As if poisoned pet food wasn't enough

So it sounds like your saying product liability would not hurt a company it is only a way or price that is planned on when doing business? correct?

Well I disagree with that, and here is a link: read this I think this it also will state how product liability can make or break a business: and it's from 2007
goes back to Regan and first Bush but still referes back to 2007


http://www.amtonline.org/document_display....op=0&level=

 

The link is Congressional testimony from a lobbyist for The Association For Manufacturing Technology. He represents small businesses, which is not what we are talking about here. His own testimony indicates that estimated 78 percent of the members of the AMT have less than 50 employees He only sites one company being forced out of business by a liability lawsuit and that was a $7.5million judgment.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Jun 27 2007, 10:47 AM) [snapback]468906[/snapback]</div>

I'd prefer not to buy from China right now. But since it's the only place building an over-25-mph EV that you can buy in the U.S. today I was stuck with them. And China is not all that much worse than a lot of places.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Jun 27 2007, 10:57 AM) [snapback]468910[/snapback]</div>

The point is that Ford KNEW that the Pinto would explode and burn people to death. Ford calculated the cost of fixing the cars before putting them on the market, vs the cost of settling lawsuits after people were burned to death or horrible disfigured. And Ford made a calculated, considered decision, to commit cold-blooded, pre-meditated murder by selling a car they knew beforehand would explode on impact.

I don't know the history or timeline or internal decision-making process behind the Chinese tires or pet food. If they knew beforehand, and sold the products anyway, they are as bad as Ford. But this refers to the companies involved, not to the entire country.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Jun 27 2007, 11:02 AM) [snapback]468915[/snapback]</div>

So true! In an unregulated free market businesses have no principles other than profit and no scruples whatsoever.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Swanny1172 @ Jun 27 2007, 02:16 PM) [snapback]469020[/snapback]</div>

I know I read this
But now I guess we are ONLY talking about BIG , LArge, HUGE companies

ok i see said the blind man

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jun 27 2007, 04:20 PM) [snapback]469094[/snapback]</div>

Had the Xebra been crash tested yet? Most Chinese cars, most recently the Brilliance, miserably failed the European crash tests.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Swanny1172 @ Jun 27 2007, 03:49 PM) [snapback]468998[/snapback]</div>

As I recall, the Firestone tires were failing due to under inflation and driving on damaged tires, the failure rate was not that high actually. The Ford spec tire pressure was not high enough and people were running them under spec (Ford's). How many times do you see folks hauling nice person down the road on near flat tires? The media and lawyers made it a bloodbath and PR nightmare, that we all paid dearly for. The dude being wheeled around on the hospital bed, with the dazed look, kind of summed it up for me.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(clearview22 @ Jun 27 2007, 11:12 PM) [snapback]469217[/snapback]</div>

So, it's the victim's, I mean user's fault. (Isn't it always?)

Or are you just quoting what the Firestone lawyers spun on the 6 o'clock news?

Tell me, did those Pinto drivers move their gas tanks? Or maybe the backed up into the cars behind them at full speed?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FloridaWen @ Jun 26 2007, 08:45 AM) [snapback]468286[/snapback]</div>

Also, don't forget: The old reliable IBM Thinkpad is now owned by a Chinese company.
I have not hear of any failures, YET, but then, most of the old IBMs are still being used, and not
the new Lenovo's

 

Wherever the tires on your car were made, give them a careful inspection next time you can. Deep cracks, exposed belts, bubbles or other irregularities. Bring any such to the attention of a competent tire specialist. If I understand the defect being discussed here, it should be visible with some 'advance notice' before catastrophic failure(s).

Check your inflation pressures often and please never operate them at pressures below what Toyota specifies.

Any tires by any mfr can fail. My hope here is to keep that from happening with *your* car.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Jun 28 2007, 01:01 AM) [snapback]469234[/snapback]</div>

There was plenty of blame to go around on the tire problem; the Explorer is a truck, no matter what the advertising said, it should have truck tires on it. Unfortunately people may not like the ride, so Ford put a lighter constructed tire on and then set the air pressure too low. The average tire pressure gauge is +/-5psi and then you add in people who don't bother to check their tires anyway, problems are sure to follow. Firestone replaced tires that were good and bad in the recall which solved what I do not know, people were getting a new set of tire for a worn out set. Every crash that involved a flat tire was added to the list during the lawsuit, millions were paid out to lawyers and "victims."
The Pinto was Ford's way of scaring people away from fuel efficent vehicles, it worked wonderfully!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FloridaWen @ Jun 28 2007, 11:43 AM) [snapback]469417[/snapback]</div>

Well that ugly Pinto's worth money today( little love wagon) ... Remember back in the 80's one couldnt give a pinto away. today? well 2k-9k depending on condition.. Remember the Pacer? ie fish bowl on wheels?? 4k-11k depending on model, options & condition..

My fav was the dodge dart $600 in the 80s, now? 10k...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(IsrAmeriPrius @ Jun 27 2007, 07:59 PM) [snapback]469181[/snapback]</div>

Are you kidding? The whole reason for taking one wheel off it was to avoid having to crash-test it, or meet any other automobile requirements.

Actually, that's not quite true. It's built for the Chinese market, so they probably left off the wheel to save money. But the reason Zap imported a three-wheeler was because they could call it a motorcycle. Motorcycles don't have to be crash-tested.

Its saving grace is that you're less likely to be killed at 35 mph in a Xebra than you are at 75 mph in any American car. Speed kills.

It's got no air bags, no ABS, and the seat belts are bolted to the fiberglass body, so they're basically decorative.

But it's all-electric, all the time! It never uses gas. It's quiet, and it's fun. The only cars more fun than the Xebra are not yet available. (Tesla Roadster, Venture One.) Think of the Xebra as a car and it's a POS. Think of it as a motorcycle, and it's the safest motorcycle on the road. And it gets a billionth of a billionth of an inch per electron, which is far and away the best FE of any vehicle that's not powered by human or animal muscles.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ceric @ Jun 27 2007, 12:39 AM) [snapback]468338[/snapback]</div>

"Communist", per se, is not the issue. The issue is corruption, corporate greed and lack of oversight which is rampant here as well as in China. Here, we traffic in corrupt political decisions (Iraq) and obscene corporate handouts/lack of oversight that certainly kill innocent people. Look at the legacies of Clinton, who brought us the benighted NAFTA agreements(and the immigration mess), and Bush, whose incompetence, corruption and corporate sponsorship have set new records.

That said, how do we know what products are made in China, since many international corporations sell goods from a variety of sources. Can you always find "made in China" stamped on an item, like car tires?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jun 28 2007, 06:08 PM) [snapback]469736[/snapback]</div>

How do you know that to be true? It hasn't been crash tested. Did you see the pics of the Reva? At 40 mph it's utterly destroyed. The occupants would have a very slim chance of surviving. This was determined in European crash tests for "quadricylces" which is what the Reva is classified as.

 

It's never easy being a rebel (and it shouldn't be).

But...that's what makes rebels *sooooo cool!!* They take something valuable and hang it over the edge just a little bit, for the sake of their beliefs.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Jun 29 2007, 05:47 PM) [snapback]470372[/snapback]</div>

Thank you, Natalie.

The Prius is a safer car than the Xebra. But staying home and never venturing onto the road would be safer yet. Or, living near work, thus reducing your time on the road, is safer than living where you have to travel many miles on the freeway to get to work. If you drive on the freeway daily, you have made a lifestyle decision that introduces more incremental risk into your life than I have done by using a Xebra for my in-city driving. It's not too hard to convince yourself that you have no choice, because you must live where you do, and you must work where you do. But these are decisions.

I suspect that the incremental risk of using my Xebra instead of my Prius for my daily in-town driving is very likely less (as long as I drive carefully and defensively) than the incremental risk of driving a Prius rather than staying at home. But what kind of a life would it be if you lived it hiding under the bed? Well, I say, what kind of a life would it be using a fuel I hate when I can use a fuel I like? I never had a chance to get an EV in the 90's. I lived in ND, and then I was out of the country. The Xebra is the only EV available for me right now. I can bitch and kvetch that the big car companies won't build an EV with a top speed of 100 mph and a 450-mile range with all the safety features of cars that go so fast that just about any accident will kill you, or I can drive what's available now, and buy something better when it comes along. Yes, it's less safe. But my real risk, driving it in town, is minuscule compared to many of the other risks we all take every day, and many of the risks that are forced upon us when we decide to live in a city and eat store-bought food.

 

I'm not challenging your decision. I think what you're doing is great. It works for you and you're running (driving) with it. I'm just challenging the assertion that a zebra at 35 is safer than a prius at what 75. Judging from the Reva crash tests it seems like a pretty questionable assertion.

Sadly, you're not the only one. :angry: