Word: forde
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...company marketed I-Beam directly to consumers, since it had been used on the original and highly popular Bronco. But the Bronco II became a nightmare for Ford, which by the late 1980s faced more than 800 lawsuits that stemmed from accidents involving rollovers. That didn't deter Ford from using the same suspension on the new Explorer, which allowed the automaker to build the SUV on the same assembly lines as the Ranger pickup...
...Consumer Reports results stunned Ford engineers, who acknowledged in a memo that passing "the Consumers Union test became an implicit requirement for Explorer due to the potential for adverse publicity." The memo was referring to a double-lane-change test that Consumers Union used to evaluate an automobile's real-world maneuverability...
...Ford made a curious choice with regard to the Explorer's tires. After putting the SUV through the Consumers Union test, engineer Roger Stornant wrote that the results yielded "a high confidence of passing CU with [Firestone's] P225 tires and less confidence on the [Firestone] P235." Ford chose the larger P235 anyway. Marketed first as the ATX and then as the Wilderness AT, the P235 became the tire that Firestone later recalled...
...chilling aside, Stornant wrote that Ford "management is aware of the potential risk with P235 tires and has accepted [that] risk. CU test is generally unrepresentative of the real world," Stornant said, "and I see no 'real' risk in failing [the CU test] except what may result in the way of spurious litigation...
...With the Explorer's 1990 production date approaching, Ford engineers listed four options for improving the stability of the SUV: widening the chassis by 2 in.; lowering the engine; or lowering the tire pressure and stiffening the springs. Ford chose the latter two fixes and recommended a tire pressure of 26 p.s.i.-rather than the 30-to-35 p.s.i. that Firestone normally used in its tires-to produce a more road-gripping ride. This created friction between Ford and Firestone after last year's recall, with Firestone insisting that the low pressure had increased the heat on the tires...