Ford Proto Case Study: Evaluating The Ford Pinto Case

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The Ford Pinto Case
Evaluating the Ford Pinto Case by taking an ethical approach, makes judging the decisions made on a cost-benefit analysis difficult. Cost-benefit analysis puts a price on human life and compares it to the cost of a something else. To judge this case, a look at separate consequences must be made, weighing the good and bad results of an action on everyone affected by it (DeGeorge, 2010, p. 44). Ford’s production of the Pinto was not done in an illegal manner. However, Ford ignored morally relevant events that ultimately led to the Pinto’s controversial safety record.
Ford Motor Company CEO, Lee Iacocca, was concerned about losing market sales to smaller Japanese imports. Therefore, he ordered Ford to produce a new car line in an accelerated manner, which …show more content…

A little piece of plastic could be placed between the gas tank and the housing to protect the tank from the bolts that could puncture it. This little piece of plastic is called a baffle. The baffle weighs about one pound and had an estimated cost between $6.65 and $11. Additionally, this increase in price and weight would alter the specifications set forth by Iacocca. Furthermore, changing any aspect of this vehicle would affect output capacity and pricing. For this reason, any suggestions of alterations to the Ford Pinto were declined. Ultimately, Ford rejected any change to the Pinto and based its decision on a cost-benefit analysis.
In order for this analysis to work, Ford had to compare the cost of adding the baffle to every vehicle manufactured against the estimated cost of a fatality and corresponding law suit. According to Dowie (1977), the auto industry pressured the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, to come up with a dollar amount of what a human life was worth. The amount of $200,725 was the result and Ford used this amount to justify not making the

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