At 10:13 AM 5/11/2001 -0700, Stuart MacMillan wrote:
>Firestone? The same company that has TWICE foisted deadly defective tires
on the unsuspecting public? (Are you old enough to remember the Firestone
500's of the '70s?)
Yup. BTDT. New 1974 Ford Mustang II with Firestone 500 tires (December
1973). I personally saw many of them fly to pieces from cars in front of
me on the road (thankfully not my car). The shaking was bad enough to
cause hot alternating spots on the front brake rotors which would warp the
rotors and wear out the pads. I had to rework the front brakes twice in
the first 20,000 miles.
I drove a lot and had to pay out of pocket within two years to replace
those tires, long before the government got around to forcing the recall.
You know how that goes? Prorate tread wear against the full list price,
allowance made on only three of the five tires, add in new tire valves,
mounting, balancing, wheel weights, taxes, and you have pretty much paid in
full for a new set of tires anyway. Under the circumstances I didn't trust
the new Firestone 721 tires any more than the ond 500's, so I ended up
buying Michelins.
To this day I still won't even consider buying Firestone tires. You might
think the paranoia could wear off after a couple of decades, but then we
have this new rash of SUV rollovers because of failing Firestone tires. I
get the jitters just being on the same roadway with those things.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg
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