We had a Pinto. And the fact that they didn’t charge us to fix THEIR design problem (remember the true problem was the bolt near the tank, not technically the tank itself) does not impress me in the least. They never had the cajones to say “yes, we made bad decisions and a bad car”, it was all “it’s not that bad, it’s not that dangerous”, downplay downplay downplay.
Putting your logo on a car is easy, it’s putting your logo on a mistake that’s hard, and shows real corporate character. Toyota apparently has it, Ford has never stepped up to that plate.
Funny thing about the whole Pinto gas tank story.
I was reading one of the Houston newspapers several years after that happened, and there on page 28D or whatever was this little 2” long story that said that after the NTHSA studied the problem.
They found that the Toyotas, Mazdas, and Datsuns of the day were actually MORE prone to a fire as a result of a rear end collision than the Pinto.
But we have to hatchet the American businesses, in order to not tarnish the Japanese quality myth.