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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK
Bridgestone/Firestone Calls for Investigation of Ford Explorer
Aired June 1, 2001 - 07:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: We have not heard the last of the problems between Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford. The tire maker issued its own recall after blowouts and rollovers on Ford Explorers. Now Bridgestone/Firestone wants the government to investigate the safety of the popular SUV.
CNN's Tim O'Brien reports from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIM O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The CEO of Bridgestone/Firestone was in Washington personally lobbying the secretary of transportation for an investigation of the Ford Explorer only one week after the CEO of Ford was here complaining to the secretary about Firestone Wilderness AT tires and announcing that Ford would voluntarily replace more than 10 million of them.
In the latest escalation of this heavyweight fight, the tire company claims the Ford Explorer has an "oversteer problem that can make a vehicle directionally unstable and subject to loss of control in the hands of most drivers. This is a vehicle problem, not a tire problem," precisely the opposite of what Ford has been saying.
JACQUES NASSER, PRESIDENT & CEO, FORD: We know that this is a Firestone tire issue, not a vehicle issue.
O'BRIEN: Bridgestone/Firestone's allegations are based on a study by a professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State who said the oversteer problem in not found on other sport utility vehicles, such as the Jeep Cherokee and the Chevy Blazer.
Ford quickly responded: "You can talk about testing data endlessly. We are replacing Firestone Wilderness AT tires because they have elevated rates of tread separation in the real world."
Although the Ford Explorer has a better-than-average safety record than other SUVs, studies show SUVs as a class are two to three times more likely to roll over than most passenger cards.
JOAN CLAYBROOK, PUBLIC CITIZEN: The Department of Transportation and the companies share the blame here for not having made these vehicles safe for the consumer to drive.
O'BRIEN (on camera): Bridgestone/Firestone would clearly like to shift the government's focus away from the quality of its tires to the quality of the Ford Explorer. A spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would only say the agency will consider the tire company's request for an investigation.
Tim O'Brien, CNN Financial News, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the blame game between Firestone and Ford puts consumers right in the middle. So whose claims should you believe?
Joan Claybrook joins us from Washington to help us sort this all out. She is the president of Public Citizen, a consumer group active in these issues, especially in autos. She was also the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration during the Carter administration.
Good morning, Joan.
CLAYBROOK: Good morning.
LIN: First and foremost, what do you make of Firestone's testing of the Ford Explorer?
CLAYBROOK: Of the Ford Explorer? I think that it's very late. They've been supplying tires for this vehicle for over 10 years, and they've never criticized it until the brouhaha over the Firestone tires.
LIN: All right.
CLAYBROOK: So it's very late. I don't know where they've been all these years. They should have told consumers many years ago. And here it looks likes they're just doing it in reaction to Ford's criticism of the Firestone tires.
LIN: But is it scientific? Do they have a point? Does the Explorer have more of a tendency to roll over, and that's really where the problem is, it's not the tires?
CLAYBROOK: I think it's a lethal combination between the two. The Ford explorer definitely is rollover prone. In 1989, as the civil justice system litigation has revealed to us, through all of the lawsuits that have gone on -- that's where we've gotten this information -- Ford refused to fix the vehicle when they realized it was rollover prone, and instead they took air out of the tires, in 1989-1990, when they first offered it for sale. And they didn't redesign it until the 2002 model, and they only redesigned the four- door Ford Explorer. So the taking air out of the tires to lower the profile of the vehicle so it wouldn't be as likely to roll over put tremendous pressure on the tires themselves.
So what's really needed here, and has been for 15 years, is a federal safety standard to prevent rollover. Ford could not have misdesigned this vehicle in 1989-1990 had there been a federal safety standard. And also there needs to be an improved tire standard. That tire standard we have today is 30 years old and doesn't really test the kind of problems that we've seen with the Firestone tire.
So the absence of those standards -- also, there's an absence of federal crash worthiness standards for rollover. As you saw in the picture a few minutes ago, when these vehicles roll over the roof crushes in, and so the public really has no protection when there is a rollover. It's a terrible situation for the consumer.
(CROSSTALK)
LIN: Well, what do you do if you own an Explorer or you have these Firestone tires, then, in the short term?
CLAYBROOK: Well, first of all, I would replace the Firestone tires, and Ford has initiated a recall of the rest of the tires, which we asked them to do last August, and they've finally decided to do it -- and although Firestone has refused to participate. And in addition, I would definitely not load it down with a lot of people or heavy equipment, because the more you load down a vehicle that has a high center of gravity and has this proneness to roll over, the more likely it is to do that.
So this is a big vehicle -- it has lots of space -- but I would not load it down. I wouldn't drive it very rapidly either, because if it does come into a problem with an avoidance maneuver or some other problem where you have to move the vehicle quickly, then it's easier to do it when you're not going too fast.
LIN: You know, with all these charges and allegations and the back-and-forth between Firestone and Ford, it's hard really to know what to believe. So, in the end, do you kind of feel like Ford and Firestone each have something that they're probably never going to reveal about what really happened here? Or is it going to be up to the federal government to finally find out what the truth of the matter is?
CLAYBROOK: Well, I think that the truth is pretty much out now to the public. And it's come out through all of these lawsuits, where there's been discovery both against Ford and against Firestone. That's really been the truth-teller of this story. And we wouldn't have known that but for the civil justice system.
And so I think that most of it has come out. I don't think that the Department of Transportation is likely to do anything more on the Ford Explorer, because they've -- 11 times in the past decade and a half, they've been asked to do a recall of rollover-prone vehicles, the Ford Bronco and the Suzuki Samurai and others.
And they've said: Well, all of these SUVs are prone to rollover. Therefore, it's not unique enough that they're going to recall this particular vehicle.
And so that's why I say what we really need is a government safety standard so these manufacturers can't cut corners and cheat on the public, make these vehicles that are so unsafe, even though they're -- by the way, they're cash cows for these companies. They've made huge amounts of money on these vehicles.
So the public deserves better. And the only real solution here, it seems to me, is a strong government safety standard that says you cannot make these vehicles so that they roll over.
LIN: Well, Joan Claybrook, it's going to be a long, hot summer in Washington: congressional hearings under way on this matter, as well as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration taking a look as well.
Thanks for joining us.
CLAYBROOK: Thank you very much.
LIN: Joan Claybrook, Public Citizen.
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