Trivia: To put the Ford Pinto case in perspective, the $11 cost per car to recall and repair would amount to about $70 today and the $200,000 cost per death ("price of a life") would be about $1.2 million. Ford executives made other estimates and determined that they would have had to reduce the cost to recall from $11 to $3.96 to "break even."
Trivia: In the Ford Pinto case, executives did a cost/benefit analysis comparing the amount to recall 12.5 million cars/trucks at $11 each vs not making the recall and essentially letting people die in fiery crashes or suffer severe burn injuries. Each fatality was estimated to cost $200,000 - the price of letting people die in fiery crashes from the Pinto's fuel tank exploding upon rear-end collisions. Interestingly, it was the National Highway Safety Admin that provided the figure $200,725 in 1972.
