The Ford-Firestone Brawl

            "For almost 100 years, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company had supplied tires to Ford Motor Company", a business relationship that stemmed from the friendship of each company's founder, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone (Boatright, 2012). When rollover problems with Ford's Explorer model emerged, a serious strain was placed upon these longtime business partners. In August of 2000, after tracking warranty claims and other reports of tire failure, Firestone recalled an estimated 6.5 million tires, including the 15-ATX, the ATX II, and all Wilderness AT tires, as they all contained a design flaw that caused cracking in the treads. At the time of Firestones recall, it was evident that a Ford SUV equipped with these Firestone tires was a deadly combination. "By 2001, 203 deaths and over 700 injuries had resulted from rollovers in the Ford Explorer after the thread of Firestone tires separated" (Boatright, 2012). "The showdown came at a meeting on May 21, 2001, when three senior Ford executives flew to Firestone's Nashville, Tennessee, headquarters to discuss the cause of these tragic incidents with Firestone's chief executive John Lampe" (Boatright, 2012). These companies decided to end their business relationship based on mutual recriminations.
             1. Why might Ford have decided to continue with the production of the Explorer SUV despite its own studies showing that the vehicle was unstable?.
             Despite its own studies showing the vehicle was unstable, Ford engineers may have decided to continue their production of the Explorer SUV in an effort to meet the rapid, low-cost production demands placed upon them by the company's executives. Ford engineers decided to bolt the Explorer passenger cabin to the chassis of their existing Ford Ranger pickup truck. Initial testing on the explorer prototype "showed the vehicle to be unstable" and "prone to tipping when cornering and changing lanes and to rolling over in the event of tire failure.