Business Ethics - Assignment 1

Case Study:
At the beginning of the 1960's, the Ford Motor Company was facing great competition
from foreign automobile manufacturers !he "apanese companies, !oyota and #atsun,
were importing fuel$efficient, low$cost automobiles %&ery year the "apanese companies
were capturing larger portions of the '( automobile retail mar)et and profits of
American auto manufactures were spiraling downward !he president of Ford at that
time was *ee +accoca, who was desperately in need of a new model car that could be
,uic)ly and cheaply manufactured !he -.into/ was the result +t was small, weighing
only 0000 lbs1 it was cheap, costing less than 20000 to ma)e1 and it was ,uic), going
from design to mar)et in only two years 3ecause most automobile designs re,uire four
years to materiali4e for the public, the pinto was truly a rush 5ob !he styling of the .into
re,uired that the fuel tan) be placed behind the rear a6le !his placement made the fuel
tan) more susceptible to puncturing in a rear$end collision, spilling of fuel into the
passenger space, and greater li)elihood of related fires following accidents #uring early
crash testing of the .into, Ford determined that in rear$end collisions below a 00 mph
impact speed the gas tan) would sometimes rupture
3ased upon three general criteria, Ford engineers decided to proceed with the
manufacture of the .into
17 %ngineers and e6ecuti&es of Ford considered the .into to be as safe as the competitors
compact cars
07 Federal regulations re,uired that the fuel tan) remain in tact in collisions less than 00
mph %arly crash tests pro&ed that the .into would pass the test most of time
87 A cost$benefit analysis reali4ed the following9
A7 Fuel tan) modification would cost 2 11 per &ehicle
37 !he total of 10: million .intos were manufactured
C7 (tatistically, the modifications to the .into design would pre&ent 1;0 burn
deaths, 1;0 serious in5uries, and a loss of 0100 burned automobiles
#7 3ased upon insurance and legal settlements, the &alue of a human life in the
1960's was 2000,000
%7 3ased upon health insurance records and medical costs the &alue to a serious
burn was one$third the &alue of the life, or 266,666,6<
F7 !he a&erage &alue of a used .into, as well as other compact cars, was 2<00 in
196=
3ased upon this data would it be ethical to manufacture and sell the .into to
the American public> ?our answer should ta)e two approaches9 'tilitarian
and deontological