The scene in Fight Club is about a defect discovered post-purchase. They apply a formula to determine whether to issue a recall to fix said defect, or simply pay out settlements to the victims. It's probably a reference to the Pinto, but it's been replicated in countless other cases.
For the Pinto, Ford knew about the defect for years. In fact, the infamous design failure was a US-exclusive for years, because other countries passed legislation to ban it. And by the time the US did the same, Ford just switched in the design they had already been using elsewhere.
Ford fully knew about the defect, and continued to produce it for as long as they could.