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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!hound!551rcg
From: 551rcg@hound.UUCP (R.GANNS)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: American cars: how safe
Message-ID: <681@hound.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Oct-84 12:21:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: hound.681
Posted: Thu Oct 18 12:21:10 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Oct-84 09:28:44 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 18


        I'd like to remind you American car devotees that your
   faith in the safety of Detroit's finest may not be well-
   founded. Remember the Pinto ( alias the Self-Propelled Barbecue)?
   Some of you may recall that this bomb was marketed by Ford
  in full view of a known serious defect in the fuel system which
  caused the rear-mounted gas tank to turn the Pinto into a rolling
  crematorium when involved in a rear-end collision. Ford was
  well enough aware of this fact to allow it to determine, even
  before the car was put on the market, that it would be ultimately
  cheaper to pay off the burn victims or their estates than to
  redesign the Pinto.

       I seem to recall also that the executives responsible for
  the decision to market the Pinto in such condition were not
  held accountable.