No its okay Grant, nothing in there that should be deleted.
Well, what I say is if Firestone's executives take such pride in their product, they should have taken extra steps to ensure that it is of high quality, and they CERTAINLY should have made sure that that product didnt go off killing people. And if they had such pride, they should have taken action immediately when they found this out to save lives. The same goes for Ford. You cant tell me that Ford didnt know about this potential problem, international companies arent stupid, they have people that watch for these kinds of things. They knew about it, and had probably KNOWN about it for some time. Why do you think that Blazers and Pathfinders and such dont come with the Firestone tires if they were so cheap and great? Because those particular tires were cheap because corners were cut. They were designed for the Explorer......and they from the start were poor tires. They were designed to be cheap, not safe, and not good.
The bit about it being drivers error only goes so far, these blowouts are in fact unlike normal blowouts, which pretty much negates what Car and Driver and others including myself have said. Sure the Explorer is stable in a normal blowout, but no one has tested it with the tread wrapped around the axle yet. Thats not a design flaw of the Explorer, but it is a design flaw in the tire, and one I believe they knew about.
As for the people that are suing Ford, basically they have every right to. If it was you who lost the use of your legs because some fat a-hole sat in his office and threw all concern for your safety out the window by continuing to use a component in their vehicle that HE KNEW was unsafe, you would probably sue Ford too, you would have every right to, and I would cheer you on. This is different situation from the McDonalds coffee thing. It is common knowledge that coffee is hot and by drinking it you take the risk of being burnt. It is simply money grubbing to sue for something like that. However, people do not and should not have to expect that a substandard, literally peice of **** component of their vehicle placed there by a manufacturer that knew it was prone to failure could fail and end or alter their life for ever, or end and alter the lives of one or all of their loved ones. If my Explorer flipped because of those damn tires and it killed my family or maimed them, you can bet your life that I would find some way to make Ford pay for what they had done. I would make forcing Ford to pay my lifes work, and I would not REST until they had made restitution to me, and all the other people involved. People dont screw me over and get away with it, and I cannot blame anyone else for feeling the same way.
Think about it this way, would you be a little mad if your hand soap contained something that bruned the skin off your hands and left you handicapped? Wouldnt you want the maker of that soap to reimburse you monitarily for your pain that was their fault? Its exactly the same thing.
If you ask me, everyone who was involved in an Explorer crash because of Firestone tires should get on the stick and make Ford and Firestone pay. Teach them a lesson and maybe next time they'll think twice before they put the lives of their customers on the line to save $50 a vehicle.
What Ford and Firestone did was wrong, they are literally murderers and they should and will pay for it. Personally, I would not be unhappy to see Ford and or Firestone go out of business, thats not going to happen, but I wouldnt be unhappy. There are plenty of other great midsize SUVs made by people who consider their customer's safety. If Ford hadn't responded in the way they did, and if they werent taking such steps to make sure the new Explorers are perfect I would NEVER EVER EVER buy another Ford product again, and I may still not. THATS how much this bothers me.
[Edited by Stephen on 01-13-2001 at 12:00 AM]
