AKRON (May 31, 2001)—Goodyear expects to provide “the vast majority” of replacement tires for Ford Motor Co. in its plan to replace 13 million Firestone Wilderness AT tires, according to a Goodyear spokesman in Akron.
The tire maker has stepped up tire production in seven North American plants to provide Ford with the tires it needs without shortchanging replacement customers or other auto makers, the spokesman said.
He declined to speculate on how many tires altogether his company will make for Ford. “This thing has to roll out over a period,” he said. “To say precisely how many tires we'll provide is very difficult to do. That depends on a lot of things, such as how many people plan to replace their tires.”
Goodyear will replace Wilderness tires free of charge at its 5,000 retail outlets, as well as making more tires available to Ford and Lincoln-Mercury dealers.
All of the approved Goodyear tires for Wilderness AT replacement bear the Wrangler model name. More details on the Ford-Goodyear replacement plan can be found at www.ford.com or www.goodyear.com.