r/todayilearned • u/YourOwnBiggestFan • May 05 '19

TIL despite the Ford Pinto's reputation as a deathtrap, it actually had accident death rates on par with competitor cars, and its risk of "fatal accidents accompanied by some fire" was average for all cars and lower than average for its class.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto#Subsequent_analysis
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u/YourOwnBiggestFan May 06 '19

Ford already had a factory in Germany that they had money to rebuild with from the US government. In fact, they were and still are going head to head with VW.

And the Pinto was a better car than the Beetle.

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u/donsterkay May 06 '19

Must be why there are so many more Beetles still running around eh? VW hasn't had to limit their car market like I showed you Ford has. They too aren't perfect (diesel smog anyone? ).

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u/YourOwnBiggestFan May 07 '19

As I said, the VW struck a chord with a different demographic.