The press definitely gets it wrong a lot (most?) of the time, but I
guess the answer to your question is: it depends on your POV. I doubt
that the semi-pro soccer player from Tulsa who was paralyzed by an AT
failure thinks it's overblown, etc. Here in Georgia, we've had
several blow (hot weather?). There have also been failures with
different sized ATs, not just the exact serial number/date range
given by Firestone. The failures on the "film at 11" sure looked like
the same type of failures in earlier TV spots showing blown tires in
the reported range. If I had those tires on the SUV that my wife
drives (not that we have an SUV), I would want those instances
reported by the press. I would not trust Firestone to look out for my
best interests.
At 10:52 PM -0500 10/8/00, Scott Kilborn wrote:
>Must say I thought the same - maybe a little bit of truth, but mostly
>overblown. Then I saw my friend's truck. It was a Ford Ranger extended
>cab w/ Wilderness AT's. Three of the four were affected by the recall.
>All three had a visiable 'crack' about 3/4" from the top of the tread
>around the whole tire - both inside and out. The fourth tire (with a
>'good' date-code) was fine. He got them replaced last week. Nothing
>but Cooper's for my vehicles!
>
>-Scott
>
>RBHouston@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > In a message dated 10/08/2000 9:29:32 AM Mountain Daylight Time,
> > sfooshee@home.com writes:
> >
> > > Since we're off the subject here, I'm curious if anyone knows
>any specifics
> > > about this ATX tire thing. Are these tires giving out under
>normal driving
> > > or
> > > are they blowing because they're underinflated and being run above their
> > > speed
> > > rating and designed operating temperature?
> >
> > Depends on who you ask. When you ask a Ford guy...it's the dang tires made
> > by the union jerks at Firestone, and when I was down at the Firestone shop
> > trading for Bridgestones, it was Fords fault for advising 26PSI instead of
> > 30PSI...and did you know the Explorers fuel tank is all on one
>side and that
> > extra weight caused the tires to fail..and all those people were going over
> > 90 miles an hour...
> >
> > Bit of reaching on both sides I suspect. Were a bit spoiled by new tire
> > technology I think. I remember when getting 20K miles on a set
>of tires was
> > quite acceptable and everyone knew where the jack and lug wrench
>was because
> > it was not "if " you where going to fix a flat, but when.
> >
> > It seems probable that Firestone did have some quality control
>problems, and
> > Ford may be wrong on the inflation numbers, but 30PSI sounds high to us old
> > guys. It also seems improbable that there would be zero defect in any
> > manufactured product anywhere and one wonders if these problems are perhaps
> > inflated by the media just a bit? Gotta sell them papers and sound bytes.
> >
> > RH...just an OF's opinion...but I do like the looks of the new Bridgestones
> > and the ol PU seems to like 'em too. Has a bit more pep!
>
>--
> Scott Kilborn
> Gilman, IA
> scottk@pcpartner.net
>'75 Honda CB750K '75 Honda CB750F '72 Honda CB350K '66 MG Midget
> sohc/4 #361 - http://www.sohc4.org
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
_____________________________________________________________
Jeffrey H. Boatright, PhD
Assistant Professor, Emory Eye Center, Atlanta, GA, USA
Senior Editor, Molecular Vision, http://www.molvis.org/molvis
mailto:jboatri@emory.edu
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