TIL in 1978 Ford Motor Company had to recall 1.5 million Ford Pintos for fuel tank design defects which made the vehicles susceptible to explosive fire if the car was rear ended at more than 20 MPH.
Posted May 22, 2020, 4:07 PM UTC
167
My mother had one. She was so pissed when the news came out she inadvisedly put a big sign in the back window saying "PLEASE DON'T HIT ME! FORD MADE ME TO BURN AND EXPLODE AT 19MPH." The following day she got rear-ended by a streetcar.
3
my mom had a 79/80 that ultimately went over 300k miles before my uncle got bored with it in the early 90's.
she sold it to him after she 360'ed on some wet leaves in 80/81.
3
That’s what I call a crash and burn
2
when i was a kid my dad owned a ford pinto, when ever he would take us places,the kids (me included) would lay down in the hatch back section and look out the window to wave at cars behind us :) who knew we were one bumper away from burning to death :)
Ford knew
And they calculated it was cheaper to pay any claims then recall and fix the cars.
Yep. The human element in an equation for profit v death was a big topic in my engineering ethics class.