ford pinto question?

I had a 72 in the late 70's. It was a trunk model with auto. Fun little car.

 

Yeah I hear that all the time about them being the worst cars Ford ever made. Oh ok, we'll lets see that Camry or Altima in 37 years! I drove mine almost every day for 2 years after I bought it and never had a problem till the coil went out a little over a month ago. So I figured it was time to swap in the 2.3 Turbo engine! I was looking for an excuse lol.

 

I think that we can all agree that the Pinto got a bad rap. It was not the only car with problems at that time, it was just the first high profile one and made for a great joke I guess on late night tv. The Corvair had larger issues and it doesn't have the stygma that the Pinto ended up with. At least on the Pinto, Ford was able to rectify the problem and even had a recall to fix it.

 

Yeah, I'd say it does. They eventually fixed the handling problems with the Corvair, but it's a pretty well known fact that the early ones were killers. I'll bet they caused a lot more deaths than the Pinto ever did.

The reason everybody remembers the whole "fiery-death-in-a-Pinto" thing is less about what actually happened with the car and more about the infamous Pinto Memo wherein a cost/benefit analysis compared the cost to Ford of fixing the cars in a recall vs. just paying the lawsuits when people got burned. Nobody really knows whether that internal doc was ever under consideration by upper management, but the s#!t hit the fan once the press got it.

That was an example of something getting vastly blown out of proportion by the media. Yes, the scenario could and tragically did happen a few times, but it wasn't as widespread as people may think today. People burned to death in plenty of other cars too, but those cars didn't have a memo. It's a lot like Toyota's recent problems. Yes there probably were a handful of runaway cars, and of those there were possibly even a couple of instances where the driver couldn't have done anything about it. Doesn't matter how many untold millions of perfectly fine cars they made, or how many other cars' defects have cost more lives but haven't been noticed. The spotlight's on Toyota right now and they've been ripped a new one.

This kind of media frenzy backfired on them once, when GM had a design flaw in their fullsize trucks that probably should have been corrected, which even to this day causes horrible deaths. A great many otherwise survivable, relatively minor accidents with these trucks have resulted in a fiery inferno due to the placement of the fuel tanks outside the frame rails. The problem is some fools at NBC very obviously rigged one to explode in a staged crash test video. GM publically (and rightfully) tore them to shreds over it and so their credibility was destroyed, thus distracting the public from a real and legitimate problem with '73-'87 GM pickups. One more case where the media chose ratings over journalistic integrity, and this time it cost lives.

But back to the Corvair. The results of that car's defects being publicized changed history in a way that makes any Pinto story pale in comparison. It launched the career of a man who ruined every American car you ever cussed about from the mid-70's to today, who waged war on and brought about the death of our beloved muscle car, and who possibly saved the lives of everyone you know who's ever been in a serious car wreck. I am of course talking about Ralph Nader, who wrote a book called "Unsafe at Any Speed." It highlighted and singled out the Corvair, but it attacked the entire auto industry and people listened. It got Congress all lathered up and led to the formation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which makes the rules on everything from airbags to baby seats.

Worst of all... What I'm saying here, folks, is that the Corvair is responsible for the big bumpers on your Maverick.

 

Very well stated! I can attest to the safety issues of the early Corvairs as I was in one that went into a slide with the swing arm transaxle. Not a good thing. But like you said there were others that exhibited similar issues, not to mention the beloved early bug. Sure they could take a hit from the rear...the gas tank was in the front! But I'm babbling now. The Pinto was a fine car for it's time and don't let anyone tell you different! Raise your Ford flag high! (BTW Ford didn't take any bailout money!)

 

And that is one of a handful of reasons for my slow and grudging conversion into a "Ford guy" today. I have always liked a variety of cars including a few imports. As for American manufacturers I think they've all made some fine vehicles and they've all made some crap, but I've always had a special fondness for GM until the past few years.

Now I don't hate Chrysler or GM, but GM is sad shell of what it used to be and Chrysler is not even an American car company anymore. And I blame both of those things on the shoddy garbage both companies churned out in the 90's. Ford did it too, but Ford is still here and standing on its own feet because during the 90's and 00's they could still manage to give Americans what they needed: A full-size, RWD, proper body-on-frame workhorse cop car (while Chevy let the Caprice die and Chrysler lost all clue and tried to sell police Intrepids) Ford still had the Mustang and knew how to sell it while GM let the unions kill the F-body and Chrysler didn't even have a pony car. And Ford had a good solid truck for everybody in a country that loves trucks like no other. Ranger, F-Series, E-Series, Explorer, Expedition, Excursion, while GM and Chrysler were mostly trimming down their truck offerings except for ridiculous Hummers and the terrible things they did to Jeep. (Kill the Cherokee and give us the Liberty? Are you kidding? The old Cherokee was iconic, they could've had another CJ/Wrangler on their hands if they'd played it right.)

Now things are changing of course - The Camaro outsold the Mustang in 2010 for the first time since '85, The Crown Vic is gone and the Charger is the police's new darling. Jeep has some solid and potent offerings again, the Ranger is gone and God help us the next Explorer is a unibody! It will be interesting to see whether I continue to lean towards Ford in the next few years, but I will always love the Big Three and right now I still have the most respect for Ford.

 

Ford Escorts (Merc Tracer) are the most trouble free car I ever owned. And the parts when you do need them are cheap. I am patial to 97, 98 and 99 wagons. Really don't like the seat belts on the earlier models. I expect the 2002 and newer Foucus, to be the next generation of Runner for me.