Tuesday June 19 2:40 PM ET
By John Crawley and Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co was pressured on two fronts on Tuesday as lawmakers raised safety concerns about the company's replacement of millions of Firestone tires and the government said it may probe the hugely popular Explorer sports utility vehicle.
The joint House subcommittee hearing was called to sort out claims from the two warring corporations over blame for 203 deaths and more than 700 injuries linked to blowouts of Firestone tires fitted mostly as standard equipment on the Explorer. Some of those crashes involved rollovers.
House members wasted no time in aggressively questioning Ford chief executive Jacques Nasser on the scope and thoroughness of the replacement of as many as 13 million Firestone Wilderness AT tires on all its vehicles.
Nasser acknowledged the replacement plan may be too broad but vigorously defended the company's commitment to safety and expressed confidence in its data and analysis that he said justified the dramatic move.
``We're taking all the tires off the Wilderness AT tires off the road,'' he said. ``If anything, we may have overreached because of the need to install some confidence back in the marketplace. I'm hoping we've done that.''
Lawmakers said congressional investigators have found that some of the Wilderness AT tires being swapped have a better claims history than replacement brands. And House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. ``Billy'' Tauzin said test results appeared insufficient.
NEW INFORMATION
Tauzin said congressional investigators learned that one of the tires to be used in the replacement has a claims rate of 124 per million tires, which is well in excess of the five claims per million that Ford has said is the benchmark for its replacement program expected to cost $3 billion.
The replacement tire manufacturer was not identified.
``Are we going to be replacing worse tires for the tires that come off these cars?'' Tauzin asked. He said congressional investigators looking at overall tire quality have ``uncovered a great deal'' of information on the Ford replacement plan that will be turned over to auto safety regulators.
Tauzin said his committee will ask the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to report to Congress within 30 days to ``tell us whether this data is significant enough that Americans ought to know the tires they are going to have to use as replacement tires have worse claims data than others.''
Separately, a Transportation Department official said in written testimony delivered to Congress that NHTSA is considering an investigation of the Explorer in addition to its investigation of whether to expand the Firestone recall.
Michael Jackson, deputy transportation secretary, said regulators are conducting an analysis to determine if a formal investigation is warranted. ``The department and NHTSA are giving this matter full consideration,'' Jackson said.
Jackson also said that NHTSA's tire investigation into whether to expand last year's Firestone recall will close earlier than expected. Testing will be completed by the end of next week and results announced in a month.
FORD DEFENDS EXPLORER
Nasser defended the Explorer, saying criticism challenging its safety is not based on fact. ``Real world data shows that the Explorer is among the safest SUVs on the market,'' he said.
After Ford announced in May it was replacing the 13 million Firestone Wilderness AT tires, Firestone, a unit of Bridgestone Corp., then asked that the government look into the handling and steering capabilities of the Explorer.
On the Explorer, Jackson said auto regulators have met with both Ford and Firestone to discuss in detail Firestone's allegations, and last week the agency met with the consultant hired by Firestone to conduct that company's test.
Firestone chief executive John Lampe said in his prepared testimony that to ``to find the truth'' it was imperative the government examine the Explorer as well as the tire issues.
Nasser told the committee that as of Tuesday 1 million tires had been replaced, and defended the company's action that followed last August's government-directed recall of 6.5 million 15-inch Firestone ATX and certain Wilderness AT tires.
``We feel very sad about those 203 people. That's why we're moving to replace 13 million tires. We don't want to be sitting there talking about further deaths and accidents,'' he said.
``Many of the remaining Firestone Wilderness AT tires will experience elevated failure rates, particularly as they age,'' Nasser added.
Tauzin pressed Nasser over Ford's replacement program, asserting that the auto maker's data on replacement brands was not thorough enough and wondered whether the replacement had ''the potential'' to undercut Firestone's financial solvency.
At one point in the hearing, Nasser grew frustrated with Tauzin's questions on apparent gaps in tire testing, interrupting him to press his point.
``Mr. chairman, we did not test every single tire ever made in the history of this world,'' an agitated Nasser said. ``We didn't. We had to stop. It was a question of do we keep testing, do we keep studying, do we keep reviewing or do we go out there and act. Yes, we're guilty.''
Nasser said if congressional data found problems with the tires slated as replacements and the information is accurate ''then we'll act on it.''