>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
And besides, it wasn't the tires, it was a combination of (a) lazy owners not maintaining proper air pressure in the tires and (b) a slightly low recommended air pressure for the tires by ford, and we're talking 28 psi rec when it probably should have been 30 psi.
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I see that you bought the party line. <ng>
If memory serves the reason behind the Firestone fiasco was that after a several week long strike at Firestone the powers that be decided not to ditch the tires that were interrupted in mid-process (ruined) and sell them to the public anyway in order not to incur in further losses. The rest is history. (but it seems collective memory is quite frail...)
Another thing: do you really think that 28 psi and 30psi makes ANY difference? Any gauge you use to measure tire pressure has an intrinsic error greater than that.
Disclaimer: at about that time I had 2 (regular) Firestone tires that came original with my Sienna going to shreds in two different occasions. Of course the Sienna was never close to turning over as it is a far better car than the Explorer. I've heard of quite a number of people with similar problems in diverse car makes that never made it to the news. (mostly because nobody died)
After the second incident I put 4 new tires from a 2nd tier manufacturer (Bridgestone, I think) In 6 months the threads were gone. Disgusted I switched to Michelins 1 1/2 years ago and they still look like new.
I don't want to start a debate, but you talk about FUD and FUD is exactly what Ford and Firestone did...
