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Re: Followup on Tow Vehicle Tire Failure

To: Group44TR7@aol.com, fot@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Followup on Tow Vehicle Tire Failure
From: Bob Buxbaum <snaponbob@cox.net>
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2003 11:45:24 -0500
At 07:56 AM 11/29/2003, Group44TR7@aol.com wrote:
>FOTers
>
>        I finally had time to go to the Firestone dealer yesterday. A
>different one than had earlier this year advised me that the tires on my 
>truck were
>fine.
>
>      -SNIP-
>
>        Firestone is replacing all the Truck's tires with new heavy duty 
> tires
>at a deep discount.
>
>Cary


Cary and all,

The following is based on some personal experience and some rather strong 
negative feelings about Firestone.

In the mid 70's I worked part time at a K-Mart auto department. I needed 
some tires and bought, at an employee's discount, some K-Mart Radial 500's. 
AFTER they tossed their treads in a period of 6 days(!) I came to find out 
they were branded for K-Mart and were (you guessed it) Firestone Radial 
500's!!!! At the time I bought them I had already learned of the 500's 
problems but did not know of the branding. K-Mart would do nothing about 
them as they said Firestone said they were different. I sworn NEVER to own 
Firestones again.

Fast forward to 2001. Now I am a Snap-on dealer for 16 years and have two 
Firestone stores in my territory. It was most interesting to listen to the 
media stories of the tire horrors that were being denied by Firestone. Even 
as Firestone was denying the problem even existed they were stacking 
replacement tires to the rafters in all the Firestone stores in my area, 
and probably yours. Talk about deja vu. I remembered the 500's that my 
first wife survived (damn it) and then years later the Firestone 700's that 
had EXACTLY the same problem. And recently the SUV tires.

That works out to a major tire "issue" every decade!! There is a lesson to 
be learned. (See, I told you I was biased.) In the last 30 years I have 
owned BFG, Michelin, Goodyear, P7's, Yoks, and Kuhmos, spread across lots 
of different autocross cars (4), tool trucks (4), vans (4), and misc cars 
(lost count) with not some much as a chunked tread. Hmm.


Bob and Mary Buxbaum
Chesapeake, Va.

snaponbob@cox.net 

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