Hanging Tough on the SUV Issue

For the Ford Motor Co., last year's Firestone-tire crisis created a legal pileup that could wreck the company's consumer-centric strategy. Ford still faces hundreds of lawsuits that seek damages totaling at least $590 million on behalf of the victims of rollovers of Firestone-equipped sport-utility vehicles, most of which involved the wildly popular Ford Explorer. According to federal data, 174 people have died and more than 700 have been injured in accidents stemming from tread separations and other problems linked to the 6.5 million 15-in. SUV tires that Firestone recalled last August.

Although Ford was applauded for the speed and candor of its initial response, the attorneys general of all 50 states agreed last fall to investigate Ford and Firestone to determine whether they may have committed consumer fraud under racketeering statutes. According to the office of Florida attorney general Bob Butterworth, those probes have been gaining momentum.

While Firestone admits that some of its recalled tires were defective, Ford denies any share of blame for the rollovers that involved Explorers. The car company has refused to join Firestone in settlement talks that could resolve more than 300 class-actions that have been consolidated in Indianapolis, Ind. Ford fears that a settlement could expose it to further legal action. The company has quietly settled some individual lawsuits, including a high-profile case brought by a Texas woman who was paralyzed last year when her Explorer rolled.

Despite its denials, Ford faces growing scrutiny over the design of the Explorer and the role the SUV may have played in the highway disasters. Last month Public Citizen, a consumer watchdog group, accused Ford of knowingly building a rollover-prone Explorer and urged Firestone to expand the recall of its tires. "At its core," says Public Citizen president Joan Claybrook, "the Ford-Firestone tragedy was largely the responsibility of Ford Motor Co." This summer the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is slated to issue a long-awaited report on the cause of the rollovers.

--By John Greenwald. Reported by Elizabeth Kauffman/Nashville and Colette McKenna Parker/Atlanta