Rollover, Rollover, won't buy another Ford, Explorer Owner

The terms of the agreement are that any current or previous owners of 1991-2001 Ford Explorers can get a voucher for $500 off a new Exploder, I mean Explorer, or $300 off any other Ford product. This action will settle all claims made against it regarding the "alleged" rear suspension design flaw that precipitated the rollover problem.

Rewind eight years and Ford was in the middle of a finger pointing campaign regarding the rollover problem with its old business partner Firestone Tires. Ford alleged all through the recall that the high failure rate of the Firestone tires was causing the rollovers in the Explorer, at the time a much more common occurrence than in competing SUVs. As an ex-Ford Service Advisor, I recall my first day on the job, which also happened to be the day Ford announced the recall. Being the new guy, I was of course put in charge of it at my dealership. I had mothers driving their Explorers in, brought to tears by the news reports and telling me that I was murdering their babies by not giving them new tires. See, Ford announced the recall but had not distributed enough replacement tires to dealerships. I even had one customer hand me the keys to his SUV and say he didn't want it anymore. (No, I didn't keep it. Even I was scared, and I knew the problem had little to do with his tires.)

So how did I know it was not Firestone's fault at the time? I knew because a lot of the tires we were using had MUCH higher statistical failure rates at the time. For one, the Goodyear Wrangler RT/S had almost twice as high a percentage. As a matter of fact, the only brand Ford was offering that didn't was Michelin.

It is hard to ascertain exactly how many people have been hurt of killed due to the predilection of Explorers to go tires up, but at least 250 people were killed just in accidents involving tire tread separation. Since the national consciousness became aware of SUV rollovers, lawyers have even started whole practices devoted to these kinds of lawsuits. One only need look at the website for the "Rollover lawyer" at www.rolloverlawyer.com. This particular bottom feeder even has his website divided into sections for photos of grisly rollovers based on make and model.

The most interesting statement on this matter, though, was one made by Kevin P. Roddy, a New Jersey lawyer  who brought about the lawsuit and said that most of the 1990-2001 Explorers affected by the recall are no longer on the road. Did he mean they rolled off the road or are broken down beyond repair? Beyond that oddity, an owner who gets a voucher can use it himself, give it to a family member or any friend who lives in his or her state. Is this starting to sound less like a settlement and more like the latest Ford rebate campaign?

So what did Ford learn from this dark period of its history? I would say quite a lot, based on the safety innovations they have come up with on later Ford, Land Rover and Volvo SUVs. For one, Ford introduced the first rollover "safety canopy" which is essentially a huge airbag cushioning system for the roof of the vehicle if it starts to sense a rollover. It also developed rollover sensors for all its SUVs and Trucks that use ESP and ABS to keep a vehicle from flipping if it senses a rollover is coming.

But no amount of money and no army of lawyers can ever really ease the pain of people who lost family members or were hurt in accidents. In the long run all we can hope is that all auto manufacturers, and most specifically Ford Motor Company, learn something valuable about customer safety truly needing to be "Job One."

 
via guest blogger Jim Hamel