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Ford Pinto Research Paper

1339 Words6 Pages

People smarter than myself, have said; “Necessity is the mother of invention.” This proverb held true for the Ford Motor Company, during the late 1960s, when foreign vehicle makers started gobbling up more and more of the subcompact auto market. Ford was going through some internal changes at this time and had recently appointed Lee Iacocca president of Ford Motor Company. With Iacocca at the wheel, Ford was looking to make a splash with stylish cars being the upmost importance to Lee.
In 1971 the Ford Pinto was introduced as, “The Little Carefree Car.” The Ford motor Company wanted to fast track the Pinto with conception to production process taking just over 25 months. The average time for new car models was about 43 months close to double …show more content…

At this point, the little carefree car had become a massive personal relations disaster. People were beginning to bring lawsuits against Ford for wrongful death. At first Ford decided to let cases go to a jury trails. They were sure that the average American would believe Fords narrative the accidents were being caused by drivers error and had nothing to do with the vehicle. The American juries started awarding the plaintiffs millions of dollars Ford began settling out of court. Pinto crashes cause the death and mutilation of many of its occupants, the estimated numbers range from the 30s to over 900 people depending on who is asked. The amount of civil lawsuits were both expensive and struck a major blow to the carmaker reputation, which took the car manufacture over a decade to restore. The low poit for the Ford Motor Company was when Indiana authorites charge Ford automaker with reckless homicide in 1979. This would be the first time a corporation would be charge in a homicide case. With the reputation of both the Pinto and Ford in the dumps, Ford decided to cease production of the Pinto. Ford Pinto sales peaked in 1973 at around 480,000 Pintos, while in 1980 only 68,000 Pintos were even made. Due to so many civil cases being settled out of court the actual amount Ford had to pay is unknown. Although most estimates are in the hundreds of millions range. In the last year of producing the Ford Pinto the revenue for Ford was a net loss of $1.5 billion. This would be the trend for Ford Motor Company for the coming years, as shown below on the

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