Ford Pinto
Offered with an inline-4 engine and bucket seats the Pinto's mechanical design was conventional, with unibody construction, a longitudinally mounted engine in front driving the rear wheels through either a manual or automatic transmission and live axle rear end. Suspension was by unequal-length control arms with front coil springs; the live rear axle was suspended on leaf springs. The rack and pinion steering had optional power assist, as did the brakes.
Ford Cortina
Ford Australia built its own version, known as the TE, with the 2.0-litre 4-cylinder Pinto unit and the Ford Falcon's 3.3-litre and 4.1-litre 6-cylinder unit. The six-cylinder versions were rather nose heavy and did not handle as well as the fours or the European V6 models. Interior door hardware and steering columns were shared with the Falcons and the Australian versions also had their own instrument clusters, optional air conditioning, and much larger bumpers. It also had side indicators. The Cortina wagon was assembled by Renault Australia at its plant in Heidelberg in Victoria.