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American Morning
Dealers Sandwiched in Ford/Firestone Dispute
Aired May 22, 2001 - 10:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Tire-maker Firestone has ended its relationship with Ford Motor Company, a partnership that goes back nearly 100 years, to the days of the Model T. But they'll share one more tortured journey: Ford is expected to announce today the replacement of as many as $13 million Firestone tires.
The company is reportedly worried about the safety of Firestone's Wilderness AT tires that is standard equipment on the Ford Explorer SUV. Six-and-a-half million of those tires were recalled last year. Firestone says the car-maker is trying to find a scapegoat to disguise an unsafe vehicle.
For more on this clash of the corporate titans, let's go to our Susan Candiotti. She's at a Ford dealership in Sunrise, Florida with the view from the consumer level.
Susan, good morning.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. Here is what happened in the last 24 hours involving this clash of the titans, as it were. Firestone tells Ford, we can't trust you anymore and that Ford should accept at least partial blame for having a car design problem that has resulted in all of those deadly roll-overs linked to as many as 174 deaths.
Ford has told Firestone, it's all of your fault. This is a tire- design problem, and caught in the middle, both consumers as well as tire and Ford dealers.
Joining us, one of those Ford dealers, Dave Menten of Sawgrass Ford in Sunrise, Florida. I would like to know, because we're still waiting for the news of what this replacement program would involve, do you view this as a headache after just having come through this Firestone recall?
DAVID MENTEN, FORD DEALERSHIP OWNER: Well, definitely, we're going to be busy. But no, this is a positive thing. I mean, obviously, we're going to get to make a lot of customers happy that were not made happy the first time.
CANDIOTTI: A lot people say, including industry analysts, that there is shared blame here. Ford to blame for car-design problem; Firestone, a tire-design problem. How do you view it? MENTEN: As a dealer, we're kind of caught in the middle. I don't really have any comment as far as to who is the blame, but my only concern is really pleasing our customers, and now we're going to be able do that. So, that makes me happy.
CANDIOTTI: What kind of response have you had so far from anyone who has been hearing about this news?
MENTEN: There have been a couple of phone calls this morning, but we don't really even have the specifics yet, so I don't think the customers do either.
CANDIOTTI: How long to do you anticipate it would take to replace up to, we're hearing upwards of 13 million additional Firestone tires not included in the recall?
MENTEN: I think the Ford dealers did the 6.5 million in about five months. We did most of ours in the first month, about 4,000, so I think we should be able to knock these off pretty quick. I'm hoping within two months or so.
CANDIOTTI: Finally, we understand that this is being called a replacement problem, not a recall, for good reason. What is your understanding of what that is?
MENTEN: Well, I think that if it's deemed a recall, then Bridgestone/Firestone has to right to block that recall, and that would just take a long time to do more finger-pointing and we'd never be able to get these tires done in a timely manner. So, Ford is going to come out, and what we expect them to do is call this a customer satisfaction effort, and then Firestone has nothing to say about it.
CANDIOTTI: Do you have customers that still want, require and request Firestone tires or have no problems with Firestone tires?
MENTEN: No, not really. Most of the people request other types right now.
CANDIOTTI: All right, Dave Menten, thank you very much for joining us.
MENTEN: You're welcome.
CANDIOTTI: Again, we're all waiting for details about what this replacement program will be, but it seems fairly clear that there's no end to the finger-pointing in sight.
Back to you, Daryn,
KAGAN: And Susan, on a consumer level, it sounds like there were a lot of people out there who felt that the last time around felt that they should be getting new tires on their Explorer and didn't, and they might get some satisfaction with what we hear what Ford has to say later today.
CANDIOTTI: That's what this dealer says. KAGAN: Very good, Susan Candiotti in Sunrise, Florida. Thank you.
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