<VV> Pinto fires, no Corvair

[Sethracer at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/5/2009 7:19:28 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
lechevrier at earthlink.net writes:

May you  never see a fatal vehicle fire,

Bill Strickland


I hope I never do. The problem that the Pinto faced was not a  terrible 
propensity for fire, even though it might have been better designed  where the 
rear axle is placed. The problem was the senior design engineer for  Ford, 
who admitted in court, that the company had done a risk benefit/cost  
comparison, where they compared the cost of redesign and retrofit vs. the cost  of 
the payments that would have to be made to the families of the number of  
people who would be burned to death in the Pinto accidents. X million $ vs.  X 
million. It was cheaper to let the people burn. The worst Public Relations. 
 Those are headlines that people remember about the Pinto. "Pinto and fire  
deaths" are what many people associate.  The film "Top Secret" uses the  
Pinto=fire as a great gag. I could just imagine Ford engineers cringing at  
that scene in the film. It had to hurt.
 
Seth  Emerson

C's the Day! - Corvair, Camaro,  Corvette