Vegas Firestone dealer working through recall

Grace Leong

Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2001 | 11:32 a.m.

Ted Wiens Tire and Auto Centers expects to replace an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Firestone tires for its Las Vegas customers by the time a nationwide recall of 6.5 million Firestone tires is completed.

The Las Vegas tire retailer, which was one of three tire dealers in Nevada authorized by Firestone to make immediate free replacements, said it has so far replaced 11,000 Firestone tires for more than 2,000 Las Vegas customers.

"The recall took us by surprise," said Ted Wiens Jr., president and owner of 11 Ted Wiens outlets that sell and service tire brands including Bridgestone, Firestone, Michelin, BF Goodrich, Uniroyal and General Tire. "We were innundated with calls in mid-August from people wanting to replace their tires with different brands after the announcement."

"Our biggest concern now is the public's perception of Firestone tires' quality," he said. "Firestone constitutes over 50 percent of our tire sales. Customers may choose to by-pass us because of the recall. But we're relying on Firestone's new warranty program to help recapture the market."

To recover lost market share, Firestone now offers a new warranty program that offers free replacements for defective tires for the first three years of ownership, said Chris Publow, Ted Wiens' general manager. Most other tire brands have a free replacement warranty only for the first year, he said.

Firestone blames the well-publicized failures of some tires on a complex combination of factors, including temperature and type of climate they're used in, vehicle loads, speed, place of manufacture, shoulder design and tread design.

Firestone maintains that lower inflation pressure recommended by Ford Motor Co. played a role in the tire failures. Ford recommended that Firestone tires on the Explorer sport utility vehicle be inflated to 26 pounds per square inch, while Firestone recommended 30 psi after the recall.

"When you put 26 psi only, the tire will lose one pound of air a month, which results in high heat build up in the tire and high heat is the enemy because the side walls of the tire will over flex and melt, which causes tread separation," Wiens said.

Wiens said the company's relationship with Firestone hasn't changed despite a 10 to 15 percent drop in its monthly sales of all Firestone products since the recall.

"There's nothing wrong with the brand. It's just one size of tire in one application out of 120 lines of tires Firestone made," Wiens said.

Publow said Wiens replaced most of the recalled Firestone tires with Bridgestone tires and other Firestone models and gave customers the option of getting other brands as replacements. Firestone also offered refunds for tires bought between Jan. 1 and Aug. 8, 2000.

"In some cases, customers had to pay a slight premium for other brands. But whenever possible, we would do a direct trade," he said.

Wiens bought more than 6,000 tires from its other suppliers since August to cover the replacements and 87 percent of the replacements were on Ford Explorers in Las Vegas.

"We won't lose anything. Firestone is reimbursing us our recall expenses," Wiens said. "If we replace Firestone tires for, say $100, Firestone will reimburse us for every recall tire we turn in to them. If our customers wanted brands other than Firestone, and which were more expensive than Firestone, then they'll pay us the difference."

"Our suppliers understood the problem and they gave us a 90 day-repayment term, interest-free credit on our tire purchases. And we get credit back within four to five weeks from Firestone if we're replacing Firestone tires," he said.

"There were two or three thousand Ford Explorers in Las Vegas with the recalled tires. Most of those recalled tires had 40,000-60,000 miles on them and were still running fine, but we replaced them anyway," Publow said. "None of the 11,000 recalled tires in Las Vegas we replaced were defective."

Meantime, at least three lawsuits have been filed against Bridgestone/ Firestone in Clark County District Court since October, alleging personal injuries and damages caused by defective Firestone ATX tires that were used on Ford Explorers. These are among hundreds of such suits nationwide.