Ford's Suv Problem

The problem started on 1988 when firestone agreed to be acquired by Bridgestone tires and it became the supplier of tires for Ford motors new SUV, the Explorer.

Later on March 11,1999 ford was complaining about the tire separation on their Explorers. In response Firestone sent a confidential memo.

On august 1999 Ford announced a recall in 16 foreign countries of all tiers that have shown a tendency to fail mainly because of a problem of tread separation. They've found out that the failure were primarily on the ford Explorer which the tires were produced by Firestone.

On February 2000 The Company offered a free inspection to all owners of Firestone tires in respond of the investigation by KHOU-TV into 3 fatal incidents involving firestone tires which were used on the Explorers.

And also the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration opened a full investigation after another fatal accident on May 2000. The agency listed 90 complaints.

On August 4 Sears Roebuck and Co have announced that they would stop selling Firestone's tires. Despite all of that Firestone reiterated its belief that the tires are safe and Ford at that time was still investigating.

On August 9 Firestone recalled around 6.5 million tires used on light trucks and SUVs because they were implicated in more than 40 fatalities. Moreover they offered to replace every recalled tire. And they explained that as a safety step

However the 2 companies started to blame each other. Firestone recommended a 30psi pressure where Ford claimed it tests showed a smoother ride at 26psi.

ON August 13 the Washington post reported from sources in the Firestone plant that there was quality control problems in the mid 1990s and the workers were using tactics to speed production and managers where giving short shrift to inspections.

On August 15 the NHTSA announced it now linked 62 deaths to the recalled Firestone tires.

On September 4,The US Congress opened hearings on the firestone and ford tire separation problem. Ford CEO Nasser testified before a joint congressional hearing that the problem is surely not from our vehicles because the vehicles, which used Goodyear tires, didn't have any problems. Moreover he offered to work with the tire industry to develop and implement an early warning system to prevent those problems.

Another clear problem was that ford didn't notice the problem earlier because of lack of information on tires where they are separately warranted. And also Firestone