With news that Ford is recalling 465,000 cars because of fuel leaks, it made us think about the always exciting Ford Pinto crash test video from the 70’s. It’s awesome because the poor little Pinto gets plowed and then catches on fire, but there is certainly more going here. Is it a coincidence that the car that they used for testing with the 1972 Pinto was a 1971 Impala? Did the Chevy guys grease the skids for that one? Think about it. Just for a second. While the Pinto was front and center for being a huge safety hazard that Ford had covered up, the video proof included a Chevy Impala giving it to the Pinto in the “posterior”. What marketing greatness.
Watch the video below. It’s awesome.
As a former owner of a free “Government Motors” Vega, I note that most of them didn’t run long enough to put anyone in danger (except perhaps of contracting tetanus from the instantly rusting body)
On the other hand, the first time I ever drove a Pinto, I got busted for speeding. ~ 80 in a 55) The ever-smoking Vega would have needed to be towed by that ’71 Impala to hit that speed.
Pinto power, of course, went on to dominate mini-stock racing.
And with only 27 reported fires out of 3,173,491 Pintos built . . . and with the “smoking gun” memo in the Grimshaw versus Ford case being reportedly being one Ford submitted to the NHTSA for an exemption, it was hardly a “cover-up.” The inaccurate sensationalism of BS’s story isn’t flattering or responsible.
According Gary T. Schwartz, in “The Myth of the Ford Pinto Case,” published in the Rutgers Law Review in 1991, the fire risk in the Pinto was not substantially worse than typical for the time (remember all those rear-mounted GM gas tanks).
side saddle GM pick up tanks for $2000 Alex….
Well said, especially for so early in the morning. I actually liked the Pinto, had one for many years. My brother’s Vega was indeed a rusted out (and oil-fog producing) POS long before I got rid of the Pinto. I bought a Toyopta and he got a Chevette. Some people never learn.
Also back then nearly everyone put the gas tank behind the rear axle, making nearly all cars a potential fire bomb when you smash into the back of a sitting vehicle at 55 mph. Oh and I think Ford won that case if I remember correctly.
Not really.
Ford lost the Grimshaw case at trial (although some expertrs say they shouldn’t have) and an inflamed California “O.J. jury” awarded punitive damages of 125 million dollars!
The judge reduced that shocking, ridiculous, and unjustified “ambulance chaser/pirate lawyer’s” windfall award to 3.5 million dollars, which was subsequently upheld on appeal.
Of course, the bad publicity probably cost Ford a lot more than 125 million, but the reduction in damages was sort of a “win.”
Ford also had to pay out over 3 million in compensatory damages to a surviving boy who was burned (Grimshaw) and the family of the Pinto’s deceased driver (Mrs. Gray).
The “Pinto Case” has typically been one of the “products liability” decisions that law students have to read and debate in law school. These cases ought to scare the crap out of anyone who makes products for use on automobiles (or any consumer product for that matter).
Ford did win criminal case on the Pinto when an Indiana grand jury indicted Ford in 1978 on charges of reckless homicide, which was the first reported indictment of a corporation on a products liability theory. After a 10-week trial in 1980, Ford was acquitted.
I’ve always speculated that the embarrassment of Ford’s historic indictment was one of the reasons that D-bag Iacocca got canned, considering that the Pinto was his baby . . . .
(And not a moment too soon in IMO, considering how many notorious mistakes that goof championed in the ’70s . . . including the titanic one in November 1970 that gutted Ford’s American racing and “Muscle Parts” programs for more than a decade — an absolutely asinine decision that continues to damage FoMoCo to this very day . . .
Thank God that Walter Hayes, CBE, kept things alive in Europe so that there was a little something to build on top the rubble after Ford came out of its anti-performance “IACcoma” in the early ’80s)
And Iacocca went on to almost ruin Chrysler.
Off topic,
How about those plaid pants that the technician is wearing.
I would kill for a pair of those today!
I think the Impala had an improperly shielded battery thereby igniting the fuel and causing the fire. 😉
I would also like to bring up the fact that Toyota is recalling 242.000 cars for defective brakes and Cryslers refusal to recall 2.7 million jeeps for potential fuel tank fires.
Hey is this where Barret Jackson got there idea for the chassis cam?
How much more staged can it be? Even had the fire department their to put out the fire after they triggered the explosion.
Had a 73 Plymouth that caught fire after a tractor trailer rig plowed into the back of it at about 80 miles per hour. Thank God no one was in the car at the time.
And yet we have Jeep cooking their customers right now
Tetanus hurts, but being burned to death is worse (Vega v. Pinto)…. however, that’s just my opinion
How come we haven’t brought up the 28psi Exploder tires? Roll Baby Roll!
I sold our Explorer beacause I felt the market was going to fall out of the bottom on those things,it had some 90k miles on it and ran like a top. I was wroung.
I lived the crap tire problem on it though. At about 25k miles it started to pull to the left,I took it to the Auto Hobby Shop (Air Force thing) to check the front end aliagnment. As I was setting up the machine I noticed a section on the innner 25% of the tire,about 3 thread widths wide,was bald,but only about 1/3 the way around,yes thread seperation. I check the other tires and they all had the same “wear” pattern. Being I READ the warrenty paperwork that came with my car I knew I had to go to Firestone for the whats up. No help. Tires in the can new Michlins go on with no problems,about 5 years later the “votchers” came out but without the old tires I was SOL.
Now as for “Fords” 28psi tire pressure being the problem. Not on my car ,the TP was properly set to 5psi under max like all my cars are ,the day after I brought the car home .
This was ALL on Firestone,the tires were crap.