Ford Using Firestone ATX As Spares
Some new Ford Ranger pickups are being equipped with a 15-inch Firestone ATX tire as a spare -- the same tire included in a massive recall of Firestone tires over safety concern, reports Chris Halsne of CBS Seattle affiliate KIRO-TV.
Mounted beneath the truck frame is a full-size spare marked "Firestone ATX, p235/775-13." That's the same make, model and size as a Firestone tire that is now recalled due to safety concerns.
SUV owners like Larry Payne are dumbfounded by the move.
"They better pony up and get the job done. People are going to quit buying Fords," said Payne.
Armed with a hidden camera, Halsey's investigative team crawled under two dozen pickups at four different Seattle area dealerships. All had the same tire.
If you remove the tire, stamped on the back side in some hard to see black letters are the words "temporary use only." Ford and Firestone say it's that warning that allows them to still sell the ATX.
The Washington attorney general's office says the tires shouldn't be sold as spares, or sold at all.
Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone say there's nothing wrong with the tire because it is marked as a spare and customers are warned not to use it for more than 50 miles or drive faster than 50 miles per hour.
The Firestone tires in question were part of a recall of 6.5 million tires linked to 101 deaths and over 400 injuries.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Thursday it was aware Ford was using Firestone ATXs as spares. However, the agency said since the tires are clearly labeled as spares for limited use, they don't present an immediate safety concern.
The real problem for consumers is just how easy it would be to mistakenly rotate this spare onto their trucks as a permanent tire replacement.
In a related story, an official with Ford Motor Co.'s Venezuelan unit charged Wednesday that Firestone hid information about manufacturing faults in tires and must take responsibility for more than 100 high-speed road accidents in Venezuela.
Denying there are safety problems with its Explorer vehicles, Ford's Venezuelan subsidiary nonetheless offered Wednesday to reach out-of-court settlements with victims of accidents involving Explorers fitted with Firestone tires.
"Firestone hid information from us...as they continue to hide information from you," Ford Venezuelan purchasing manager Hector Rodriguez told crash victims at a meeting at a meeting in Venezuelan consumer protection agency INDECU.
"This is a tire problem and Firestone should assume its responsibility," he added.
Firestone executives did not attend the meeting, which was intended to establish civil damages for the victims.
Instead, the Japanese-owned tire maker sent a letter to INDECU saying the company's presence would have given the impression of accepting blame for the accidents.
"The attendance of Bridgestone/Firestone Venezuela at the event...would imply guilt which is not ours," the letter read.
Firestone argues that tires supplies to Ford were made according to the specifications of the car manufacturer.