![]() It was certainly small and maneuverable, with its 84.2-inch wheelbase and 169.0″ overall length. When I think about the Pinto Runabout as a roadgoing, little boat, it suddenly seems very cute in a way that I had never thought of it before. Example: “What did you do this weekend?” “I was just out and about.” The third Pinto, of course, was the two-door sedan with a trunk and basically the exact same exterior styling and dimensions as the hatchback. The “-about” suffix on both names seemed to connote something in action, and nothing more. ![]() I had always lumped “Runabout” and “Sportabout” into the same category, the latter being AMC’s appellation for the attractive, sporty, wagon version of their compact Hornet. It just had never dawned on me before that this might be the case. The Pinto wasn’t exported in any significant numbers that I could determine, so I’m going with those in charge of naming the hatchback the “Runabout” having thought of being on the water. English seem to be nautical, with the automotive definition being used principally in England. Getting back to my discovery, it has been only within the past several years or so that it has occurred to me that the “Runabout” model could have been so-named after a little boat! To be fair, Merriam-Webster also defines a runabout as a small, open car (there was no Pinto convertible), but most connotations of this word in U.S. One could say they jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire, but the last time the Citation came up in conversation between my uncle and me, he still maintains that besides the Citation’s rust-prone nature, both it and the Pinto were pretty good small cars for the day. My aunt and uncle eventually got rid of the Pinto for a Chevy Citation. All this is to say that I was familiar enough with the Ford Pinto, including their reputation for being prone to deadly fires following rear-end collisions, as discussed by the adults around the dinner table. My aunt and my mom looked so much alike at one point that my cousin and I still laugh about how each of us had mistakenly gone up to the wrong “mom” more than once to ask for something, and then were scared for a second when the wrong lady turned around. I liked my aunt and uncle a lot and came to associate Pintos with them, especially the wagons. ![]() ![]() Even in my own extended family, my aunt and uncle had a Pinto Squire wagon in what I remember to be a light green color. I was born somewhere in the middle of the Ford Pinto’s decade-long run, and was accustomed to seeing plenty of them around on the street as used cars in the 1980s. Every once in a while, I will have an “a-ha” moment prompted by absolutely nothing, or so it seems. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |