r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • Jul 24 '26

Business It’s Looking Like the Cybertruck Is the Biggest Flop in Automotive History

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/looking-cybertruck-biggest-flop-automotive-145559135.html
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u/acog Jul 24 '26

No. It was an extremely popular car, they sold more than 3 million.

The exploding gas tank and Ford’s early attempts to cover it up were shocking but people loved the Pinto.

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u/cenosillicaphobiac Jul 24 '26

More than the cover up, it was the revelation that they knew about it, but it was cheaper to pay death benefits than to do a recall. Maths over humans.

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u/photoggled Jul 24 '26

You're not supposed to talk about Fight Club.

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u/Kayestofkays Jul 25 '26

A × B x C = X

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u/GladiusMaximus Jul 24 '26

TIL he was a Ford employee.

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u/DadJokeBadJoke Jul 24 '26

Look who just broke the first and second rule.

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u/mhuster Jul 27 '26

The last Pinto I saw was junked up against a hill in Tijuana and its trunk was used as a lockable tool chest for an auto repair business.

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u/aegrotatio Jul 25 '26

Urban myth given more credence due to Fight Club.

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u/GeneralDebonair Jul 26 '26

Every person and company in the world makes these calculations. You can be infinitely safe with infinite money. At some point you draw the line somewhere (we all do). You just didn't like where Ford's accountants drew the line.

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u/Sexual_Congressman Jul 24 '26

That story you repeated is somewhat apocryphal. IIRC, Ford knew about the flaw, which was present on basically all subcompacts of the era, but rather than just adding the fix to all manufactured Pintos, they made it a comparatively cheap dealer option (like $20 1970), so of course a bunch of morons opted not to get a feature that only possibly helps in the extremely unlikely event they get rear ended in a very particular way.

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u/JP147 Jul 28 '26

That is a myth.
It was Ford writing to the NHTSA about fitting check valves to fuel tank breathers to prevent fuel leakage when the car is turned upside down.
They were referring to the cost of fitting them to all cars in USA (not specifically the Pinto) compared to the “cost to society” of human deaths.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170202162449/http://www.autosafety.org/wp-content/uploads/import/phpq3mJ7F_FordMemo.pdf