DETROIT (July 25, 2001)—Ford Motor Co. has dropped the General Ameri*550 AS radial, size P235/70R16, from its approved list of replacement tires for the Firestone Wilderness AT. The company will, however, continue to use the tire as original equipment, mostly for the Ford F-150 pickup truck.
“Our testing indicates that the Ameri*550 AS P235/70R16 meets our performance durability requirements,” said Sue Cischke, Ford vice president, environmental and safety engineering, in a prepared statement.
However, Ford will stop using the tire as a Wilderness replacement “to alleviate any customer confusion.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced July 24 it had opened an investigation into more than 2.7 million General Ameri*550 AS tires in the P235/70R16 size, because of high claims rates and reports of accidents with the tires that allegedly caused 17 injuries.