Firestone Tires
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Firestone Tires Who: Firestone Tire When: May 2000, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration issued a letter to Ford and Firestone requesting information about the high incidence of tire failure on Ford Explorer vehicles What: 15” Radial ATX, Radial ATX II, and Wilderness AT model tires Why: A high number of tire failures caused many fatal roll-over crashes; cause linked to excessive heat which resulted in the tread peeling off the tires Recall Information National Highway Transportation Safety Administration Details Can be found at: ISE 427 Chris Meador
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Firestone Tires. Who: Firestone Tire When: May 2000, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration issued a letter to Ford and Firestone requesting information about the high incidence of tire failure on Ford Explorer vehicles - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of Firestone Tires
Firestone Tires
Who: Firestone Tire
When: May 2000, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration issued a letter to Ford and Firestone requesting information about the high incidence of tire failure on Ford Explorer vehicles
What: 15” Radial ATX, Radial ATX II, and Wilderness AT model tires
Why: A high number of tire failures caused many fatal roll-over crashes; cause linked to excessive heat which resulted in the tread peeling off the tires
Recall InformationNational Highway Transportation Safety AdministrationDetails Can be found at: http://usgovinfo.about.com/blfirestone.htm
ISE 427 Chris Meador
Management Issues
Recognition of problem: • Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. announced the recall of 3.85 million Radial
ATX and Radial ATX II, and 2.7 million Wilderness AT tires on August 9, 2000
Speed of response: • Bridgestone/Firestone did not respond to problem quickly enough due to
the quantity of tires that required replacement
• Ford authorized their dealers to replace tires with other brands if Firestone brand was not available
• Reimbursed customers up to $100 a tire for exchanging tires involved in the recall
ISE 427 Chris Meador
Impact of Recall
Reputation And Sales• Considered one of the most deadly auto safety crises in America• Customers frustrated with inability of Firestone’s ability to respond• Ford said they would continue to use the tires but would increase the scrutiny
of tire quality• Ford knew about the problem of Firestone tires on SUVs in 1998 because of
incidents in Venezuela• Firestone suffered a $750 million loss in 2000
Legal Consequences• Ordered to extend Aug 16th deadline for reimbursing consumers who
replaced their tires at independent dealerships with a competitor’s tires• Mandatory recalls of tires in 2001
ISE 427 Chris Meador
References
• Bridgestone/Firestone Press Release – August 9, 2000– http://usgovinfo.about.com/blfirestone.htm
• Overview of the Recall– http://www.firestone-tire-recall.com/pages/overview.html
• Firestone Recall Timeline– http://money.cnn.com/2000/08/30/news/firestone_chronology/
• Firestone Case– http://www.e-businessethics.com/firestone.htm
• NHTSA Official Recall Summary– http://www.nhtsa.gov/PR/FirestoneRecall
ISE 427 Chris Meador
