Was Gerald Ford the Ford Festiva of presidents ?

yes, yes he was. Rest in Piece bro.

which got great mileage, but would have been a death-trap in a wreck... I would say no. (besides the FF was actually a Japanese car under there)

I think he deserves to be lauded with a bigger and classier type of Ford.

Man, those Pintos didn't do too well...
:yoiks:

This bit from Wikipedia:

More recently, it has been argued (in a well-known 1991 law review paper by Gary Schwartz <2>, among others) that the case against the Pinto was less clear-cut than commonly supposed. Only 27 people ever died in Pinto fires. Given the Pinto's production figures (over 2 million built), this was no worse than typical for the time, and far less than the "hundreds" claimed by the consumer safety advocates whose allegations are largely responsible for the reputation of the vehicle. Schwartz argues that the car was no more fire-prone than other cars of the time, and that the supposed "smoking gun" document showing Ford's callousness actually referred to the auto industry in general rather than the Pinto specifically.

Due to the alleged engineering, safety, and reliability problems, Forbes Magazine included the Pinto on its list of the worst cars of all time. Ironically Ford had originally planned to include an inexpensive rubber bladder inside the gas tank that would have prevented most of the explosive crashes that plagued the car's run; in addition, Ford had also planned to include revolutionary dual front air bags. The addition of these two safety features would have added a few hundred dollars to the $2000 base price of the vehicle but would have probably made it a much safer vehicle. However, it is quite possible Ford would not have sold over two million of the modified car due to the substantial increase in price and may or may not have made less profit. The Pinto was once referred to as "the car nobody loved, but everybody bought".

So that's where Bill Gates gets his "Microsoft Windows is just like an automobile" reference from! :spray: