Tiremaker accused of misstating mileage on pickup sold in Nevada

Grace Leong

Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2000 | 10:42 a.m.

An Arizona man sued Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. of Nashville, Tenn., and five other parties, alleging they tried to defraud him when they tampered with the odometer readings of a truck he bought in Laughlin.

In a U.S. District Court suit, Allen Lee Sandquist, who bought a 1990 Ford Ranger pickup truck in September 1999, alleged Bridgestone/Firestone and the truck's former owners, Gary Bradford, Jim Aron, Jim Aron Used Cars of Bruce, Miss., Jim Aron Automotive Finance Co. and Mike Ridgley violated the Federal Odometer Act when they allegedly tampered with the truck's odometer to change the actual mileage and gave false odometer reports to subsequent buyers.

Sandquist alleged the truck, which was originally bought and owned by Firestone to test Firestone tires, had driven in excess of 389,000 miles on its test track in Mexico before it was first sold to Bradford, a Texas car wholesaler.

The suit said Firestone, which allegedly sold 37 vehicles to Bradford in 1992, allegedly allowed Bradford and the other defendants to fill in fake mileage figures on titles.

"Bradford or an agent of his made a copy of the original title, destroyed the original title, filled in 89,804 miles on the fake copy, and then sold the truck to a company in Mexico," said Brent Bryson, the plaintiff's attorney. The suit alleged Firestone bought the truck back eventually and then applied for and received a duplicate title from the Texas Department of Transportation, which listed the truck as having only 48,022 miles. Firestone then sold the truck to Mike Ridgeley, another Texas man, who then sold it to Jim Aron Used Cars.

"Firestone set this up so people can be defrauded. How can Firestone resell the truck for 48,022 miles when they know the truck has more than 400,000 miles on it? It's clearly fraud," Bryson said. "There've been other suits filed in Texas and Mississippi by other parties who had bought several of the 37 vehicles."

The suit alleged Jim Aron Used Cars was aware that the actual mileage was much higher than 48,022 miles when it sold the truck to other buyers, and after subsequent sales, the truck was finally sold to Sandquist in Laughlin and he obtained a title from the state of Arizona reflecting 78,128 miles.

Sandquist, who said he has since experienced numerous mechanical problems with the truck and has had to make significant repairs, said he would never have bought it had he known the actual mileage.

Chris Karbowiak, Bridgestone/Firestone's vice-president of public affairs, declined comment.