The Ford Pinto Case: Legal and Ethical Issues

Abstract

The Ford Pinto case involves the explosion of the Pinto’s gas tank as a result of a faulty fuel system design, which led to the discussion of many legal and ethical issues surrounding the company’s use of a cost-benefit analysis and its executives’ decision not to repair the fuel system contingent on the analysis. Approximately 500 burn fatalities and hundreds of injuries were associated with the defective design which caused the gasoline tank to be susceptible to explosion after rear impact collisions. Ford was well aware of the defective fuel system design as the company conducted several crash tests, which indicated that the gasoline tank would explode in rear-end crashes even at relatively low speeds. However, the executives decided to still launch the Pinto to the market to avoid the cost of redesigning the fuel system and to meet the projected production timetable. This paper will discuss the many legal and ethical issues that surround the Ford Pinto case, how the philosophy of economist Milton Friedman may have influenced the executives of the company, as well as incorporating the ethical codes that apply to the corporate decisions in this case. In addition, this paper will discuss the moral responsibilities of Ford to stakeholders and to the safety of customers and identify an ethical framework that applies to this situation while discussing how it may have influenced the executives of the company.

The Ford Pinto Case: Legal and Ethical Issues

In 1971, Ford Motor Company launched the Pinto to the market to gain a competitive edge over the Japanese and German compact cars. The Pinto had a strict and precise price and weight limit; it was made to weigh 2000 pounds and cost $2,000 as per Lee Iacocca’s order. The Pinto became one of the most-selling subcompact cars in the industry during the 1970s until many cases of explosion of the Pinto started to surface. The project was rushed into production at a schedule of just about 2 years while a new car model normally takes about 3 and a half years from conception to production. Furthermore, the tooling process of the Pinto took place at the same time as the product development process, which normally does not start until the other processes are close to being completed. Consequently, it was too late for the engineers to repair the fuel system when crash tests of the prototypes showed a defect in the system. The crash tests revealed several defects such as the gas tank could burst in an accident at only 25 miles per hour, the gas tank could leak and the back of the car could be bent into the back seats in a rear-end collision at 30 miles per hour, and the car doors could jam at 40 miles per hour. The rush led to the production of a car with many defects and startlingly the Ford Pinto was on the market from 1971 to 1980.

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