NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Ford's top-selling Explorer sport/utility vehicle came under scrutiny in Venezuela, where the country's consumer protection agency wants the vehicle banned from sale there following accidents tied to rollovers, according to a published report Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal quoted a spokesman for Venezuela's consumer agency, the Institute for the Defense and Education of Consumers and Users, as saying it is "working on a request to the attorney general to prohibit the sale of Explorers in Venezuela" because of technical problems with the S/UV that make it roll over.

Since last summer, the agency has been investigating a series of fatal accidents involving Explorers with Firestone tires that were linked to at least 47 fatalities, the report noted.

A spokesman for Venezuela's attorney general's office, which would have to approve the agency's request, said he was not aware of the pending request and lawyers in Caracas said it would be difficult to impose and enforce such a broad ban, the Journal said.

A Ford spokesman said the company has received no official notification of such a move in Venezuela, calling it a "wild speculation," the report said.

"We feel confident that we have all the technical backing to support the integrity of the vehicle," the paper quoted the Ford spokesman as saying.

Ford announced Tuesday it is replacing up to 13 million Firestone-tires on its vehicles, doubling the number of tires exchanged in last year's recall, prompted by new data that raised concerns of tread separations in Firestone Wilderness tires.

I'd be willing to bet that most of those rollovers were due to driver error. I just think that it's funny that some people drive SUV's like sports cars and then have the audacity to b$%ch and say it was the vehicles fault for rolling over and not theirs. That's just my two cents.

I agree. Those people should have bought a sports car if they wanted a sports car. If they don't have enough sense to drive a truck, maybe they should be banned from driving. I've had mine in some pretty precarious positions over the years and never had a hint of a roll-over. Of course, I have better sense than to drive 75 miles an hour down the road on underinflated standard (cheap) tires in an SUV!

I found this fairly interesting...I have driven other SUVs, and firmly believe that the X is just as stable (if not more stable) than any other SUV out there. Give this a read, and pass it along to anyone who asks you about the Firestone recall. Lets's not confuse bad drivers with bad design!


CAR & DRIVER

ANN ARBOR, Michigan,
October 27 /PRNewswire/ -

What happens when a left rear tire on a 1994 Explorer blows on a paved straightaway at 70 mph? "Surprisingly, not much," said Csaba Csere (pronounced Chubba Chedda), editor-in-chief at Car and Driver magazine. "I'd trust my own mother driving in similar circumstances," said Csere, following a series of road tests that he and a team from Car and Driver magazine conducted on October 23 and 26. Results of the tests, conducted at Milan Dragway just south of Car and Driver's Ann Arbor headquarters, revealed that, "during a tire failure, the Explorer, like other modem vehicles in our experience, remains stable and easy to control," said Csere.

"Nothing happened to explain why an Explorer, similarly equipped and under the same conditions, might veer from the paved roadway. And, unless the vehicle leaves the pavement, a rollover is extremely unlikely." Csere speculated that some drivers panic or are startled by the sound of a tire disintegrating or blowing out, then jerk the steering wheel or slam on their brakes. Even so, when technical editor Larry Webster, who drove the test Explorer, fully applied the brakes during one blowout test at 70 mph, he had no trouble controlling the vehicle.

Car and Driver bought the used 1994 four-door, 4WD Explorer October 20, at an independent, used-car dealership in Redford Township, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The vehicle was equipped with Goodyear Wrangler RT/S tires (installed during the Firestone recall), and the odometer read 37,137 miles (a figure Csere suspects is 100,000 miles too low).

Car and Driver had a roll cage and competition seat belts installed to protect the driver, but nothing else mechanically was done to prepare the vehicle for the tests. To record results, two video cameras were mounted: one inside the vehicle, trained on the driver, and one outside the vehicle, aimed at the left rear tire.

The blowout was achieved by fitting a modified wheel with a special valve that would deflate the tire in one-third of a second. This device was triggered remotely via a hand-held transmitter. The modified wheel was fitted to the left rear tire of the Explorer because that position was the one most commonly cited in the Firestone blowout complaints.

With Webster at the wheel, Csere triggered the blowout once the vehicle came up to speed. "Since we were able to perform repeated blowouts, we began our tests at 30 mph and worked our way up to 70 mph in 10-mph increments," explained Csere.

In every case, even at 70 mph, the Explorer's performance was remarkably undramatic. When the blowout occurred, the left rear of the vehicle settled down, but the Explorer continued straight ahead. "I even kept my hands off the steering wheel during one blowout at 70 mph, and the Explorer continued straight. Not until I applied the brakes, which pulled to the left, I was forced to put a hand on the wheel and correct the Explorer's path," explained Webster.

Only after applying the brakes as hard as possible after a 70-mph blowout did the Explorer wiggle at all. Even then, it would have easily stayed within the confines of a normal traffic lane, said Csere.

Based on these results, Csere offers the following advice to drivers of any vehicle who suspect that they are experiencing a tire problem:

Don't panic, modern vehicles tend to remain stable during tire failures.
Keep the vehicle going straight and on the pavement. The chance of rolling over is minimal unless you leave the roadway.
Unless there is an immediate obstruction in your path, don't be in a big hurry to stop. The additional drag of the deflated tire will slow your vehicle down by itself pretty rapidly. Ease your foot off the accelerator and apply the brakes gently to come to a full stop at the side of the road.
"If you follow these guidelines, you have an excellent chance of making sure that your tire failure remains an inconvenience rather than turning into a tragedy," said Csere.

Csere holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined Car and Driver in 1980, has held positions of technical editor and technical director, and has performed instrumented tests on more than 800 cars. Previously, he worked on fuel-injection systems at Ford's Advanced Engine engineering office. Webster is a graduate of Lehigh University where he majored in engineering, and he joined Car and Driver in 1994. He is one of the magazine's main road-test drivers.