Posted on 01/22/2022 4:47:04 PM PST by Brookhaven
Ford Motor Company once manufactured a car called the Ford Pinto. It entered the U.S. market in 1970.
Its’ mission for Ford? Stem the flow of car sales to Japanese companies such as Honda, Toyota and Nissan (then called Datsun).
Yes – it was a time of rising car imports in America and Detroit was feeling the pressure.
In response to this invasion of Japanese vehicles, Lee Iacocca, then a rising star at Ford, demanded that his team come up with a new small car that could compete. The Pinto was born with instructions from Iacocca that it be limited to 2,000 pounds in weight and be manufactured and sold for no more than $2,000 per car.
And it was a hit when first released.
Sadly – it also quickly became infamous.
It burst into flames if struck from behind by another vehicle.
Thankfully, those injured by Ford’s negligent car design had access to the courts and an opportunity to recover for their often frightful losses.
Why the word negligent above?
It turns out that Ford field-tested the Pinto before releasing it to U.S. markets.
And guess what – each time the car was rear-ended at speeds over 25 miles-per-hour in these field tests, the gas tank ruptured, causing a fire.
Ford engineers actually explored numerous, simple, and inexpensive solutions to the fuel tank problem – solutions that cost as little as $1. Remarkably – none of these protective options were added to the car.
Why?
Two factors were at work.
The first – according to the staff at Ford, the term safety was “taboo” with Iacocca.
The second – and more chilling reason? Ford’s accounting team calculated that it would be cheaper to settle lawsuits with the public than repair the problem.
And remember – we’re talking about a very inexpensive problem to fix.
The result?
As many as 900 innocent people died in catastrophic car accidents involving Pinto cars.
And yes – Ford paid out millions in damages to innocent people harmed by their product. They also spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress to defeat new car safety measures being advanced at the time.
Yup – that’s not a typo. Ford spent millions to lobby against car safety.
Finally, in 1978 – eight years after the Pinto first went on sale – and following a damning National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report, Ford was forced to recall 1.5 million Pintos to correct the problem.
Yes – burning Pintos had finally become a public embarrassment for Ford.
Ironically, for a long time, Ford had aired radio spots that included the line: “Pinto leaves you with that warm feeling.” After all the lawsuits and the findings of the Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Ford’s advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson, was forced to drop that line.
The moral of this story?
Corporations all too often put profit far ahead of consumer safety. The public’s greatest defense is access to the courts and tort laws – laws that protect people from the bad acts of others.
• Lee Iacocca, who made the decision to let people die rather than implement a fix that would have cost as little as $1, never paid a penalty for his actions. He went on to become the chairman of Chrysler, a business celebrity in the 1980s, and publish multiple bestselling books.
If you ever wonder if corporations will kill you for money, this man did it--and even got away with it. The elite protect their own.
And if they put governors on every car limiting top speed to 55mph they would save even more lives.
btt
So the jab is Pinto 2.0.
Not the same comparison
Rename the Mach-E EV the E-Pinto once one's battery burst into flames.
Just imagine what the Pinto would have been like had Ford been exempt from all liabilities.
What did we learn? We learned that many MBA types will run over the rainbow to get to the pot of gold, meaning they will destroy a company for a short term profit.
Thanks for completing the thread.
I think the car industry is one of those industries where absolutely ruthless men get ahead and nice guys get shown the door. Iacocca was a product of his time and perfectly suited to the environment. Great smile but keep a watch on both hands and don’t let him get behind you.
Old IT Joke:
What do you get if you cross Lee Iacocca with a Vampire?
autoexec.bat
There is nearly as much hate in this article as at a BLM riot.
Iacocca was no saint, but he was not the bloodthirsty demon portrayed herein either. It was the board, not one man, that made the poor decision on the spring bolt/fuel tank issue.
The starting post in this thread would be right at home on Democratic Underground.
There's a simpler fix that would save even more lives, and actually improve fuel economy - Eliminate night lighting. 80-90 percent of all fatalities happen at night.
Unless, of course, injured or killed by a vaxxine which Congress has thoughtfully immunized against liability even as the vaxx destroys the immune systems of those who have been vaxxed.
“Ford’s accounting team calculated that it would be cheaper to settle lawsuits with the public than repair the problem.”
They aren’t the only company to do that.
Yeah, like instead of Ford it was Facebook and instead of interfering is car safety it was interference in a presidential election...
Lost in that calculation is how many people would die if they failed to make the fix.
GMTA.
I saw the title, and ONLY entered the thread to post that GIF.
Simple amazing moments in cinema history.
Still one of my favorite all-time movies.
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