We take for granted just how safe modern cars have become. We live in a society that values safety more than any other aspect of an automobile. We're willing to sacrifice things like weight, performance, and fuel economy in the name of making vehicles just that little bit safer. It wasn't always this way and looking back through the century-plus history of the car, it's no wonder even more people didn't meet their end behind the wheel of classic cars. All manufacturers have to issue recalls at one time or another, but in the entire saga of the automobile, no other car is more famous for being a complete death trap as the Ford Pinto. The wild story of how it came to be created and how its legendary lack of safety was so bad it managed to annoy the U.S Government is now a piece of folklore among car enthusiasts.
This past September marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the Pinto's production, so let's take a look back and see how this underpowered economy car caused so much of a stir.
The Brain Child Of An Icon, And Poor Judgement
There's not very much bad that can be said about former Ford and Chrysler executive Lee Iacocca. If not for his engineering expertise, both companies he worked for would probably not be around today. No one can debate how crucial he was to developing things like the Mustang. That said, the Pinto is one enormous blemish on his record. Even before the oil crisis of the early 70s, Iacocca understood that the price of petroleum probably wasn't going to stay so low for much longer. He also understood that even in a country obsessed with yachts on wheels, there was still a booming market for smaller, more efficient vehicles.
By late 1969, Ford was making final preparations to get the car ready for sale by the fall of 1970, when engineers noticed a defect in the construction of the car's fuel tank. It was determined that the issue was within the engineers' capabilities to fix. Still, Lee Iaccoca worried that doing this would catastrophically delay production and ultimate delivery to dealerships. With production costs rising every day, Iaccoca gave the go-ahead to produce the Pinto with the manufacturing defect still very much intact. This would turn out to be the worst decision of Lee Iaccoca's life.
Bombs On Wheels
The description of how this defect wreaked devastation on the people who drove them almost reads like a cruel, sick joke. The weakened metal that the fuel tank was constructed with wasn't nearly strong enough in a rear-end collision. The result of such an impact meant the contents of the fuel tank would spread burst out in all directions on impact. The force of the collision would spread the fuel like napalm all over the Pinto and the front windscreen of whatever had smashed into it. Stories from the 70s are abounding with Pinto drivers being incinerated by relatively minor rear impacts, which today would only result in mild whip-lash.
Washington D.C Comes Calling
The National Highway And Traffic Safety Administration was founded not long after the Pinto entered production. The fledgling government agency need not wait long for an investigation of gargantuan proportions to come across their desks, because it wasn't long before Pintos across the country started killing people in the hundreds. Unbelievably, it still took four long years for formal investigative report submissions to materialize, and it took even longer for the issue to be made public knowledge. For all any regular civilian knew, these exploding hatchbacks were isolated and unrelated incidents, little did anyone know just how deep this rabbit hole would go.
Journalists Crack The Truth
It would require an entity beyond the auto industry's boundaries and even the government for the public to find out the truth about Lee Iacocca's grand mistake. Mother Jones is a populist left-leaning American news magazine founded in 1976. Perhaps they didn't realize at the time that a feature story about an exploding economy car was going to put them on the map, but that's exactly what happened. The front cover of the September/October 1977 edition sported a Ford Pinto in the process of exploding and a horrified driver about to meet her fiery doom. The cover text said plainly, " Are You Driving The Deadliest Car In America?". Writer Mark Dowie did an incredible job of explaining in-depth what unfathomable pain and suffering the unfortunate victims of Lee Iaccoca's poor judgment endured. Even more shockingly, they uncovered NTHSA investigations which allege that not only did Ford know of the defective fuel tanks well in advance, they also determined that fixing the issue was less profitable than simply covering the legal fees of the victims. Therefore, they were allowed into the hands of the public because they could only be held civilly liable for any damage caused to life, limb, and property. The PR damage, however, was already done, and the Pinto was mercifully put to rest in 1980.
A Mark Of Shame On An Otherwise Iconic Career
Lee Iacocca was held personally responsible for the failure that was the Pinto. He was fired as president of Ford by the direct order of Henry Ford II. The Pinto is often seen as the main impetus behind his departure. He would go one to work for Ford's competitors at Chrysler. While there, he did much of the same spectacular work as he did with Ford, helping Chrysler rebound from the brink of bankruptcy on the back of the K platform, and oversaw the purchase of AMC and Jeep. He also had a hand in the development of the first generation Dodge Viper before retiring in 1992. He died on July 2nd, 2019, some would say, with innocent blood on his hands.
The days where a car is allowed to be as unsafe as the Ford Pinto are well and truly gone. As much tragedy as its story saw, the changes made afterward ensured that today, cars are safer than ever before.
Sources: National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, Mother Jones Magazine, The Cartoonist Group