[raises hand]
Yep. Some choice quotes (from memory):
Re: The "most profitable" bit:
"A single factory [where they make Lincoln and Ford versions of the same UAV] is the single most profitable factory in the world, and is more profitable than all but a couple of dozen entire corporations."
Re: Schleping their children around in these deathtraps (from a mom with toddler in arms):
"Cars are built to be safe, so I know whichever one [UAV] I buy is going to be safe."
Re: Are they actually "safe":
"The Ford Explorer is 18 times more likely to cause a fatality of occupants in the other vehicle in a collision than a typical car."
Re: Why didn't Ford follow the recommendation of their engineers to widen the track of the first Explorer by two inches:
"Ford was in a fight against the Chevy Blazer at the time, and no one wanted to be the one to tell the Ford chairman and CEO that we would have to delay 18 months."
You're right about understating the culpability of the manufacturers. Their own engineers told them the vehicles were unstable and they made them anyway. The NHTSA staffers told the administrators about it, and were told to "modify" their reports to "reflect the position of the agency."
For all the attention that the Explorer/Firestone rollover story got, those deaths represented 1/40th of the total rollover deaths of SUVs. No, that's not a typo: 1/40th. ~300 out of ~12,000.
