Firestone Says It Acted to Improve Problem Tires
Firestone's top executive said the company realized there were problems with the treads on its Wilderness AT tires under "severe" conditions and moved to improve that model before it announced the recall of 6.5 million of its ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires.</br></br>Masatoshi Ono, chief executive of Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., said in an interview that Firestone had "implemented measures to improve the performance of the Wilderness tires" before the recall.</br></br>Mr. Ono said the tire maker began to make those improvements when it realized the treads could separate under "severe" conditions, such as high-speed driving in sweltering heat with underinflated tires. Mr. Ono also conceded that Firestone and Ford Motor Co. had disagreed over proper tire-inflation levels.</br></br>Yesterday, Bridgestone/Firestone was forced to make a major concession aimed at accelerating the process of replacing the millions of recalled tires. It said it would extend "indefinitely" its reimbursement policy after a Kentucky judge slapped the company with a temporary restraining order requiring it to continue reimbursing owners of recalled tires who have them replaced with a competitor's brand someplace other than at one of the company's designated outlets.</br></br>Rep. John Dingell (D., Mich.) had also written to the company expressing concern that Firestone customers wouldn't be able to replace tires quickly enough.