The Great Tire Debate. . .

In August of 2000, Bridgestone/Firestone announced the recall of nearly 6.5 million ATX, ATX II, and Wilderness tires distributed in the United States. The recall specifically was limited to the following tires: 15-inch Wilderness AT tires produced at Firestone’s plant in Decatur, Illinois, and all 15-inch ATX and ATX II radial tires made throughout the United States. The recall was prompted by an investigation conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) linking the tires, which are primarily used on the Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicle (SUV), to about 100 fatalities and over 300 injuries. The tires were used as original equipment on Ford Explorers, Rangers, and B-series trucks; Mercury Mountaineers; and Mazda Navajos.

Besides sparking public concern and debate, the recall also sparked a fierce controversy between life-long partners Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford Motor Company. Firestone has been the sole tire supplier for Ford through the automaker’s history. However, the companies had a problem. The tires kept experiencing tread separation, causing them to blow out unexpectedly and frequently resulting in vehicle rollovers.

After Firestone agreed to conduct the recall, several workers at the Decatur plant began speaking to the press about suspect manufacturing practices at the plant. Specifically, plant employees have stated that they stored green tires—fully assembled tire that have not yet been vulcanized—on the floor, allowing debris to stick to them. In addition, workers reported that the plant was kept hot and humid, affecting tire quality, and that they were encouraged to repair blisters or knots on the tires (popping bubbles in the rubber that could lead to holes later). Coupled with certain manufacturing processes that affected the quality of work performed, such as requiring laborers to work 12-hour shifts, placing a 100 tire per hour production quota over laborer’s heads, and giving tire builders bonuses for producing more that 100 tires per hour, the workers blamed the production process for the emerging defect trend.

However, this theory may raise more questions than it answers. If the production process was the culprit, why weren’t all the tires produced at Decatur recalled? The same production processes were used for all the tires produced at the plant, according to the workers that came forward. And if it was a manufacturing problem based on practices at one plant, why were all the ATX and ATX II tires recalled across the country?

At this point information began to surface about Ford’s involvement in the use of the 15-inch Firestone tires on its SUVs. Ford had recalled the tires on its vehicles in at least 10 foreign countries when the recall was announced. Ford has replaced tires on its vehicles in Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Basra, Thailand, and Malaysia. At least in the case of Saudi Arabia, Ford reported the recall was linked to excessively high surface temperatures on which the tires were being driven. While Ford reported that the conditions in Saudi Arabia were unique and that drivers in the United States were not faced with the same type of risk, NHTSA discovered through analysis of the various complaints it received about the tires that a strong geographical trend seemed to link tire failure to warmer weather states.

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