Ford Pinto Case Study

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Ford Pinto Case UOPX School of Business MGT/216 January 24, 2011 Instructor Kristy Lewkut Ford Pinto Case The Ford Pinto was the cause of a major court case in 1978. The Pinto hit the showroom in 1971. The court case against the Ford Motor Company was the first brought upon a corporation. Lee Iacocca was the president at the time the Pinto was brought to the showrooms. Pintos were said to be the cause of people suffering burning deaths in automobile accidents. The deaths were the cause of the court case against the Ford Motor Company. Ford’s current mission is to improve on the products and services to meet the customer’s needs. Ford strides to be the best in customer satisfaction. Ford’s Pinto Dilemma Thirteen crashes involving the Ford Pinto was the cause of lawsuits brought against Ford adding up to more than 50 million dollars (De George, 2006). Although these 13 deadly crashes seem like a high number of accidents resulting from the Pinto being sold without a baffle, take into consideration the comparison to the total amount of fatal accidents every year. Every year there is close to 40,000 fatal car accidents in the United States (National Highway Safety Traffic Administration, 2011). During a seven year period, this accounts for approximately 280,000 car accidents. If averaged out the Pinto accidents were only responsible for 0.005% of fatal car crashes over those seven years. People know that their cars are not 100% safe. People weigh in the risk of driving the car and compare it to the gain of mobility. Ford looked at it the same way; they assessed the risk of fatal car accidents and weighed it with the millions of dollars lost in recalls. This was a smart business practice. At the end of the day, Ford decided that the money that would be lost in the recall would be worth much more than the lives lost due to their

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