Thank you Ford Motor Company

[62_Kiwi]

This week I received a free set of new GoodYear Wrangler tyres (including spare) to replace the Firestone Wilderness AT's on my Ford Explorer.<br /><br />I'm impressed with the gutsy decision Ford made to put customer safety & satisfaction ahead of the short term profit line. It must have cost a packet (gross understatement!) to replace all the tyres on those millions of Explorers - even as far away as little ole NZ!<br /><br />Thanks again Mr Ford from a loyal customer.

 

[crab bait]

Re: Thank you Ford Motor Company

don't thank ford to much .. they knew about this problem along time before hand. they'er just now gettin' around to N Z ?? that's appauling.. ( nothin' like a new set of tires ahay KIWI !! )

 

[62_Kiwi]

Re: Thank you Ford Motor Company

Hi Crab Bait,<br /><br />You can look at it from different angles - and of course I'm very pleased and grateful to get new tyres considering the others had already done 40,000 km.<br /><br />My understanding of the Ford/Firestone saga is that the particular Wilderness AT tyres that had the tread separations (which caused many tragic accidents) were all from a particular factory and had a particular identification code. These tyres were recalled and replaced earlier on. None of those tyres ever made it to NZ or Australia as far as I'm aware.<br /><br />That initial recall/replacement was either partly or fully paid for by Firestone.<br /><br />Later on Ford decided to replace ALL Wilderness AT tyres on Ford Vehicles at it's own cost to be totally sure that the problem was eliminated. My Firestones were made in Canada and I believe there was wasn't a major problem with those - but they were replaced anyway.<br /><br />To me (even though it took a while to reach NZ) that looks like a good decision by Ford in support of their customers. For that, I thank Ford. In my view, Firestone don't come out looking as good and they seem to have lost Ford as a customer in the process.

 

[DJ]

Re: Thank you Ford Motor Company

Kiwi,<br /><br />It cost Ford 3 billion dollars. That's right billion with a "B".<br /><br />Ford's biggest mistake was putting all their eggs in one suppliers basket. The failure rate of Firestone vs. Goodyear, Michelin, General was 10,000 to 1. There was never anything wrong with the vehicle.<br /><br />I'm confused on the timing to reach NZ. The program was worldwide from day one. The customer did not have to wait for official notification. The tire model and DOT #'s told the story of which were affected.

 

[petryshyn]

Re: Thank you Ford Motor Company

Hi 62_Kiwi <br />I'm happy you got looked after....but as crab bait says, don't take it personal! The government probably has more to do with this gesture than Ford. Maybe your post should read" Thank you Safety Recall Procedures(alias covering thine butt from further litigations)" .....

 

[DJ]

Re: Thank you Ford Motor Company

All,<br /><br />It was completely VOLUNTARY.<br /><br />I won't comment any more on this one-a liitle too close to home.

 

[62_Kiwi]

Re: Thank you Ford Motor Company

There's a huge amount of info about this saga on the net - just search on the words Ford Firestone and it will take days to read it all, if you should want to.<br /><br />As an owner of an Explorer, I've done a fair bit of reading to find out how I was affected. Mine did not have the tyres (excuse my English spelling of tyres) with the DOT code that was having all the problems. All of those tyres were replaced by Ford & Firestone very early on - I was not affected by that. None of the really bad tyres ever made it to this part of the world.<br /><br />My understanding is that much later on, after Ford did a lot more research it found that other batches of Firestone Wilderness AT tyres had a higher chance of failing as they got older. The failures always seemed to involve high temperatures and high speed.<br /><br />Ford decided on it's own (Firestone were dead against this - saying there was nothing wrong with the tyres) to replace all Firestone Wilderness AT tyres on ALL Ford Explorers. Ford ended up doing this totally at it's own cost. Firestone still insist that this was not necessary. Ford did it all based on it's own research (and to spend that much money, they must have been been very sure of their facts).<br /><br />My research of the subject would agree with DJohns19 that Ford did this on it's own voluntary decision.<br /><br />The reason it took so long to replace mine, is that my Explorer is realatively new (a 2000 model) and they wanted to replace the older ones first - as the older tyres were less safe, according to Ford. It seems that Ford worked out the order of who was replaced when, by the relative danger of their tyres failing.<br /><br />Obviously to replace that many tyres so quickly, would have put a huge load on the tyre factories - but I think the other (non Firestone) companies used this situation to strengthen their relationship with Ford and help them out.<br /><br />I think Ford did the right thing by it's customers. The fact that Firestone did not contribute to the later, full replacement makes me question their REAL attitude to safety (as apart from what they say on their website).<br /><br />Are there any other Explorer owners on board ? What do you think ?

 

[GarageGuy42]

Re: Thank you Ford Motor Company

I don't happen to own an Explorer,but have worked on many. Not to insult any owners but you need to keep the tires and get another vehicle. No, I do not work for Firestone. Firestone and Ford have been in bed with each other since Henry was in charge, literally. Firestone actually has the lowest failure rate than any of the other tire manufactures for that model of tire. I think Ford made the replacement call on other brands to try to save there own a**. The explorer was originally built on a Ranger chassis. Tall and narrow, the engine sits high in the vehicle,hence a too high center of gravity. If you have a blow out on a front tire there is at least 6"-8" from the ground to the rim, what else will it do but flip in a blowout. The engineers knew this problem for years but the execs. said it wasn't cost effective to change the design. They felt they could absorb any lawsuits at the time and still come out ahead. The new Explorers are wider and shorter. HuH! Imagine that! Another issue, tires don't generally explode just because. Some of the accidents could be human error. Running a tire low on air they get hot and start to disingrate from the inside out. You combine that with hot pavement and it doesn't look good. I think in Fords eyes someone was going to pay and it was Firestone. More money and power. That is what it all boils down to anyway is the almighty dollar.<br />Everybody by now should know how big corporations work. Screw the little guy / what's the bottom line!<br />Thank You, I feel much better now!<br />P.S. Explorers were killing people in Saudi Arabia for years before the news hit the states. Ford wasn't obliged by law to tell the government about it. Ford isn't innocent by any means.<br />As I have said before, I can stand to be corrected.