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Ford To Close 3 Plants In Tire Shift
Truck Plants In Minnesota, New Jersey, Missouri Affected
To Close For 11 Days To Divert SUV Tires To Dealers
Survey: Tire Troubles Hurting Ford's Image
WASHINGTON , August 21, 2000
AP
Ford's CEO Jac Nasser will address the recall issue during a TV ad Monday night.
(CBS) Ford Motor Co. will idle three truck plants to shift 70,000 tires from new vehicles to be used as replacements in a recall of 6.5 million tires.
The plants in Minnesota, New Jersey and Missouri will close from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8 so that 15-inch tires used in production of Ford Explorer/Mercury Mountaineer sport utility vehicles and Ford Ranger pickups will be diverted to Ford and Lincoln/Mercury dealers. The plants employ about 6,000 workers.
Ford CEO Jac Nasser was scheduled to explain the announcement in a TV ad running Monday night during ABC's Monday Night Football.
"You have my personal guarantee that all of the resources of Ford Motor Company are being directed to resolve this situation," Nasser says in the ad.
Bridgestone/Firestone has recalled P235/75R15 ATX and ATX II tires, and only Wilderness AT tires in the same size made at a plant in Decatur, Ill. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating the tires in connection with 62 deaths and over 100 injuries.
A safety group on Monday filed a lawsuit to force Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford to widen the recall beyond the original 6.5 million tires. The Center for Auto Safety contends that all Firestone radial ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires are defective and should be recalled.
The companies have previously said their complaint data shows that the tires under recall are the source of hundreds of complaints about treads separating while vehicles are in motion, sometimes at high speeds. Most of the 15-inch tires were installed on Ford trucks, including the popular Explorer sport utility vehicle.
The center's director, Clarence Ditlow, said the group filed suit because it believed it could move faster than the federal government to force a wider recall.
"Firestone and Ford managed to pull the wool over the government's eyes for 10 years," Ditlow said. "We need to take all possible actions to get this defect remedied."
Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone contend that only the models recalled have been linked to problems.
"We'd be happy to review the data, if any, that Mr. Ditlow used in determining that other tires should be recalled," said Ford spokesman Jon Harmon. "All the data Ford, Firestone and NHTSA has seen indicates the recalled population of tires are the ones needing to be recalled, and the other tires are performing very well."
Ditlow said limiting the recall to one size and one plant did not make logical sense. He said if the problem is with the Decatur plant where Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone have said many of the recalled tires were made, then other tire lines made at the plant should also be recalled. If the problem is a design defect, all the sizes in that design should be recalled.
In addition to broadening the recall, the center wants Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone to do more to replace consumers' tires. The companies have said they were moving as fast as possible to get replacements, including using tires from other manufacturers and reimbursing owners for replacements done outside Ford or Firestone dealers.
Ditlow said the companies were moving in the right direction, but that a court order would force them to answer to an outside authority for any delays.
Harmon said Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone were "moving heaven and earth" to get compatible tires of all makes to customers all over the U.S. as quickly as possible.
"It would be irresponsible to recall perfectly good tires, because it would delay getting safe tires to customers who need them," Harmon said. "Safety advocates should advocate for safety, not lawsuits."
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. Several attorneys around the country have filed attempted class-action lawsuits seeking to represent consumers hurt by the recall. Attorneys general in several states have also said they were investigating the tires and the recall.
Ford told analysts in a conference call Monday that Explorer sales had slowed slightly since the recall began, and would likely be down for the month.
George Pipas, Ford's director of sales analysis, said the recall might be a reason for the decline, but new incentives on SUVs from other automakers might also contribute. He also noted that Explorer was at 97 percent of its sales objective for the month-- better than other Ford cars and trucks.
"It's impossible to tease out the impact of one factor versus another," he said. "It's still doing very well, but the sales pace has declined somewhat since earlier this month."
And a new survey finds the image of Ford is being hurt by the Firestone tire recall.
Twenty-five percent of 505 consumers shopping for a new SUV who elected against buying the Explorer -- linked to most of the accidents involving the Firestone tires -- cited the recall for their decision, according to the survey, published in the industry publication Automotive News.
Sixty-five percent of a total 3,601 consumers surveyed described Ford's level of honesty as fair or poor, while 49 percent rated the automaker as fair or poor in its speed of response.
"Ford has taken a black eye right along with Firestone," Rik Kinney, senior vice president of Dohring Co., the automotive research firm that conducted the survey, told Reuters.
The survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.67 percent, was conducted Aug. 16 and 17. It comes a week after Firestone, a unit of Japan's Bridgestone Corp., recalled 6.5 million Wilderness AT, ATX and ATX II 15-inch tires on Aug. 9.
Ford spokesman Mike Vaughn, when asked about the survey, said the automaker was trying to help Firestone replace as many tires on vehicles as fast as possible. "Our whole intent is to move through this process quickly, to make this a short term issue," he said.
Truck Plants In Minnesota, New Jersey, Missouri Affected
To Close For 11 Days To Divert SUV Tires To Dealers
Survey: Tire Troubles Hurting Ford's Image
WASHINGTON , August 21, 2000
AP
Ford's CEO Jac Nasser will address the recall issue during a TV ad Monday night.
(CBS) Ford Motor Co. will idle three truck plants to shift 70,000 tires from new vehicles to be used as replacements in a recall of 6.5 million tires.
The plants in Minnesota, New Jersey and Missouri will close from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8 so that 15-inch tires used in production of Ford Explorer/Mercury Mountaineer sport utility vehicles and Ford Ranger pickups will be diverted to Ford and Lincoln/Mercury dealers. The plants employ about 6,000 workers.
Ford CEO Jac Nasser was scheduled to explain the announcement in a TV ad running Monday night during ABC's Monday Night Football.
"You have my personal guarantee that all of the resources of Ford Motor Company are being directed to resolve this situation," Nasser says in the ad.
Bridgestone/Firestone has recalled P235/75R15 ATX and ATX II tires, and only Wilderness AT tires in the same size made at a plant in Decatur, Ill. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating the tires in connection with 62 deaths and over 100 injuries.
A safety group on Monday filed a lawsuit to force Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford to widen the recall beyond the original 6.5 million tires. The Center for Auto Safety contends that all Firestone radial ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires are defective and should be recalled.
The companies have previously said their complaint data shows that the tires under recall are the source of hundreds of complaints about treads separating while vehicles are in motion, sometimes at high speeds. Most of the 15-inch tires were installed on Ford trucks, including the popular Explorer sport utility vehicle.
The center's director, Clarence Ditlow, said the group filed suit because it believed it could move faster than the federal government to force a wider recall.
"Firestone and Ford managed to pull the wool over the government's eyes for 10 years," Ditlow said. "We need to take all possible actions to get this defect remedied."
Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone contend that only the models recalled have been linked to problems.
"We'd be happy to review the data, if any, that Mr. Ditlow used in determining that other tires should be recalled," said Ford spokesman Jon Harmon. "All the data Ford, Firestone and NHTSA has seen indicates the recalled population of tires are the ones needing to be recalled, and the other tires are performing very well."
Ditlow said limiting the recall to one size and one plant did not make logical sense. He said if the problem is with the Decatur plant where Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone have said many of the recalled tires were made, then other tire lines made at the plant should also be recalled. If the problem is a design defect, all the sizes in that design should be recalled.
In addition to broadening the recall, the center wants Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone to do more to replace consumers' tires. The companies have said they were moving as fast as possible to get replacements, including using tires from other manufacturers and reimbursing owners for replacements done outside Ford or Firestone dealers.
Ditlow said the companies were moving in the right direction, but that a court order would force them to answer to an outside authority for any delays.
Harmon said Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone were "moving heaven and earth" to get compatible tires of all makes to customers all over the U.S. as quickly as possible.
"It would be irresponsible to recall perfectly good tires, because it would delay getting safe tires to customers who need them," Harmon said. "Safety advocates should advocate for safety, not lawsuits."
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. Several attorneys around the country have filed attempted class-action lawsuits seeking to represent consumers hurt by the recall. Attorneys general in several states have also said they were investigating the tires and the recall.
Ford told analysts in a conference call Monday that Explorer sales had slowed slightly since the recall began, and would likely be down for the month.
George Pipas, Ford's director of sales analysis, said the recall might be a reason for the decline, but new incentives on SUVs from other automakers might also contribute. He also noted that Explorer was at 97 percent of its sales objective for the month-- better than other Ford cars and trucks.
"It's impossible to tease out the impact of one factor versus another," he said. "It's still doing very well, but the sales pace has declined somewhat since earlier this month."
And a new survey finds the image of Ford is being hurt by the Firestone tire recall.
Twenty-five percent of 505 consumers shopping for a new SUV who elected against buying the Explorer -- linked to most of the accidents involving the Firestone tires -- cited the recall for their decision, according to the survey, published in the industry publication Automotive News.
Sixty-five percent of a total 3,601 consumers surveyed described Ford's level of honesty as fair or poor, while 49 percent rated the automaker as fair or poor in its speed of response.
"Ford has taken a black eye right along with Firestone," Rik Kinney, senior vice president of Dohring Co., the automotive research firm that conducted the survey, told Reuters.
The survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.67 percent, was conducted Aug. 16 and 17. It comes a week after Firestone, a unit of Japan's Bridgestone Corp., recalled 6.5 million Wilderness AT, ATX and ATX II 15-inch tires on Aug. 9.
Ford spokesman Mike Vaughn, when asked about the survey, said the automaker was trying to help Firestone replace as many tires on vehicles as fast as possible. "Our whole intent is to move through this process quickly, to make this a short term issue," he said.
