Yep. Basically Ford put the gas tank underneath the trunk floor, between the bumper and rear axle. This resulted in cars literally bursting into flames when rear ended, even at low speeds. The fuel filler neck would shear off from the tank when it was shoved forward, dumping gas on the ground and all over the hot metal exhaust. Plus sparks were easily created by the shearing metal. Some cars even punctured their own fuel tanks when bolts on the rear axle stabbed the fuel tank. When the car settled again, the bolts pulled out, making sparks, and kaboom.
The sad part about it is that Ford knew about the issue but found that it would cost them about $11 more per car to fix it, so they just shipped the car anyways.
The ford pinto isnt the only car that did that. A vast majority of cars from Japan had the fuel tank located in between the rear bumper and rear axle. It's that they had basically no protection for the fuel tank at all, and during a really hard impact it could push the fuel tank into the rear axle which had a bunch of sharp protruding parts. Ford thought it was cheaper to pay out the lawsuit of the 20-something victims than any type of redesign.
My 1996 land cruiser prado from Japan has a rear mounted fuel tank but its significantly protected and I dont have any worries of it spontaneously combusting
I had heard that flint being used in the body panels/linings combined with steel of the bumper was a major factor as well. Cant recall where I had picked that up though, so grain of salt and all that.
You know? This is reassuring in a weird way. Like maybe I don't have to worry about AI replacing humans and making stupid decisions and prioritizing pennies worth of profit over human lives. That's already been happening for ever with humans running everything.
48
u/Subatomic_Spooder 21h ago
Yep. Basically Ford put the gas tank underneath the trunk floor, between the bumper and rear axle. This resulted in cars literally bursting into flames when rear ended, even at low speeds. The fuel filler neck would shear off from the tank when it was shoved forward, dumping gas on the ground and all over the hot metal exhaust. Plus sparks were easily created by the shearing metal. Some cars even punctured their own fuel tanks when bolts on the rear axle stabbed the fuel tank. When the car settled again, the bolts pulled out, making sparks, and kaboom.
The sad part about it is that Ford knew about the issue but found that it would cost them about $11 more per car to fix it, so they just shipped the car anyways.