Firestone Fought Ford Over Venezuela

WASHINGTON--Documents released by U.S. House Commerce Committee investigators show that Ford and Firestone exchanged allegations at a meeting in May over who should take the blame for rollover accidents in Venezuela and the replacement of the SUVs’ tires.

After Ford Motor Co. changed the shock absorbers on its Explorer sport utility vehicles in Venezuela in 1999 to improve stability at high speeds, Firestone seized on that change in policy a year later in defending the performance of its tires.

According to a a May 9 memo summarizing a May 5 meeting with Ford, “We believed the cause of the accidents was a design failure in the suspension system and thus they were the ones that should make the proposal,” said Ana Cecilia Colmenarez, an lawyer with Bridgestone/Firestone of Venezuela.

In the memo she described Ford/Venezuela President Emmanuel Cassingena was “very strong and rude” regarding a letter the tire maker had sent Ford making reference to the suspension modification.

“He said it was not acceptable and that under no circumstances he will accept a statement that their Explorer has suspension problems,” Colmenarez wrote.

Venezuela was one of 16 foreign countries where Ford offered customers replacement tires ahead of Firestone’s recall of 6.5 million tires in the United States because of tread separations and blowouts now blamed for 101 U.S. highway deaths.

In Venezuela in May, as now in the United States, Firestone objected to the notion that Ford wanted to blame all the problems on Firestone tires.

“Such statements were rejected by us indicating that good number of accidents have taken place with tires (other than Firestones) and that they have been modifying their Explorers’ suspension(s),” Colmenarez wrote.

Ford went ahead with a tire replacement program on its own in Venezuela when it apparently was unable to reach an agreement with Firestone.

Firestone has acknowledged making “a few bad tires” but continues to raise questions over the role of the Explorer’s design. Ford has said it has had no problems with the vehicles when they are affixed with tires made by Goodyear.