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Author Topic: Dumbest car of all time ?  (Read 2576 times)

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Offline turbopinto72

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Dumbest car of all time ?
« on: March 29, 2012, 01:16:35 PM »
So, AOL ( now ran by the Huffington post ) decided to run this story today.
WE might want to say a few things to the AOL Autos staff !!!  >:(
  The Top 20 Dumbest Cars Of All Time  by AOL Autos Staff Posted: Mar 29, 2012 Share      1. Ford Pinto   Fewer cars hurt America’s perception of hatchbacks than the Ford Pinto, a car that debuted with a 75 horsepower four-cylinder engine.

Back in the 1970s, Ford Motor Co. needed something to compete against the Japanese compact cars and Volkswagen Beetle that were growing in popularity. Ford’s answer was the Pinto, a pudgy two-door hatch with low riding bucket seats. Worse yet, the Pinto spent the entire Me Decade accused of being an exploding death trap. Those are never the words any company wants to be associated with.

Why it's so dumb: It's the hubris Ford executives brought to the table. There is a paper trail leading to a memo in which Ford brass weighed the cost benefit analysis of changing the engineering of the car to make it safer versus paying our injury and death claims it knew would come. Worst of all, the Pinto, in part because of its budget pricing, were scooped up by many a college student and was one of the cars that ultimately decreased sales and popularity of the VW Beetle. So, this car was aimed at the least experienced drivers in America, and most prone to be in accidents. And after the truth came out, it soured a lot of those kids and their parents on buying more Fords just as the Asians were rising, and redefining quality in America.
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Offline Pintosopher

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Re: Dumbest car of all time ?
« Reply #1 on: March 29, 2012, 01:21:17 PM »
Brad,
It's more like the dumbest publication ever printed.. We know better!
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Offline lugnut

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Re: Dumbest car of all time ?
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2012, 06:56:46 PM »
Idiots!  That was exactly the goal of FOMOCO in developing Pinto.  I'd say that Ford was successful because the beetle only made it a few more years in the US.  Mission accomplished Pinto!!
FTA:
"Worst of all, the Pinto, in part because of its budget pricing, were scooped up by many a college student and was one of the cars that ultimately decreased sales and popularity of the VW Beetle."

Offline D.R.Ball

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Re: Dumbest car of all time ?
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2012, 07:31:47 PM »
So why where you on that useless rag site the HufPuff any way ? Oh BTW the Memo came from the Fed's NHTSA not Ford....Stupid lebotards....S o has anyone seen anymore of these oh so superior 1970's Japanese cars outside of some 240z's around ? NO because the Japanese and the European car makers had some real issues regarding their steel turning into it's natural state IE rust.

Offline 71HANTO

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Re: Dumbest car of all time ?
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2012, 07:38:34 PM »
 
Are Pintos are officially "Classics"...The comments are priceless...
 
71HANTO
 
http://bringatrailer.com/2012/03/26/42k-mile-original-paint-1977-ford-pinto/
 
 
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Offline 71pintoracer

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Re: Dumbest car of all time ?
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2012, 07:39:16 PM »
Question: how many burned up Pinto's have you seen in the boneyards? Me, none. None that I can remember at all. I can't remember seeing one that had been hit in the rear and burned up anywhere. So....where did they all go?
If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?

Offline blupinto

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Re: Dumbest car of all time ?
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2012, 08:17:21 PM »
That whole da#m article was full of crap. There is NOTHING pudgy about a Pinto... as far as I'm concerned, they look sweet and streamlined today amongst the cookie-cutter cars with their fat integrated bumpers and ho-hum styling. Blowing up!? Seriously!?  I'm not gonna beat that dead horse (pardon the pun) again for now. What gets me is this: How does Ford's "brass" and their cost-benefit analysis have anything to do with the car being "dumb"?  Did these knuckleheads do their research (uhh, that would be a NO) to see how many injuries/deaths were actually associated with Pintos?  I wonder if they named the Lexus a "dumb" or "dumbest" car because of the four or five people killed in ONE incident where the accelerator pedal stuck and the car eventually came to a stop with the help of a freeway wall... This happened a few miles south from me.  It sounds like aol or huff. post might win the title of "dumbest".  >:(
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Offline dave1987

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Re: Dumbest car of all time ?
« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2012, 10:21:21 PM »
Most everything that AOL/Huffington Post is not researched and for the most part word of mouth and rumors from what I have read in the past. This sounds no different. It's great the Pinto is getting publicity, but it's to bad it's done by uneducated and lazy people who don't care enough about their credibility of their publications to get facts straight or stick to the point they initially try to implicate. In this case, they say the Pinto is a "dumb" car, but nothing really reinforces that idea because they are only pointing out slight facts that RELATE to the Pinto, nothing factual about the CAR ITSELF.

Anyone else irritated enough to go on a tangent on stupid writers?
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