Older guys will understand this pic!

All the claims about Pinto fires are exaggerated. 60 minutes faked the tests to make it look terrible, and people bought it. The history and explanations are out there if you search for them.

The fact is that gasoline is flammable, and any gas powered car is at risk of burning if in a bad enough accident. Smaller cars are a bigger risk simply due to the small amount of space available which puts all the innards closer to the outside and thus at higher risk of damage. Smaller, lighter cars are also at higher risk of substantial damage when hit by larger and heavier cars. It's simple physics.