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Originally posted by tw
SUV turnover study, pioneered by a Villanova professor, listed Explorer, in particular, and Fords, in general, as a more stable S/UV. The complete list is 2 or 3 Aug 2000 in USA Today, I believe. Fords are the safer S/UVs - BTW along with a Honda - I don't think Toyota was tested.
Blazers have had a long reputation for instablity (not as bad as GM's partner Suzuki), and for higher failure rates (such as 4 wheel drives with axles not bolted down) and higher passenger fatality rates. Chevy Suburbans suffer higher driver loss of control so often that a safety study recommended special training for those larger vehicles. To blame Explorer, especially compared to the more dangerous GM and Suzuki vehicles, is just wrong.
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I don't doubt your knowledge or facts on this, but I would still argue against the SUV as a whole. Personally, if you ain't going off roading, then you don't really need the damned thing. Buy a nice wagon or something. ;-)
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Firestone's 1.5 failures per million makes Ford appear to be wrong - but that is based only on appearance; not fact. Faced with a trusted partner that was criminally negligent and that openly lied, Ford then did well beyond what any responsible company must do - $2.1+billion worth of honesty - a voluntary massive recall of all those tires.
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But after how long? A year? Did Ford have to wait over a year to do "studies" before they reacted in this manner? I could understand the passing of SOME months...but if they were finding problems with other sizes of Firestones, then they should have been announced as they were being found.
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Firestone then responded (as noted by CNN) by a "screw America, we will not recall" response AND by blaming Ford - so that *you* might also blame Ford. Next Firestone will blame the victim for being inside a Firestone equipped vehicle? When does this 'blame everyone else' reasoning end? Only Firestone is playing that card game. Blame goes to the original source of every of 12 problems - Firestone management - both the old and new management - once one is educated in the fundamental concepts of quality. Firestone is apparently 100% criminally negligent - regardless of what you think of anyone else - including the Federal government for permitting S/UVs on the road.
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I don't mind giving Ford some credit for making this massive recall, as from what I see, it will effectively wipe out any profits for this year (and maybe longer). But Ford will most likely be found negligent along with Firestone at any trials that come up as a result of deaths. You make a compelling argument, but it still appears that Ford did some dragging of its feet, which makes it LOOK bad in the eyes of many.