Turns out the Pinto was within the realm of normal for a car of that type and era and if you're building something normal it's hard to justify recalling it at great expense unless everyone else is recalling it to (in which case that would be normal).
Yep, but that is an analysis from a Legal viewpoint.
What - I believe - made the Pinto case memorable was not that in a given subset of accidents it was (or was not) slightly more dangerous, it is the fact that the matter was looked into by the manufacturers and that it was waved off on a mere cost/benefit basis (with a supposed cost for increased security per car of US$ 11).
Mind you this is all in all normal, any safety norm or related technical specifications is (or should be) based on the "reasonable costs for society to obtain a reasonable increase in safety".
And meanwhile something like 20% of Bronco IIs got rolled and nobody cared. But as soon as someone puts an Explorer on it's roof or a Samurai barrel rolls through an intersection and there's a problem.
Pretty much that whole generation of midsize SUVs rolled easily. That's just one of the engineering trade-offs all those vehicles made and anyone can tell you that. If Consumer Reports was picking my SUV as the one to target I'd assemble a "get these people off our back" team too.
The media has made more than a few scandals out of pure normalcy over the years. The Frontline(?) gas cap thing comes to mind as a good example. Reality doesn't seem to matter nearly as much as the marketing team and lawyers you use to shape the public's perception is what matters. It's no wonder that corporations reaction to reported problems seems to always be to try to steamroll whomever is complaining and/or keep things on the down low.
I think GP's point was that they did the fight club math ahead of time, knowing they'd have a certain number of deaths and lawsuits, and proceeded to market with that plan.
Spin/media/marketing/CR/NHTSA after it's all public is a bigger subject, yes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto#Cost–benefit_analys...