A company that deserves HATE

[elSicomoro]

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.

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. ;-)

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.

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.

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.

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.