So my question is, knowing that Bridgestone/Firestone deliberatly covered this up and cost lives, will you ever buy another Firestone tire? What about the one’s you have now? What will you do with those?
I know I’ll never buy a Firestone tire. And luckily I dont have firestones already.
Guess you never heard of the Ford Pinto! Back in the 1970s Ford built the Pinto which was a forerunner to the Escort and whenever one of those suckers got rear ended they had the annoying tendancy to burst into flames! In court it came out that Ford had decided that it would be cheaper to settle any lawsuits that might arise over the matter than to fix the problem. As it turned out, Ford never had to pay out a dime in settlement costs as they were able to win all the lawsuits against them. How times have changed.
That being said, Ford’s still having problems with tires exploding on Explorers (don’t have a cite for this, but you’ll occasionally hear a blurb about it on the news). Doesn’t matter to me if its the tires or the Explorer that’s causing the problem, I’ll still buy Firestone tires (in fact, I’ve got some on my car right now). Every company that manufacturers something covers up defects. These could be fatal or non-fatal defects, it doesn’t matter. Its human nature to cover such things up. Like the man said, “You pays your money and you takes your chances.”
Probably not. The cover up was far too vast for me to forgive it, though I have been a big fan of Firestone for decades. When they chose to put peoples lives at risk rather than loose a few million having a voluntary recall, that soured me. It’s Toyo tires for me now. I drove those things on a commercial delivery vehicle and they outlasted every other brand of tire the company used! Even the front tires, which take the most abuse from cornering and such, held up like a dream. They cost more, but instead of having to refit the truck with tires every 8 months, we had to refit it every two years!
Currently I have Firestone tires on my car. I bought them prior to the original recall, natch. They’re the first tires I have ever had that were not made by Goodyear. And they’ll be the last, even though they aren’t Wilderness AT’s. I work for a Ford dealership and have been up to my neck in Firestone Wilderness AT’s for more than a year. I’ll be so happy when all of this is over, if it ever is.
I would personally never buy Firestone tires; in fact, for any on-road driving, I wouldn’t want anything but Michelins. In my experience, they last a long time and are quite reliable.
[slight hijack]
Here in Orange County (Calif), off the 5 Freeway in Laguna Hills, you can see a Firestone Store at the mall there. Lately, there have been a number of tents set up in the parking lot.
When we first saw this set-up, I asked my wife:
“Is Firestone having a blow-out sale?”
…didn’t realize what I said till I said it.
Still think it’s kinda funny, no disrespect to the victims of the Bridgestone/Firestone/Ford incidents.
[/slight hijack]
I wouldn’t ever buy them, in fact, we were just searching for a car for my oldest son, and THAT was one of the things on my list. The car COULDN’T have Firestone tires. Yeah, I coulda changed them. But the car he just had died,[Taurus] and we had just gotten new tires for it, and didn’t want to buy new tires along with getting another car.
Michelin babeeee. I’m not too thrilled with Ford either BTW, I love my Crown Victoria, but I probably won’t replace it with another one.
While not reading the other responses, except for the OP…I bought Firestone tires not less than a month ago.
Why?
Because I needed tires.
Because Firestone is under serious scrutiny and if any tires will be SAFE they will be now.
Because I believe, in my honest of thinking that it was two that made the problem. It wasn’t just Firestone, it was a combo of Ford and Firestone – given what I have heard.
Are the deaths and injuries horrible? Oh yes. Having worked in the tire business in the past I also know that it takes more than a faulty tire design to cause problems.
Proper lug nut torque, proper inflation (reportedly a part of the problem with this issue,) proper balance and of course proper tire care.
I can’t say it for anyone else but I can’t find that Firestone is at complete and total fault. I believe several factors played part. But dat’s just me.
We all have our little preferences. I would never buy a Ford, so that excludes the Explorer. Why? Because the dad of my best friend in high school worked for GM. But if I was looking for tires and Firestone had the best tires, well I’d probably buy them.
As to the accidents, etc. I am not forgiving either Firestone or Ford, but we are getting so hung up today about blaming other people/companies/countries/professions for the fact that life isn’t completely safe. It is hard to draw the line, but wherever the line is we’ve gone way past it.
They did? I could’ve sworn that the Big Book of the Seventies said that in at least one case, the plaintiff was awarded an obscenely high judgment (for that time) in order to break the logic of “lawsuits are cheaper than compliance.” Did Ford win an appeal against it, or am I just misremembering the book?
evidence that statistically, FIRESTONE tires are any more unsafe than any other brand. All evidence is that:
-the tires which failed were severely UNDERINFLATED
-the vehicles that crashed were being driven recklessly
-high ambient temperatures contributed to the failures
What is fueling this? Ask the lawyers-MONEY!! Firestone has deep pockets, and the pickings are good for a sharp lawyer!
Of course, who ever l;ooked for logic in a lawsuit?
Leaper, I’m going by what Gerry Spence said in one of his books, which I can’t find at the moment, so I can’t quote exactly what he said. Anyways, if Spence says it, I’m not going to argue with him about it!*
For those of you who don’t get that, Spence is the author of How to Argue and Win Every Time, plus he hasn’t lost a case since 1969, so anyone who thinks they’ve got a shot against him is up against some pretty steep odds.
It drives me crazy that people just skewer Firestone and dont even think about any Ford culpability. The thing about Explorers is that their center of gravity is high. They are built in such a way that they would roll over relatively easily if it werent for a few little precautions, which include, surprise! surprise! installing tires that are slightly deflated compared to normal tire PSI. It’s a trade-off. A tire that is deflated, even by miniscule amounts, is more likely to behave in a less than optimal fashion. But you never hear about this! Ford must have one hell of a PR
and legal dept. They really nailed Firestone to the wall
and got away scot-free in the process.
“Because Firestone is under serious scrutiny and if any tires will be SAFE they will be now.”
I hope you’re right but you don’t really believe they’ve had time to figure out what was wrong, convince management to produce a changed line, redesign and test a fix, install the proper dyes and procedures, roll out the fix to all plants, make the new product and stock your friendly dealer’s shelf already, do you?
I never would have bought a Ford anyway (except for a Cobra GT 500) and never would have bought a Firestone either. I’m strictly a Michelin & Pirelli kinda guy. My wife’s company car has Firestones but I check them often for wear and they’re a different one from the recalled type and on a passenger car.
I would like to mention this… We live in Texas w/ hot roads and high speeds. On a trip to Dallas from Houston awhile back, actually just before the story broke, I was absolutely shocked at all the bits and pieces of tire strewn all along the highway. Believe it or not, I started counting and came up with an average of 3 to 4 tire parts per mile. I’m sure a lot of tires shredded without killing anyone and were never reported.
I wouldn’t hesitate to buy Firestone. There seem to be some basic problems with what was reported.
One thing is that many of the the tires that did so had reeeaal high milage. We are talking about over 60,000 miles here. Also, Ford recommended too low of a tire pressure for the tires.
The link that follows (I hope it works) is from a guy named Ed Wallace. He does an Auto radio show and seems to know what he’s talking about
Most of those tire bits probably belonged to 18-wheelers. They typically lose tires due to overinflation or excess weight (from too much cargo). When these bits–or more often, the tire itself–fly off of the truck at 65-70 mph, it can cause serious problems for the surrounding vehicles.
I’ve got Firestone FR480’s on my pickup now. They came with the vehicle new, and I just rolled over 84,000 miles on my way to work this morning. The treads are still in good shape, but they are nearing the end of their service lives.
I would not hesitate to buy Firestones again, and in fact probably will when I buy tires in the next month or two.
To me, based on what I’ve managed to pick up, this affair reflects far more poorly on Ford than it does on Bridgestone/Firestone.
