Why Firestone tires vanished from Ford lineups after the deadly Explorer scandal

Ford’s long-standing partnership with Firestone collapsed in the wake of a catastrophic 2000 recall that erased billions in value and shattered consumer trust.

The rupture began when Firestone tires fitted to the Ford Explorer suffered catastrophic tread separations, leading to at least 174 deaths and more than 700 injuries.

Federal investigators traced the failures to severe manufacturing defects: weak adhesion between the tire’s inner and outer belts, insufficient rubber thickness in the inter-belt area, and flawed belt-wedge rubber designed to suppress edge cracks.

Shoulder pockets on the affected tires created a continuous ring of structural weakness around each tread.

Documents show Firestone and Ford were aware of problems as early as 1997, yet the automaker still chose larger tire sizes for the Explorer to secure a favorable review from Consumers Union.

Ford never recalled the Explorer itself, but it absorbed billions in legal settlements and reputational damage.

The fallout ended a nearly century-long alliance that began when Henry Ford’s Model T rolled on Harvey Firestone’s pneumatic tires in 1905.

The two industrialists, along with Thomas Edison and naturalist John Burroughs, even formed the “Four Vagabonds” and embarked on cross-country road trips in the late 1910s and early 1920s.

Ford’s decision to drop Firestone as a regular supplier after the scandal marked one of the ten biggest automotive scandals that forced an executive to resign.