Ad, 1975. The low speed chase was far in the future, still.
The Pinto recall was 1978, although prior incidents led to it. The history has nuance and complexity, and important context has been lost as it was distilled into a cultural memory through the filter of time, a sound-bitey press, and more recently, a social media world that thrives on outrage.
Regardless, the ad did not age particularly well, through no real fault of Hertz's.
Part of what made the OJ murder trial so shocking was the fact that OJ Simpson was an extremely well liked public persona bordering on wholesome. I wonder how he would have been remembered had he never brutally murdered his ex and that poor waiter.
That $14.99 a day in 1975 works out to $93.04 now, according to this calculator.
People today don't realize how popular the Ford Pinto was. They were everywhere, especially on college campuses. My family went through several of them during my teenage years. We even had a Pinto Station Wagon.
My 5'2", 90 pound girlfriend played the string bass AND the tuba, and could squeeze both of them into the back of a standard Pinto hatchback. The tuning head of the string bass had to stick out the front passenger window, and she couldn't take any passengers, but she could get to gigs.
I had another girlfriend with the rustiest Pinto I'd ever seen. She was driving me somewhere, and I realized that the floor was moving. I mentioned it, and she told me it was a cookie sheet, covering a big hole in the floor. I shifted it, and sure enough, there was a 10 inch hole in the floor, and I could see the road going past below us.
Pintos were great cars, we drove them until they fell apart, or rusted away. I haven't seen one on the road in decades.
I choose to believe that the famous Bronco was a Hertz rental.
When they screw you over (and they will) it Hertz.
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