A Ford engineer, who doesn’t want his name used, comments: “This company is run by salesmen, not engineers; so the priority is styling, not safety.”
Safety
Strange as it may seem, the Department of Transportation (NHTSA’s parent agency) didn’t know whether or not this was true. So it contracted with several independent research groups to study auto fires. The studies took months, which was just what Ford wanted.
A Ford engineer, who doesn’t want his name used, comments: “This company is run by salesmen, not engineers; so the priority is styling, not safety.”
Safety
Strange as it may seem, the Department of Transportation (NHTSA’s parent agency) didn’t know whether or not this was true. So it contracted with several independent research groups to study auto fires. The studies took months, which was just what Ford wanted.
Certainly seems to be a parallel!
uhm anyone who is familiar with the Ford line of cars knows this idea of “all about styling” is total bullshit.
my brother in law is an engineer at ford. the company is about suv’s and trucks. also, Volvo, Jaguar, Astin Martin, Mazda, Land Rover, Mercury, and Lincoln are all in the Ford family.
Insulting Ford is insulting all of these other companies as well. It’s just bullshit.
Also–how long ago was the pinto? LOL!!! This is just stupid.
Every time I read a post complaining about the NYC tri, it just reinforces my decision to move to the midwest.
It is ridiculous the amount of complaining I’ve read about that race. You’re all racing in New York City. You’re swimming in the freaking Hudson River. How could you possibly expect hygiene standards in line with races held out in the country. Suck it up.
As a participant in the race I can tell you that this is exactly what was told to us. I have not experienced any ill health effects, but can tell you that I saw 3 used condoms and 1 dead rat floating in the swim lane while walking from T1 to swim start. I found something that could have been part of a fish carcass stuck in the pocket of my jersey after. These facts, when put together with some of the information I have seen on this forum, lead me to conclude that the rivers of NYC are sadly unfit for swimming despite the reassurances of the race management.
A better analogy than the Pinto would be a potential buyer relying on my assurances that the used car, with visible rust damage, a muffler dragging on the ground, the check engine light on, squeeky brakes, and smashed signal lights, was safe. It’s his fault if he believes me.
Likewise, I fail to see any reasonable reliance on assurances by race officials that the river meets standards, especially if 3 used condoms and a dead rat are visible.
bad analogy…there are safe swims in the Hudson, as tested by the DEP according to well-accepted health standards…the pollution that you can’t see is what is the health problem, not the visible garbage in the water, which every body of water has…i agree, that does/should adjust the user’s perspective…the correct analogy is of a car that looked fine and the seller said was fine but now we ae suspecting that there is whole lot more mileage than the odometer said…and for which there are dmv documents to assure us…but the seller won’t show us the dmv docs…no one knows but are you going to take the ‘trust me’ from a used car salesman…and now they say that the real salesman isn’t even the one who sold us the car…