Ford Pinto Essay
The Ford Pinto Case
In the early years of car making, America was one of the top car manufacturing countries. But in the late 1960’s the consumers preference started to shift, and that meant less American cars were being sold. Consumers were looking for a more compact car rather than the heavy and long cars that were being sold. Japanese car manufactures of Datsun and Toyoya had taken over the market with their small, cheap, and compact cars. The Ford motor company felt the Japanese punch and decided that it was time to give the consumers what they were looking for. Lee Iocacca set a challenging goal to his car designers for a 1971 model that would be less that $2,000 and also had to weigh less than 2000 lbs. Not only was that a challenge …show more content…
Common sense would tell you that this would be the only solution to this problem. This wasn’t the case when it came down to the numbers. When factoring what it would cost Ford to recall and repair the problem to all Pinto’s sold or released for sale, it was calculated that it would be about $113 million. Comparing the $113 million Ford would spend on fixing the problem there was also the number of how much it would cost if the problem was ignored and just released damage payouts. This number came out to be considerably less ($49 million according the Fords calculations) than fixing the problem. At the end Ford choose to ignore the problem and continue manufacturing the Pinto like if there was nothing wrong with it …show more content…
There would be a cost to everything. Emergency workers need make sure that the collision is under control and that the road is clear for the other drivers. While this is the taxpayers money being put to work, there is the traffic jam that can be caused to clear the collision site. People stuck in the traffic jam could be on their way to work or leaving work to pick up their kids. This can cause of lost wages or extra fees at a daycare for late pick-up. Living in Hawaii a small fender bender can back traffic up for hours. So an explosive collision from a Ford Pinot could ruin anyone’s
In the early years of car making, America was one of the top car manufacturing countries. But in the late 1960’s the consumers preference started to shift, and that meant less American cars were being sold. Consumers were looking for a more compact car rather than the heavy and long cars that were being sold. Japanese car manufactures of Datsun and Toyoya had taken over the market with their small, cheap, and compact cars. The Ford motor company felt the Japanese punch and decided that it was time to give the consumers what they were looking for. Lee Iocacca set a challenging goal to his car designers for a 1971 model that would be less that $2,000 and also had to weigh less than 2000 lbs. Not only was that a challenge …show more content…
Common sense would tell you that this would be the only solution to this problem. This wasn’t the case when it came down to the numbers. When factoring what it would cost Ford to recall and repair the problem to all Pinto’s sold or released for sale, it was calculated that it would be about $113 million. Comparing the $113 million Ford would spend on fixing the problem there was also the number of how much it would cost if the problem was ignored and just released damage payouts. This number came out to be considerably less ($49 million according the Fords calculations) than fixing the problem. At the end Ford choose to ignore the problem and continue manufacturing the Pinto like if there was nothing wrong with it …show more content…
There would be a cost to everything. Emergency workers need make sure that the collision is under control and that the road is clear for the other drivers. While this is the taxpayers money being put to work, there is the traffic jam that can be caused to clear the collision site. People stuck in the traffic jam could be on their way to work or leaving work to pick up their kids. This can cause of lost wages or extra fees at a daycare for late pick-up. Living in Hawaii a small fender bender can back traffic up for hours. So an explosive collision from a Ford Pinot could ruin anyone’s