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Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region

By Frank Bruns, Bruns911@PorscheNet.com
NOR'EASTER Online - September 2000

As I write this month’s column, tires seem to be all over the news. In one story, the Concorde air disaster seems to be traceable to a tire failure during take-off. Since I don’t own a Concorde, and I have never been able to justify the added cost to fly in the Concorde, the story is very sad, but mainly of intellectual interest. On the other hand, I do own a Ford Explorer equipped with Wilderness-AT Tires. The recent Firestone recall is of great personal interest.

Obviously, the first thing I did when I heard about the recall was to go out and check to see if my tires were included. It turns out that they were not built in the plant under suspicion so, for now, they are still on the car. That doesn’t mean that I am feeling comfortable, however. Nothing gets my attention faster than the realization that one of my tires could disintegrate at any moment, without warning. It’s one thing to get a recall notice concerning my O2 sensor or catalytic converter. It’s an entirely different matter to be reminded that you and your families’ lives depend on those four small patches of rubber on the pavement. The most unnerving part of the situation is that there is no “test” for the problem, just a list of (possibly) suspect tires. No one really knows how widespread the problem may be.

What I am really disappointed in is the way Firestone is handling this mess. One thing is clear -- Ford is winning the public image contest with Firestone. Al Gore could take lessons from Ford in distancing oneself from a “partner”. Firestone seems to be doing everything wrong and Ford seems to be able capitalize on every mistake. It took three days for Firestone to even get information out to the public on how to identify the Wilderness-AT tires that were built in the Decatur plant. Also, how hard was it to predict the public’s reaction to a safety recall that was forecasted to take 12 - 18 months? Does Firestone really believe that their customers care that they can’t produce enough tires themselves? Ford jumped in and offered to replace the questionable tires with tires from other manufacturers (ignoring the fact that there also aren’t enough tires available from all the manufactures combined to suddenly replace all the recalled tires.)

All of this all shouldn’t be new to the people at Firestone, either. They have been at the edge of extinction before because of a huge tire recall. In 1978 they had to recall 7.5 million Firestone 500 radial tires that were subject to “tread separation, if improperly inflated”. The purchase of Firestone in 1989 by Bridgestone was a direct result of the financial burden from that recall. From what I remember, it took seven years of investigation to even get Firestone to admit there was a problem. I guess some people just don’t learn.

I have already decided that I will be changing tires on the Explorer. Even though my tries are not on the recall list, I’m going to do it for peace of mind. There are just too many other manufacturers out there to spend any more time wondering if my tires are safe. I don’t know about the rest of their customers, but as soon as I can find replacement tires, the Firestones will be off my car.

Here’s something to think about, as well. One of the main reasons this is has become such a big story is that it concerns Firestone’s best selling tires and the tires that come as original equipment on the world’s best selling SUV, the Ford Explorer. I wonder -- if Firestone had changed the name of the tires every year, without making any modifications at all, would a pattern have even been recognized? Are there other tires with the same design (or manufacturing) flaw out there, but just in smaller numbers? How much did the fact that these tires are used on SUVs (which react much more violently to catastrophic front-tire failure) affect the visibility given to this problem?

The story continues to unfold and will probably continue for a long time in the future. The questions of who knew what and when did they know it will probably never be fully settled. My guess would be that both Ford and Firestone share the blame for keeping the investigations quiet, but Firestone, through its mishandling of the crises, will take the brunt of the blame. Firestone has had a great history in both motorsports and consumer tires, but this could well be the end of the Firestone name. Up to now, Bridgestone has continued to market under the Firestone name because of its past glory. They could very well decide now that the Firestone name carries just a little too much baggage.

Porsche Club of America The Northeast Region

Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region