Car scandals of the past - Ford Pinto
09/29/2015
There is currently talk of "Diesel-Gate", but there have been scandalous incidents in the car industry before.
In 1970, Ford presented the Pinto model as an alternative to the Chevrolet Vega or AMC Gremlin, but mainly against the successful imported cars from Volkswagen (Beetle) and Japan. The Pinto was a hatchback coupé with a four-cylinder engine at the front and rear-wheel drive. Over three million units of the Pinto were sold between 1971 and 1980.
But there was a problem! The fuel tank was located between the rear bumper and the rear axle (as was not uncommon at the time). However, the tank nozzle was positioned in such a way that it broke off in the event of a rear-end collision and fuel leaked out immediately. The tank was also poorly protected towards the differential at the front. The result was 60 people killed and 120 seriously injured in the flames.
Ford had obviously been aware of the design flaws early on, but had not rectified the weak point for cost reasons, as it was assumed that lawsuits would be cheaper than corrective measures. When the whole mess became known, it triggered major discussions on the subject of corporate ethics.
It was not until 1978 that Ford launched a recall campaign to rectify the defects.
However, there were also subsequent investigations which showed that the Pinto was no more flammable than other cars of the time, just that it was more noticeable with over three million units produced ...
