the first ford pinto was delivered in september 1970 at a retail cost of $1850, but to achieve the time scale the car had had to be designed and produced in 25 months, rather than the then usual 43 months for a new car line. although inline with safety certification of the national highway traffic safety administration, front end testing had been completed, to save time rear-end collision testing was not undertaken until after launch, although ford engineers knew that testing for rear-end impact was a standard safety procedure.