100 + 10: America's oldest automotive magazine celebrates its 110th year with an insightful look at the past 10 years and what the implications will mean for the next 10

Automotive Industries, Jan, 2005 by John Peter

Most of us will remember 1995 as the year that Johnny Cochran uttered those famous words, "if the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit." Yes, Americans spent nine months glued to their televisions waiting for the outcome of the most popular trial of the century. 1995 found us mourning the 168 innocent men, women and children who perished in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City, Okla. Like it or love it, Microsoft and Bill Gates turned Windows 95 loose on the world; President Bill Clinton signed a highway bill that put an end to the 55 mile-per-hour speed limit and a magazine called Automotive Industries celebrated its 100th Anniversary.

A lot has changed in the last 10 years, both in the magazine and the industry. As we celebrate out ll0th Anniversary we take a look back at the 10 events that we fed changed the industry in a big way in the last 10 years. As with all lists like these, we're sure to have left something out. Fed free to let us know. We'd love to have you help celebrate the last 10 years with us.

The Ford/Firestone Fiasco Coming to Blows

by Carla Kalogeridis

The automotive industry watched in shock and surprise as a generations-old business relationship between Ford Motor Co. and Firestone disintegrated into a finger-pointing, back-stabbing feud. It was a series of Explorer rollovers on U.S. highways during the mid- to lated990s that first led Ford and Firestone to examine a string of similar accidents in Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Venezuela. As a result of this investigation, Ford elected to replace Wilderness AT tires on Explorers in nine countries; while the automaker did not notify the U.S. government's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), neither was it required to do so.

However, by May 2000, NHTSA had launched its own investigation of the rollovers, and Ford and Firestone were deep in dispute over who was to blame. In August of that year, Bridgestone/Firestone recalled its first 6.5 million tires, mostly original equipment on the Ford Explorer. A different kind of blowout occurred when first-blood was drawn in May 2001 by Bridgestone/Firestone CEO John Lampe, who ended the tiremaker's 95-year-old business with Ford when he went public with "specific concerns" about the safety of the Ford Explorer and the unusual number of rollover accidents the vehicle had experienced since 1996. The next day, Ford countered by announcing it would replace 13 million Firestone Wilderness AT tires--tires that had been excluded from Firestone's recall the previous August. Ford's Jacques Nasser stated, "We simply do not have enough confidence in the future performance of these tires keeping our customers safe."

It is generally accepted that some Firestone 15-inch Wilderness AT tires produced at its plant in Decatur, Ill., had defects that were at least a contributing factor in a wave of tread separations and rollover accidents (more than 335 claims out of 1.8 million tires manufactured). While Firestone maintains that the same tire that shreds on an Explorer holds up perfectly well on a Ford Ranger, Ford insists that Explorers fitted with Goodyear tires experienced far fewer tread problems than those sporting Firestones.

Several years have passed since this story made international news, and most industry observers, government investigators and state attorneys general would agree that Ford and Firestone share blame. While neither Ford Explorers nor Firestone tires appear unusually unsafe independently, it is curious that the combination of the taro sometimes proved deadly. More than 174 deaths and at least 700 injuries were linked to accidents involving Firestone-equipped Explorers. Yet, despite the tragic losses sustained by the accident victims and their families, the industry will not soon shake the memory of the public finger-pointing that left both companies appearing irresponsible and dishonest.

Looking back, it would seem that the Ford and Firestone separation was about far more than tires. It was about a renewed recognition of how critical it is for trust to exist between automotive supply chain partners. What NHTSA saw was two companies blaming each other and trying to save face, while safety for the end-consumer was shoved to the side. Amidst pressure to do something to ensure the same thing would never happen again, the Transportation Recall, Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation Act of 2000 (TREAD Act) was born in October 2002.

Under the TREAD Act, manufacturers and suppliers of automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, buses, trailers, tires and child restraints are required to record, sum up and report a broad collection of text data regarding dozens of components and safety systems. This data includes field reports, production statistics, injuries and fatalities, complaints, warranty claims and more. The first of regular on-going quarterly reports was due Aug. 31, 2003, and the mandatory five-year histories for all of this data were due a month later. Failure to provide the information on time puts companies at risk for stiff civil and criminal penalties. Today, with several cycles of TREAD Act reporting under its belt, the industry clearly understands that compliance is not optional.