Who Is Ford Pinto Unethical

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The Ford Pinto was first introduced in 1971 and built through 1980, by the Ford Motor Company. The little carefree car became a focus of a major scandal when it was alleged that the car's design permitted its fuel tank to be undoubtedly damaged in the event of a rear-end collision. (Ford Pinto) This flaw resulted in deadly fires and explosions through early production of the model. A number of critics have claimed that the Ford Motor Company acted unethically in producing the Ford Pinto; knowing that it could have been made safer by adding an inexpensive part. The decision from Ford not to recall any of its cars before the design flaw was discovered and taking the chance with their consumer’s life can be proven unethical by using the Hedonistic
Purity goes to pain, 50 lawsuits were brought against Ford, and Forbes lists it on “Worst Cars of All Time” in 2004. (Linert) Propinquity goes to Ford and pleasure, Ford felt pleasure as soon as the first Pinto sold, whereas, lawsuits and deaths took place over years; the car was recalled in 1978, seven years after the release date. (DeGeorge 299) Fecundity is in pains favor, because if automakers keep cutting corners to save a few dollars, the welfare of ever driver, passenger and pedestrian is at risk. Extent also benefits pain, because cutting corners on safety wouldn’t just affect a few executives, but anyone in or
After weighing out all the factors, pain wins with five categorizes compared to pleasures two, this makes Fords decision to release the Pinto early, without the proper safety features, unethical. On the other hand, some people would lobby that Ford did nothing wrong releasing the Pinto early and knowing it had a major safety flaw. There was no National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rear-end impact standards at the time,(DeGeorge 298) so Ford did not break any safety laws. Also, Ford was found innocent of criminal homicide in the Ulrich case.(Waters) Even though both of these statements are true, before the release of the Pinto, Ford was an active lobbyist against new safety standards; this is a big red flag. (Trevion, 66) Ford may have won in the Ulrich case, but they lost many other cases including Grimshaw vs. Ford Motor Co. (Ford Pinto) Putting it all together, the Ford Pinto was the biggest mistake Ford Motor Company has ever made. Lives were lost and Ford will forever have a blemish on their reputation. Even though there were some pleasure points through the Hedonistic Calculus, there were more pain points. This equation determined that Ford was unethical when it came to the production and

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