Another Firestone/Explorer-like tire fiasco; that's what Foreign Tire Sales (FTS) of Union, N.J. is fearing. Since 2002 FTS has been importing tires from Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co., a Chinese tire maker. Last August a cargo van, equipped with these tires, had a tire shred, much like the defective old Firestones, and with the same tragic results: Two people in the vehicle were killed and two were injured in the resulting accident...
FTS has also noted that there have been other customers returning and complaining about the questionable tires. Upon digging a bit further FTS has discovered that the tires were missing a safety layer in the construction of the tire.
"Sooner or later there'll be a recall on these tires -- the $64,000,000-question is who pays for it," says Lawrence Lavigne, an attorney representing FTS in a suit filed in district court in New Jersey against Hangzhou. In its suit, FTS accuses the tire maker of removing the safety feature -- a six millimeter layer of rubber that is put between the steel belts to give the tires added durability -- without notifying the distributor.
There have been 450,000 of these tires imported since 2002, many of which are now on vehicles that are being used daily. There is no mention here as to under what brand name(s) these tires are being sold as.
Full story here at The Wall Street Journal.
UPDATE: Chinese tires recalled
Full story here and here.
The tires were sold under the names Westlake, Telluride Compass and YKS.
"Sooner or later there'll be a recall on these tires -- the $64,000,000-question is who pays for it," says Lawrence Lavigne, an attorney representing FTS in a suit filed in district court in New Jersey against Hangzhou. In its suit, FTS accuses the tire maker of removing the safety feature -- a six millimeter layer of rubber that is put between the steel belts to give the tires added durability -- without notifying the distributor.
There have been 450,000 of these tires imported since 2002, many of which are now on vehicles that are being used daily. There is no mention here as to under what brand name(s) these tires are being sold as.
Full story here at The Wall Street Journal.
UPDATE: Chinese tires recalled
Full story here and here.
The tires were sold under the names Westlake, Telluride Compass and YKS.
ateixeira says:
07:22 AM, 06/26/07
Oops.
estreka says:
11:27 AM, 06/26/07
I studied the Explorer/Fireestone fiasco, and I can tell you FTS is making the same mistakes. I just wrote a paper on the subject last week (with respect to the recall issues Toyota has been having).
Things like this happen. The best way to deal with it is to act fast. Firestone and Ford kept suing each other and it not only cost them money, but while the whole legal shuffle was going on, people were out on the roads dying. It's was a huge negative perception in the media.
If anyone wants to know more about how Ford and Firestone handled the issue, I recommend Tragic Indifference by Adam L. Penenberg. It's a bit of a propaganda bit, but the information was very insightful.