Following
Firestone’s release of its letter to Ford on Monday, Ford yesterday released the
text of a letter sent by president and CEO Jacques Nasser to Bridgestone/Firestone
chairman and CEO John Lampe:
Dear Mr. Lampe:
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
As you know, Ford has for many months been engaged in an intensive effort to
determine the root cause of the tyre failures that led to last summer’s Firestone
tyre recall, and to prevent such failures in the future.
Throughout this process, Ford has shared its findings and worked closely and
cooperatively with NHTSA and with Firestone’s technical team.
Based on our work to date, we are concerned that the performance of certain
Wilderness AT tyres not included in last summer’s recall is not at a level consistent
with the performance of similar usage tyres from competitive manufacturers.
This concern rests significantly on data supplied by Firestone and NHTSA, which
shows that failure rates for many of the Wilderness AT tyres are already worse
than competitive standards and may deteriorate further in the future.
Our own laboratory and vehicle tests confirm these results.
Although we have discussed our concerns with Firestone technical and management
personnel, nothing we have learned has changed our view that the tyres may present
a risk to our customers’ safety.
Accordingly, we intend to announce an owner notification programme to replace
all Wilderness AT tyres for our customers at no cost to them.
This action is preventive in nature since we believe the significant risks
are largely in the future.
However, the data leave us convinced that this action is necessary to assure
the safety of our customers, an objective that I know you fully share.
As the replacement effort goes forward, let us work cooperatively to serve
our customers and, most importantly, keep their safety as our highest priority.
I hope this is a goal on which you can agree.
|
To view related research reports, please follow the links Global Automotive |
