One Bad Bump ...

The Ford Pinto was a famously bad automobile, but worse still might be Ford's handling of the safety concerns surrounding the '70s-era subcompact. Before the car ever reached the market, concerns emerged that a rear-end collision might cause the Pinto to blow up — the positioning of the fuel tank sparked fears it could be punctured in a crash and cause a fire or an explosion. But instead of fixing the Pinto's design, Ford, in a bit of morbid calculus, determined it would be cheaper to settle any lawsuits resulting from the Pinto's flaws. After several lawsuits and criminal charges (Ford was eventually found not guilty), the automaker recalled 1.5 million Pintos in 1978, retrofitting the fuel-tank assembly with additional protections to prevent the Pinto from going up in flames. Too bad the same couldn't be done for the car's reputation. In 1981 the Pinto was retired for good.

油箱的悲劇

福特Pinto車是一款臭名昭著的車型，但比這更惹非議的是福特公司對人們對70年代小型汽車的安全的擔憂的處理方式上。在這款汽車上市之前就有對追尾可能導致Pinto起火的質疑——油箱布置在汽車尾部的做法可能會在追尾時刺穿油箱導致起火甚至爆炸。但是，福特并沒有更改Pinto的設計，而是僥幸的認為，跟個別受害者打官司要比召回Pinto更省錢。在幾次遭到起訴和刑事指控后（福特最終并沒有被判有罪），福特在1978年召回了150萬輛Pinto，并對油箱添加了額外的結構以保證Pinto不會起火。很遺憾，這無法彌補Pinto的聲譽。在1981年Pinto永遠的退出了市場。

來源:可可英語 http://www.ccdyzl.cn/read/201007/107881.shtml