ran across in the back of the maintenance shop blown-up Vega engines by the score! Chuck White, the parts man and the best in the business told me that dozens and dozens of Vegas came in with head gasket failures due to the rapid heat expansion/contraction of the head and block in regular use. Some cars had come in for even, get this, a 2nd engine months later! Chevy corporate paid for tons of new replacement engines, all under factory warranty, and paid the dealers a flat rate for the swaps. White said the mechanics got so good at it that they even beat the allocated # of hours the factory allowed, meaning the dealer did make a few $. We counted over 30 engines laid over on wooden pallets awaiting truck shipping back to some place near Detroit.

Ultimately, GM told the dealers in secret to offer buybacks and real steals on other Chevy cars to get the Vegas off the street.

I swear! Read this and see the truth! Hah!

https://www.autonews.com/article/20111031/CHEVY100/310319922/the-vega-an-unmitigated-disaster

[Ohiogal]

19. Guess where Vegas were built....

Lordstown, Ohio!

[JohnnyRingo]

22. You tell 'em OG.

Early '70s Camaros and Firebirds too.

I have a number of friends and relatives who spent their lives there. I almost took a job right out of high school there in '72, but I went with Packard Electric instead. Back then I started at $6.50 Union Greenbacks per hour. People always remark how that was a lot of money in those days, to which I reply that the problem is, people still think it is today.

[EarnestPutz]

25. I replaced a head gasket on a ten month old Vega and the front fender I was bending.....

....over had rusted through completely. You could look through the hole at the front tire. Lordstown was dipping the bodies in primer and air bubbles were forming under each front fender.

[Auggie]

53. Wow -- that was one big lemon.

[JohnnyRingo]

21. I love Jalopnik.

This is a new feature (hopefully daily). My favorite entry is Rob Emslie "Nice Price Or Crack Pipe" where we vote thumbs up or down on an used car sale. He's on vacay this week though. BTW, I went with the Gremlin for pure camp value. No one swivels their head for a passing Pinto.

I visit the site daily and Torchinsky is my favorite writer over there

Thanx for posting!

[Rhiannon12866]

33. Thanks! I thought this was a pretty clever article

And was bound to bring back memories for a lot of us - I also liked that they included the promotional videos. I still remember that my mother wanted a Pinto, but my Dad (who was not a car guy) was against it, said it was "too small." She ended up getting a 1971 Plymouth Duster - which I was lucky enough to inherit 10 years later, when I could drive.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. Pintos had an unfortunate tendency to blow up.

[cos dem]

51. Only when you tap the rear bumper.

[customerserviceguy]

27. I had a 1976 Gremlin

First two years, worked fine, the next two more than made up for that in problems.

At least it didn't blow up when I was driving it.

[EarnestPutz]

28. Pinto had two engine options - a 1600 cc engine based on a British design and....

....2000 cc that was called the “Cologne” engine based on Ford of Germany design. Both were by today’s standards pretty bad. Gremlin had two inline sixes that were much better and were the forebears of AMC/Jeeps 4.0 liter workhorse engine.

[Mopar151]

48. Pretty bad?

How? The "Kent" and "Cologne" engines are both cornerstones of international racing series like F/F, F/C, and S2000. The later 2.3 "Lima". engines had some issues, but still better than many!

[EarnestPutz]

49. As much as I hate to admit it to a "Mopar" guy, you are right. In my own defense....

....I did say "by today's standards", but both engines were good designs. The two liter, OHC engine was one of the first (the first?) to have a belt driven overhead camshaft.

[Mopar151]

50. Also the basic block of two Pedigreed Cosworths, and the "Lotus" twincam

The Cosworth BDA is based on the Kent Engine, as is the "Lotus" Twincam, clonefather to the Miata engine.

The Cosworth YBM is fierce indeed - ~300 hp, NA, and all your wallet will stand Turbo'D, in it's Sierra rally car iteration.

[NBachers]

29. I had a Bobcat (a Mercury Pinto) and a Pinto; both were great cars that I liked a lot.

[ThoughtCriminal]

30. We had a green 1970 Gremlin

We had one of the first. For the first few months, it would actually attract small crowds when we pulled into a gas station. Somehow, we managed to keep it running for 12 years and despite its 2nd residence in repair shops, it rolled past the 100,000 mile mark - something the 5-digit odometer did not anticipate.

The 2nd worst car I have ever had was vastly superior. Badly engineered and constructed in every way possible.

[The Figment]

31. Hey just a minute there...

Gremlins are junk,period.

Now about that Pinto....

Easy fix for those 2000cc engines...a 302 or 351 Cleveland.

Did ya'll know that the 84-89 Thunderbird Turbo was powered by a 2.2 liter Pinto engine that had a beefed up bottom end ( stronger crankshaft and connecting rods, bigger and better rod and main bearings, dished aluminum pistons) a better breathing cylinder head with bigger valves, fuel injection, electronic ignition, and bigger exhaust system PLUS a turbocharger...put one of these in a Pinto, add some handling tweaks, better tires and wadda have?

A downright nice little Sleeper of a Good handling street car!

[kimbutgar]

35. My friend had a green 1974 Gremlin

I remember driving around in it. Had a lot of fun times and remember it being the butt if jokes. But she had that car for over 10 years.

[WinstonSmith4740]

36. Gotta go with the Pinto.

It was the first car I bought as a "grown-up", bought and paid for with my very own earnings, and it served me very well. I guess I'm just lucky that no one ever rear-ended me.

[trusty elf]

37. Vauxhall Brexit

[Rhiannon12866]

39. That does look like it really is "unsafe at any speed!"

[cos dem]

54. Neither of them hold a candle in the ugliness department compared to this bug-eyed monstrosity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_Multipla#/media/File:Fiat_Multipla_front_20080825.jpg]

(sorry, you'd think I would know how to embed an image, but it's not obvious).

The Multipla, on the other hand, did not tend to explode in a rear-end collision, so it does have that going for it over the Pinto.

[keithbvadu2]

40. That just don't look kosher.

[mountain grammy]

38. Wish I had my mom's 62 Corvair

Unsafe at any speed but I learned to drive in that car and loved it. Learned to drive a stick in my boyfriend’s Karmann Ghia, another great car.

Enjoyed your post and this thread. Memories.

[Hoyt]

59. Learned to drive in a Corvair also. Perfect size and cool car.

It was plagued by burnt oil fumes flowing into cabin, though.

[keithbvadu2]

41. '60 Falcon, six cylinder, automatic. 60mph (downhill)

'60 Falcon, six cylinder, automatic. 60mph max (downhill)

Both ball joints broke on a front tire going around an easy corner about 15 mph.

[bluecollar2]

43. I'll go with the pinto

I was able to get a speeding ticket in one.

[Captain Zero]

44. I had two Ford Pintos

I'm still alive. A 73 Pinto station wagon that I bought used in 1976, and later I bought a 78 Pinto hatchback brand new in January of 1979. Four on the floor with the hatchback. $3700 brand new. I was making $14/hr. at the time. Which is why I say, when places advertise jobs for 13/14 an hour, that it is a decent wage for 1979. Lots of regular people made 14/hr in 1979 !

[pecosbob]

45. Say what you will about the Gremlin, the Vega and the Pinto

The very same Pinto engine, the 'Lima' 2.0L and 2.3L has been powering Ford Ranger pickups I've been driving for a generation.

American Motors...they were nerd cool...the Rebel, the Marlin, the AMX, and the ugly step-children the Gremlin, the Pacer and the Hornet, but that marque's mouldering in the graveyard for forty years. My dad had a Javelin for a while, but he also had a Mustang and a Sunbeam Tiger for a while when I was a kid.

My first car was a used 1969 Plymouth GTX in Bronze Fire w/ black vinyl roof with a 440 Commando and a Carter four-barrel. The weekend I got that car I went over a hundred and fifty miles an hour for the first time. The speedo went to one-eighty. Waaaay too much car for a fifteen year old kid. Now Plymouth has taken the big dirt nap as well. I still remember my Mom's Belvedere Station Wagon with the push-button transmission well...

I always kind of wanted one of those Pinto wagons with the port-hole windows on the rear sides and some surfbords on top...

[GP6971]

55. Bought a new 1974 Pinto Wagon.

Good for the first 2 years than problems. Traded it in for a new Buick Skylark and the trade in value was almost nil.

[yonder]

56. Gremlins were very, very heavy for their size. Don't know why.

I drove a Pinto around for work. It was small, easy to park and somewhat sporty. The big think is I didn't have to worry about maintenance.

[Mopar151]

62. Under the funky style

The Gremlin was a '63 Rambler!

Vacuum wipers, keyed axles, wretched front end, drum brakes. A 401 cop car engine bolts right in!

[gibraltar72]

57. Although a hot rodder and and drag racer

I had 3 new Pintos back in the day. They were all great little cars. If you remembered what they were intended to do.

[Eugene]

61. My father had a Mercury Bobcat (a Pinto with a fancy grille).

He had a long list of Ford and Mercury cars.

[SunshineState70]

63. Pinto

My Late MOM had one for a while. I like the Car.

[stuntgirl56]

64. where's the rest of your car toots..

I would prefer to put the Gremlin in the blue corner because the red corner indicates money and those other guys. The blue corner represents 'the people'. I had a '73 Gremlin named Gretta. 6cyl, 3 speed. I parted it out while I drove it and it could go through creeks, into ditches, up mountains, down mountains, (at a very high speed) and never let me down. 258 six with 7 main bearings I think. The same engine design used in the Jeep 4.0 and today in other countries. You usually could not blow it up, just stop it from rotating with no oil. I had a rather large car collection at the time, nearly 150 cars, but I drove 'Gretta' because you could park anywhere and no one wanted to park next to you. My nice cars always needed to be parked a mile from the store and some nin-com-poop with an old subaru would always park over the line next to me...primeapes, like the late Burgess Meredith said in "Grumpy Old Men", "can't kill'em". The most fun was the SC/Rambler...like driving a drug. saw a cheap econo-drag altered. Maybe I could take it to Woodburn? Well, it is 8pm here at the beach in Oregon, time to get the turkey out of the oven... The Gremlin was in a different class than the Pinto. You should use the AMC Spirit to compare but different decade, keep the dirty side down,stuntgirl56