Quote:
Originally posted by jaguar
How very true, but I will say a few things.
First is that I find it hard to believe Ford did not know what was going on, in fact I find it impossible, they just are better at PR and know that by admitting guilt and doing the recall etc they'd move most of the blame to Firestone, who I will admit deserve it, but Ford are still guilt of not doing anything about it.
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You are assuming that Ford monitors all the Lisa Thomas Laurie car crash reports throughout the world. The number of tread separation crashes was quite limited - on the order of 100 deaths - compared to 20,000 other car deaths per year just in America. How, from those 100,000 crashes, does one see a trend when only 100 die over many years? Point 1: Ford cannot be expected to have seen the trend.
Furthermore, why would Ford ever be told by crash investigators? If the crash occurs because of tire tread separation, then the 'powers that be' would only be telling Firestone - not Ford. We now know that Bridgestone Firestone routinely quashed that information - much like Mitsubishi did with their failure reports. Point 2: a second reason why Ford would have not known.
It appears that Ford only began suspecting something when casual conversations with dealers kept bringing up this rare crash, limited mostly to TX and FL. From the definition of quality, Ford would have asked their trusted supplier, Firestone. We know that Firestone repeatedly assured Ford that these failures were isolated events - not a design problem. Point 3: in quality oriented companies - where both manufacturer and supplier share confidential information - those reassurances would have been enough. Ford failed to understand that Firestone was now an 'MBA mentality' company - worried only in profits rather than the product. Firestone was violating the basic principals of quality.
Ford had every reason to believe what Firestone said was correct. Ford is probably furious after conducting a secret study - but in the principals of quality will not openly sue Firestone. Ford has every good reason to sue Firestone big time. Ford discovered even after the last recall, that Firestone had lied to Ford both previously and now AGAIN! Ford discovered that it was not just 6.5 million 15" tires that were at fault. Ford discovered, by doing their own private and secret survey, that all 15", 16" and 17" tires are failing prematurely AND that the 15" tire problems were worse than Firestone had reported. That's two openly, blantant lies by Firestone at the highest levels - lies even by their new "customer oriented" management.
No wonder Firestone was so upset that Ford did statistial analysis without Firestone's knowledge. Firestone was caught in but another lie - because profits were more importanat than the product - a fundamental violation of the principals of quality. Thanks to Ford, we can now rank Firestone up there with gangs and terrorists.
Ford's mistake is that they did as required in a "Quality is Job 1" system. After becoming suspicious too late, we all now know how evil is Bridgestone Firestone - where deaths are 100% attributed to Firestone management decisions and coverup. These managers are so evil as to even blame the union workers in Decatuer IL! Even before making more bad tires - and trying to blame others, Firestone must have known that all 18.5 million tires were defective by design - and lied even to trusted partner Ford.
Thank god that Ford is a classic example of a patriotic American operation. Although all the facts are not public, we can rightly suspect that Firestone in 1996, as in the 1975-1980 Firestone 500 murders, was making defective tires, knew it, and did nothing during production or after those tires were killing humans. Ford's mistake was probably and simply that they trusted Firestone.
How evil is Firestone? Once Ford told Firestone that ALL tires would be recalled, then Firestone decided to stop all future business with Ford. Why? CNN says it best. ***This demonstrates the evil in Firestone***. Firestone would not have to participate in the 13million, $2.1billion recall if they stopped all future business with Ford. Read that last sentence!!!!!!!!! Again - just another reason to campaign loud and openly for the bankrupcy of Firestone - a company that operates on principals of the mafia.
Where is Timothy McVeigh when we really need to advance mankind? And you thought China was a threat to human life?
Do you think Firestone will now tell me any truths?
[Edited by tw on 05-23-2001 at 02:10 AM]