Saw a post about the Ford Pinto recall and now I'm stuck on a bigger question
Last Tuesday I killed time in a waiting room and picked up a magazine with a piece on the Pinto. One expert said the rear tank was a known gamble, but another guy wrote that plenty of small cars of that era had the same setup, so Ford just got unlucky with the press. I flip cars on the side and I've crawled under enough 70s metal to know bad placement when I see it, but I also know every cheap car has a weak spot. So which is it: did the Pinto get singled out for a flaw the whole class shared, or was the design truly worse than its peers? I keep going back and forth, and I'd like to hear from folks who actually turned wrenches on them. If you had to name one part that was doomed from day one, what would it be?