Pinto's that got 34 mpg highway in 1975
 

Those were tough little cars. One of my friends had a 75 pinto in the late 70's.I wasn't crazy about going over 100mph in it,as we frequently did. I preferred by 71 Cougar for that sort of thing.
I'm not sure it ever got 34mpg. I think car companies had more flexibility to make claims than now.On the other hand, in more sensible hands ( not teenagers) and less traffic to deal with then,it's possible.

Would you drive one?
https://www.motherjones.com/news/feat.../09/dowie.html
https://www.motherjones.com/news/feat...9/compress.mov
And this is also the old EPA test so reality is more like 28 or 29 highway. Big deal.

Death trap.

Sure I would; once the recall repair steel plate blocking the gas tank was installed.I'm not so sure anything colliding with one these days would do as much damage. There were actual steel bumpers back then. Being hit by a larger vehicle is always a danger; SUV's can be crushed by 18 wheelers or dump trucks.If you want a danger proof car,just take the wheels off.

Most old cars with "steel bumpers" are death traps in comparison to a modern plastic bumpered small car.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=qBDyeWofcLY

The Pinto was worse than most.

Agreed. It took some time for me to come around, but I can't argue with hard science and hard data. Cars that absorb front/rear collisions and cars that don't crush in side collisions protect the occupants better.

Too bad all this safety weighs so much. My 1980 Buick LeSabre, which is more than twice as long as my 2008 VW Rabbit, has a curb weight of 3500 pounds, compared to the Rabbit's 3000 pounds.

Think about that: You can park two '08 Rabbits in the same space as one '80 LeSabre and they don't even have to touch bumpers, but the big car only weighs 17% more.

my 1980 chevette on average id say 30-35, ive gotten 40 before tho.

steel body and bumpered car that handles suprisingly well, traction is great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2NV1DfIme4

in a crash id still want to be in the 1980's boat.

all they did nowadays is increase the mass density of the cars, they weigh about the same but in a smaller package

They gad 1600 and 2000 engines. I think the 1600 was english ford-pushrods. pretty sure the 2 litre was a German Engine, same as the Mercury Capri buth the Capri was a German Body.

My 2 litre ran like a scalded ape and got maybe 30 if you babied it. They were part of a group of Ford cars that used the gas tank as the trunk floor, and got a lot of flack for that.

Later on they put a German 2.8 liter V6 in them which was partially for the increased weight of the bumpers and detuning for emissions. Gas mileage fell off, but I'll bet you could take a 1600 with the right gear and get 40.

regards
gary

Had a friend that bought a '74 Pinto wagon, new. When timing was adjusted per factory spec, it got about 9 mpg. When it was adjusted by ear, it jumped to about 18. That was, IIRC, with a 2 or 2.3 liter OHC 4 and an automatic.

On the other hand, it was an impressively tough car. Took about 8 years, a couple major accidents, and two owners who were nearly as good mechanics as my cat to kill it. Example: I borrowed it one day, noticed the oil gauge was sitting on zero. (It had an aftermarket oil gauge installed). Put in 3 quarts of oil then did my errands. Asked later, the owner had been driving the car with the gauge had been sitting on zero for days.

https://www.vw.com/rabbit/completespecs/en/us/#/show_all says that the VW is 101.5 inches, and I'd say that's about right. The tiny little hatchback is definitely not 165 inches (that's nearly fourteen feet!). Where did you get 165.8" for a Rabbit?

The 1980 LeSabre's manual says that my coupe's curb weight is 3503 pounds and length is 217.6". It also says the sedan weighs 3487, and the wagon weighs 4034. The Electra coupe weighs 3585, and the Electra sedan weighs 3609, but oddly the Electra wagon's weight is exactly the same as the LeSabre wagon.

Anyway, maybe we should share whatever either one of us is on, so we can better enjoy our experience. :cool:

(inhale) (puff) :-)
 

https://www.vw.com/rabbit/completespecs/en/us/#/show_all

(snip)
Dimensions
Wheelbase 101.5 in (2,578 mm)
Length 165.8 in (4,210 mm)

LOL, I gotta lay off the crack!

I stand corrected.

Well, I went out in my 11 foot bass boat on the nearby 41 acre freshwater lake and caught a 24 foot shark. I was fishing with 2 pound test line tied to the end of a 1/4" thick 20 foot long stick. Then I fermented it for a month and distilled the result into 10000 gallons of ethanol and got 60 mpg in my v8 full size pickup.

LOL, I'd like to blame the meds the doc gave me yesterday for my back injury but I doubt they affected my attention span that much. Chalk it up to me just failing to pay attention in a more normal way. I've never driven such a small car before and it feels to me like it's about 4 feet by 4 feet...

Okay, that fish story was bullcrap. I couldn't have gone out on my 11 foot bass boat, the boat is in dire need of repair!

I know, I was just taking an opportunity to laugh at myself. If I came across as being offended, well, I wasn't. :)

The 34 mpg highway isn't unreasonable considering the methods they used back then. For them, highway MPG was a matter of cruise at 50 for a half hour, and record how much gas was used. Basically as ideal of situations as you could hope for.

Take that same motor and give it EFI, and I was able to get 45MPG in that same sort of situation, which translated into a 30mpg tank.

It's the same motor I had in my T-Bird, and the same one I have in my Mustang. It's about as rock solid a motor as you could ever hope to own... When my t-bird finally died, I remember it drained a quart of oil in a half mile trip to the parts store to pick up more oil. Filled it with 5 quarts, and drove 40 miles to my parents place without a hitch. It was, of course, bone dry when I got there, but it didn't care.