Set to debut in 1970, the Pinto was Ford’s first attempt in the subcompact car market. The Pinto was a simple, fuel efficient vehicle and performed well against its foreign competitors. Not soon after the Pinto’s release, complaints concerning the car’s rear-end catching fire began to trickle into Ford. After an evaluation of the Pinto, Ford was unable to find a consistent pattern pertaining to the complaints and the topic was dismissed. What brought the Pinto into the public realm was the highly publicized Grimshaw v. Ford civil trial; a woman had died and her passenger severely burned, after the Ford Pinto they were in was rear-ended and caught fire. Ford was forced to pay punitive damages and was scorned in the public spotlight. The trial was followed by the popular and controversial Mother Jones article “Pinto Madness”, written by Mark Dowie. Although the article was a brilliantly written blockbuster, it construed the facts involved in the Pinto case, which led to a public misconception of Ford, the Pinto and corporate ethics in general. In 1978, in an effort to put to rest what had become a publicity nightmare, The Ford Motor Company announced a recall on all early model Ford Pintos. The events leading up to and after the recall, remain to this day, a popular topic in business ethics debate. In May 1972, Lily Gray and her 13 year-old neighbor Richard Grimshaw began their trip in Lily’s new Ford Pinto. Due to a mechanical failure, the car stalled and slowed to a stop in the middle lane of the freeway. The Pinto was then rear-ended by a car which reportedly, had been traveling at about 30 miles per hour. The collision resulted in a rear-end fire which killed Lily Gray and left Richard Grimshaw with 3rd degree burn... ... middle of paper ... ...n 1970 and 1976, the years concerning the Pinto controversy, Ford had performed 464 recalls on various models. The number of Ford vehicles affected by these recalls totaled over 2 million. Compared to others in its class, the Ford Pinto was an average performing vehicle; there was nothing astonishing about the car, good or bad. Ford’s actions regarding the Pinto’s development and release were not unique. From an engineering standpoint, Ford fulfilled the car’s purpose; a fuel efficient, subcompact vehicle which the public could afford. The media frenzy which followed the Pinto was an exploitation of the separation between public opinion and the hidden standards and processes behind design liability. It’s difficult to imagine any company being able to convince the public that the math makes sense; Ford had the deck stacked against them from the beginning.
Ask any ten enthusiasts what two cars epitomize the concept of an automotive rivalry and at least nine of them will instantly conclude the Chevrolet or Chevy Camaro and the Ford Mustang, two cars that make up part of a small automotive segment known as Pony Cars. These fire-breathing leviathans of the street snarl with guttural reverberations boastfully announcing their presence with the mere turn of key. For nearly five decades, these mechanical beasts have captured the imagination of the American driver and ignited the most contentious debate in automotive history: Which car reigns supreme? Muscle car buffs waste no time quoting sales figures, vehicle performance, track times, or even mundane statistics like vehicle dimensions or available colors to simply justify their support for one model over the other. As this debate rages on, the makers of these brutes fan the flames through targeted marketing strategies, consumer promotions, pricing strategies, and creative advertising all in effort to win an automotive war the likes of which have never been seen or fought before (Davenport, 2013).
At the time that he started Ford Motors Company, most people did not drive cars, and hadn't even considered purchasing a car. Henry Ford is famously quoted saying, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said ‘faster horses’”. His extremely successful Model T, nicknamed the Tin Lizzie, fundamentally changed the automotive industry. Ford understood that most of the American population was in the working class and could not afford to buy a car, so he decided to create a standardized vehicle for the masses. The Model T was durable, reliable, and most importantly, affordable. However, marketing strategies were crucial, since previously people hadn't even thought of buying a car. When Ford first introduced the Model T, he ensured that there was a great amount of publicity surrounding it in every newspaper possible to get the word out. Publicity is just as critical today if not more, and Ford understood that from very early
Meryl Davids is a professional writer/editor with an education from the University of Pennsylvania. With an outstanding twenty plus years of experience under her belt, Davids has work featured in magzines and journals such as: U.S. News & World Report, Wall Street Journal, and The Journal of Business Strategy. In this article Davids brings to our attention the successfulness of Henry Ford as well as the some of the struggles he faced trough out his life. Davids lets us know right from the start that Ford was a smart man and he knew that time was money. Ford states, “Time loves to be wasted.” The solution to this was a large-scale assembly line. With the successfulness of the assembly line and the money Ford was saving he double the wages of his employees from $2.50 to $5 overnight as
Provided the information pain appears to be leading the calculus theory when compared to its pleasures and to continue, Ford would begin recalling close to 2 million vehicle that were sold without upgrades which were discussed in its design process to, “Prevent
Henry Ford, the man who revolutionized the car industry forever, founded his company under the beliefs that a car wasn’t a high-speed toy for the rich but instead a sturdy vehicle for everyday family needs, like driving to work, getting groceries or driving to church. However, Henry ford did much more than just this feat. He also tried to make peace in WWI before America had joined the war. In addition, Ford made the radical new five dollars a day payment. However, Ford also had his lows. At an early age, his mother died. His first two companies had also been failures. Against many of his closest friends protests, he published an anti-semitic (Jewish) newspaper. Ford had a very interesting and unique life and he changed the automotive industry forever.
The 1920’s was a time of great social, political, and economic change. The early automobile industry was no exclusion. It appears that throughout history, the figures that stand out the most are either worshipped or despised, and there is very rarely an in-between. Henry Ford, an icon of the 1920’s and the early automobile industry is no exemption. Many people love Ford for his innovative and entrepreneurial skills, while on the other hand, Ford is disliked by many due to his association with Anti-Semitism. Regardless of how Ford is viewed, many decisions he made significantly impacted the automobile industry. These decisions included installing the moving assembly line in his plant, and introducing the Five-Dollar Day. Through the implementation of the Five-Dollar Day, Ford was able to drastically change how the Ford Motor Company company operated, and how business would operate for years to come.
Foreign markets were beginning to show promise with the vehicles that were going to put out on the market. The Ford Motor Company began to feel the pressure and felt that it needed to be in the limelight of the competition. Lee Iococca, the CEO of Ford, decided that it was time for a change and thus the Ford Pinto was introduced. However, the Pinto had numerous flaws that cost the Ford Company more than ever anticipated.
It is July 4, 1969 in Vallejo California, Darlene Ferrin picks up Mike Mageau from his house and are heading to a Mr. ED`s a burger and fries restaurant. When they arrive it is too crowded and decide to go somewhere quiet to spend time together. Darlene and Mike are laughing and smiling when all of the sudden a car parks behind them and turns the car off. After a couple of seconds the car drives off without any act...
When General Motors manufactured the first electric car known as the EV1 they did not fully have in mind it’s affect on the buyers. Although there were consumers who were concerned at the time with bettering the environment around them, majority of them were not. The idea of an electric car seemed barbaric and without the buyers, the seller begins to fail. A consumer by the name of Charles Murray (2007), and author of the article I Killed the Electric Car talks about his guiltiness as a consum...
“August 2000, our family of six was on the way to a wedding. It was a rainy day, and Gregg was not familiar with the area. The car hit standing water in the high-way, and started hydro-planing. Greg lost control of the car. Then, the car went backwards down into a ditch and started sliding on its wheels sideways. After sliding for 100 feet or so, the car flipped, at least once. After flipping, the car came to rest on its wheels, and the passenger window broke out.
Therefore, it is the company’s responsibility and duty to inform the public about safety issues that come with lightweight cars, and leave the people with the freedom to choose whether or not they buy this product. Even though this process might decrease sales, however; the company’s superiors must put themselves in a position where someone offered them a product without informing them of their dangerous sides and refuse to do things to others what they refuse to be done on themselves.
Our week five case study, Mattel and Toy Safety, involves toy safety inspection and product recall concerns among outside contractors. In 2007, the infamous toy company, Mattel, recalled a very large number of toy products covered with lead-based paint that were manufactured in China. Mattel responded to the massive toy recall by increasing the testing of all products and reassuring its customers that they will take affirmative action to correct the recall issues as soon possible. In my opinion, I believe Mattel acted in a socially responsible and ethical manner regarding the safety of it toys because as soon as Mattel was aware of a European merchant finding lead paint on their toy products, Mattel conducted an immediate investigation.
In the summer of 1967, Ford Motor Company began the development of a new car that would place it in the small-car market (Mark Dowie, 1977, p. 1). This automobile was named the Ford Pinto and would grow to become its biggest-selling subcompact vehicle (Mark Dowie, 1977, p. 2). Back in the mid-1960s, Ford’s then president had been involved in a collision that resulted in his car’s fuel tank bursting into flames (Mark Dowie, 1977, p. 1). With this occurrence, one would have imagined that the company would become aware of the fuel tank danger associated with collisions, however the reverse was the case. The new Pinto had been fitted with a fuel tank that was just 9 inches from its rear axle (Gary T. Schwartz, 1990, p. 1013) and in the event of
The plans received approval from Ford’s Board of Directors in January 1969. The 1971 Ford Pinto went into production on September 11, 1970 as a “carefree little American car.” The entire product development schedule had been completed in only 25 months—a record at the time and, forty years later, is still considered a fast production schedule. The shorter product development schedule was made possible by overlapping the machine tooling process with product development, which meant that any design changes could require costly and time-consuming changes in machine tooling. Tooling of assembly-line machines typically took about 18
Wilson's encouragement to the readers of his article to imagine life as we currently know it without the automobile begins with Wilson outlining exactly why the personal automobile is destructible in so many ways. He points out that academic and social critics believe that cars "burn fuel inefficiently" (304) ejecting "large amounts of unpleasant gases into the air" (304); "vast quantiti...