Word: forde
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...From the moment that Ford began designing the Explorer in the late '80s, the company had concerns about the appropriate level of tire pressure for the vehicle. Internal documents from 1989, leaked to the media two weeks ago, show that company engineers, instead of making more substantial improvements to the SUV's stability, advised inflating tires to less than the maximum level to decrease the chance of a rollover, even though underinflated tires can in turn increase the risk of tread separation. Ford vehemently rejects the notion that tire pressure played any role, pointing out that similar Goodyear tires...
...Explorer quickly became the most popular SUV of all time - and a major cash cow for both Ford and Firestone - a number of lawsuits concerning the Firestone tires were filed, the first in 1992. But Ford and Firestone, like most companies in today's superlitigious society, tend to assume that the bulk of legal actions are frivolous. "We're going to be second-guessed about this forever. But based on the number of vehicles in service, the number of incidents was statistically insignificant," says Ken Zino, one of Nasser's senior advisers. "We get sued every day. A lawsuit...
...though, there were other signals that should perhaps have caught Ford's attention. As Firestone struggled to keep up with the insatiable appetite for Explorers, labor strife was brewing at its Decatur plant - dubbed the war zone by activists. A bitter 10-month walkout in 1994-95 left the assembly lines in the hands of unskilled replacement workers, who had few veterans to train under, and the labor dispute wasn't finally resolved until 1996. When the strike was settled, many of the old hands did not return to their jobs, and Firestone's Japanese parent, Bridgestone, shifted supervisors around...
...Ford and Firestone attribute incidents in the Middle East and Latin America largely to local driving conditions such as bad roads, hot climates and under- or overinflated tires. Critics see these arguments as disingenuous, if not offensive. According to an internal Ford memo dated Oct. 1, 1999, reviewed by TIME, at least part of the reason some of the Wilderness tires were failing in the Gulf region was that the company had decided to use the North American?made tires even though Firestone had warned that they were "not meant" for the rugged terrain. Ford says it knows...
...Many tire experts think that long after the blame game has cooled down, Ford and Firestone will discover there was no single defect but a combination of factors that may have led to the failures. "You've got a vehicle with marginal stability and a tire that is marginal," says Dick Baumgardner, a former Firestone engineer who now examines tire accidents for legal cases. "Put them together, and you've got a disaster." Pull them apart, and in addition to the human toll, you've got all the makings of a nasty corporate pileup...