Thursday June 14
NEW YORK, June 14 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. said Firestone's Wilderness AT and ATX tires suffered 167 tread separations on vehicles other than Ford Explorers and said the data called into question Firestone's assertions that its tyres perform well on vehicles other than the Explorer, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Thursday.
Firestone, a unit of Japan's Bridgestone Corp. , disputed Ford's analysis of the data that had been supplied by the tyre company to the auto maker, the newspaper reported.
Ford didn't make a public announcement of the data, but disclosed them when questioned, the newspaper said.
Ford and Firestone are scheduled to appear at a hearing on Tuesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose chairman is Rep. Billy Tauzin (R., La.), the newspaper said.
Ford executives want to convince lawmakers and regulators that the root cause of hundreds of accidents involving Firestone tyre failures on Ford Explorers is defective tires alone, the newspaper said.
Since May 21, Firestone has countered that the design of the Explorer and other factors controlled by Ford are likely at fault.