Uhaul Screws Ford Explorer Owners

Jan 03, 2004 65 Replies

So? All manufactures tinker. It's how they find a better way to do things. There's absolutely nothing there to say the Explorer is unsafe, or even somehow made Firestone's tires worse.

But that doesn't say (or even hint) that the Explorer was an unsafe vehicle. Only that not every safety recommendation was used.

That seems to have missed the *fact* that Firestone's tires were indeed unsafe, as Firestone later admitted (after one of their own blew the whistle on them) because of a manufacturing defect. Which Firestone tried to cover up, and lied about for some time. That article was written before the defect was know, when the media was still looking for a victim... er... "responsible party".

yet Firestone somehow conveniently continued to supply the tires, while (supposedly) saying that the pressure wasn't going to be handled by the tires. IOW, Firestone willingly and knowingly put thousands of people at risk for money. it just gets better and better, doesn't it?

This is, apparently, saying that any change in manufacture touted as a safety improvement is a tacit admission that the prior model is unsafe, and can be used as such in any procedings as an admission of such. Right.

Fine. You're entitled to your opinion. However, your opinion was not borne out by the investigations, once all the facts were known.

The research has been done. All investigations that had access to the actual facts (and not done by Firestone lawyers) shows the problem was caused by Firestone's manufacturing problems, and not Ford's Explorer. Firestone's bleatings that they thought Fords pressure recommendations were unsafe are proved false by Firestone's continued supplying of their tires for use in what they (after the fact) claimed was an unsafe condition.

I'm still unsure why you say this. I may have missed something. Where do you get the info that the site is from or represents Firestone lawyers?

JP

What I don't see is how you can actually believe that that site is even pretending to be objective. It's so obviously pro-Firestone that it reeks of bias.

I hear what you are saying Bill but like you can't see what the other guy does.

If you visit the home page of the website there is a picture of a young child standing NEXT to a tire (not an explorer) with a comforter and with a title under it "Recent Firestone Victim". If this site were pro Firestone and anti explorer would they not say "Recent Explorer Victim" and picture him next to an upside down explorer?

See

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On the very same page they say

"The failure rate of Firestone and Bridgestone tires is much greater than originally believed. As of 6 December, there have been 148 reported deaths and over 500 serious injuries." No mention of the Explorer, not even once.

Any bias you are seeing Bill is because of the way you are looking at it. I don't mean to be offensive, but can't think of better words to describe what I perceive.

JP

OK, let's talk about bias for a while. You continue to say that the Explorer in some mystical way contributed to the rollovers, and cite as evidence many factors that are shared by most other SUVs in that class. Those other SUVs have, for the most part, worse rollover rates than the Explorer, yet you continue to say that the Explorer is still somehow uniquely patterend to increase rollover tendancies. There is no evidence of this, especially given the Explorer's excellent (in comparison) rollover rates, even when including Firestone tire-induced rollovers. Not even Firestone has managed to convince any investigative body of any factors in the Explorer that would have made it somehow uniquely susceptible to rollovers within its class, even when equiped with the faulty Firestone tires. Looks like bias to me.

The NHTSA has never made any requests nor demands that Ford take any remedial actions in this case.

Firestone was found to have manufactured faulty tires, *AND TO HAVE CONTINUED TO SUPPLY THOSE TIRES TO THE MARKETPLACE AFTER THEY KNEW OF THE PROBLEM.* Firestone lied to investigators about their knowledge of the faulty tires. Firestone resisted a recall of their faulty tires. Firestone did everything they could to implicate Ford as being responsible; they claimed to have misgivings about the tire pressures Ford recommended. Yet, they continued to supply their tires, warranting them to be safe using Ford's recommended pressures, and telling the public that the Firestone tires were fully compatible with the Explorer as sold.

The facts seem to indicate that the only contribution Ford made to the rollovers was to use Firestone tires.

Now, continuing to blame Ford, which has been shown to be safer than others in the same class with respect to rollovers, seems to indicate a real bias against Ford. Claiming that later safety improvements indicates that the Explorer was unsafe before those improvements were made condemns *all* other products that fall into the same situation. Including whatever you drive currently. (Is your present vehicle unsafe? According to your words, if it's not the latest model, it is.)

That's bias.

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