So is there really anything to pintos jamming doors and bursting into flames when they are rearended. I've been told only the 71 & 72's suffered from this. Why?,... and whats the fix?
my '71 never blew up or had the doors jam up
Smack any small car in the rear and pretty much the same thing will happen. At the same time the "exploding Pinto" hoopla was going on I owned a 1970 Opel Rallye Kadette. Got a recall notice about the gas tank possibly exploding in a rear impact collision. The tank was in the trunk (really!) in the RR quarter panel, and the screws from the tail light could puncture the tank. Took it to the Opel dealer and they put rubber vacuum caps over the screws. Never mind that damn near any impact to the quarter panel would rip the tank open! Why didn't you hear about this problem with the Opel's? Because there were like what, five or six total sold in the entire U.S. and about a million Pinto's?
Years ago, while driving my 73 Chevy pick-up, I would think how much safer I was compaired to the drivers of VW Bugs, Chevy Corvairs, Suzuki Samuris, and Jeep CJ5s.
NO car is safe.
http://www.fordpinto.com/smf/index.php/topic,5283.msg31842.html#msg31842
Bill
From what I've been able to learn, the controversy centered more around the fact that Ford apparently made a corporate decision that it would be less costly to settle any resulting lawsuits than to fix the problem. Ford fan or not, you've got to admit that's a pretty callous disregard for human life! After several deaths in catestrophic accidents, and the leaking by Mother Earth News of this rather shocking decision, Ford Motor Company was literally forced into recalling the cars to resolve the problem. As pointed out in other posts, the Pinto was probably no less safe than similar cars of its era. In my opinion, safety begins with the driver... not the car.
Dwayne :smile:
The sad truth is, like anything else, people often only remember the "bad" about any given person, place or thing. Since the unfortunate events of that time and circumstances were so heavily aired and "promoted" as it were, the public was left with a longstanding impression that remains to this day.
Case in point: a few months back, when I started looking for a car, I told one of the ladies in the office. She IMMEDIATELY blurted out "small cars that crash and burn" ....in FACT, the statement was the title of a movie she had seen in driver's Ed while in High School. Amazing. ???
Chris
Actual accident, no this was not an accident, this was a lady trying to kill my daughter with a lethal weapon is more like it. She was hit by drunk driver at 1:10 am on I-17 in PHX, AZ.. Her 73 Pinto whent end over end and then 2 roll's to the right. ended up laying on roof, good thing she was short and thin or she might not of been able to crawl through door window opening since they were half size due to roof colapse. Fuel was pooring in the back seat, lft. rear spring shackle made hole in tank. So yea the door's do jam and the tank will get a hole. the only thing I could save off of it was gas cap and license plate, and you know I like to strip auto's. Fred :(
Sounds like your daughter's Guardian Angel was working overtime!
Dwayne :smile:
Must be so Dwayne, but I do know that the `G' switch for the electric fuel pump works. Because when she got hit by some lady in a Ford ex. in the 71 Pinto in Sandy Eggo CA, the fuel pmp. shut off after driver door and frame were caved in. She managed to get out rt. door on that 1. Fred >:(
Quote from: dga57 on July 08, 2008, 04:06:01 PM
.....Ford apparently made a corporate decision that it would be less costly to settle any resulting lawsuits than to fix the problem. Ford fan or not, you've got to admit that's a pretty callous disregard for human life!.....
NO CAR IS SAFE!!
Car makers that have full regard for human life would either stop making cars, or the cars they make would cost so much that 99% of people would not be able to afford them.
IMHO: Ford did nothing different than other (US) auto makers; they were using an INDUSTRY STANDARD, not a FORD STANDARD.
Bill
You'll get no argument from me, Bill. In fact, you could ammend that to say "NOTHING IS SAFE". Danger certainly isn't confined to cars.
Dwayne :smile: