Ford: Still Doing Our Part In Tire Recall

The Ford Motor Company said Friday that nearly one-third of the 6.5 million recalled Firestone tires have now been replaced.

The automaker also said it will extend by at least one more week the shutdown of three truck factories to divert 30,000 more tires to the replacement effort. It said a longer shutdown is possible.

The plants in St. Paul, Minnesota, Edison, New Jersey and Hazelwood, Missouri have been closed for two weeks so that 15-inch tires used as standard equipment on Ford Explorer/Mercury Mountaineer sport utility vehicles and Ford Ranger pickups can be sent to Ford and Lincoln/Mercury dealers.

So far, the shutdown has freed up about 70,000 tires, but has trimmed 15,000 Rangers and 10,000 Explorers/Mountaineers from Ford's production. Ford said the additional week will cut another 8,500 Rangers and 5,400 Explorers from production. Not all the vehicles would have used 15-inch tires.

"We are monitoring the situation week by week," Martin Inglis, vice president of Ford North America, said in a statement. "We are seeing increased production from Goodyear, Michelin and other tire makers and expect that to grow rapidly in the next week or two. The safety and peace of mind of our customers remain our greatest concerns."

The plants employ about 6,000 workers, who get paid during the shutdown.

The automaker reiterated the recall of 6.5 million tires will reduce revenues and increase costs, but said it is too early to calculate the overall impact in the second half of 2000.

While Ford and Firestone maintain that they only recently began to suspect a deadly pattern of tire separations, CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports that appears to be at odds with a growing body of evidence.

Highly confidential Firestone documents obtained by CBS News show:

• Unusually high rates of problems among recalled and non-recalled tires, dating back to 1991.
• Firestone rejected omplaints of a trend back in 1996, calling the tires "perfectly safe and sound."
• Firestone and Ford repeatedly dismissed overseas complaints from 1997 on…
• …then eventually issued recalls in the Mideast, Asia and Latin America—all before the U.S.
• And, although Ford denies it, a key document appears to show that Ford and Firestone changed the rubber recipe for U.S. tires after their first overseas recall.

The crisis has clearly strained the relationship between Ford and Firestone—partners since the early 1900's, when Ford and Firestone heirs married. Now the companies are at odds about who knew what and when.

And critics are asking if Firestone and Ford still don't know what's wrong with the recalled tires, how can they be so sure that other Firestone tires not under recall are safe?

"Pretty obviously this is a dud piece of rubber that they're putting into it on the top of the belts. If you've got one of these things it is a potential killer."

And if the problem exists at one plant, Grogan says, it's going to be across the board.

This is one thing the government hopes to get to the bottom of in its ongoing investigation, which could lead to broader warnings and/or a wider recall.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will ask Congress next week for more money and authority to require companies to provide product data on foreign recalls, customer claims and legal settlements, the agency's administrator said Friday.

Sue Bailey said the agency wants to have the request ready by Tuesday, when the Senate Commerce Committee holds a hearing on the recall. The tires have been linked to 89 U.S. traffic deaths and dozens more overseas.

Bailey told reporters that for the agency to act on safety problems sooner, manufacturers must be required to turn over data on customer claims, legal settlements and foreign safety actions.

CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report