The tires were made by scrub workers when there was a strike at Firestone. Ford took a lot of the blame when the tires were what was defective.

As far as the original topic, the front end looks a lot like a 1998 model Contour with some new edge styling added in.

 

I agree completely, the Focus over in the UK/Japan looks really great, (especially the RS)...This new one for us looks positively revolting though This is a prime example of why Ford is in so much trouble. They took a car that was just boring and made it downright offensive looking...All they had to do was give us the UK Focus...How hard would it really be to give us a turbocharged 4WD Focus that was styled like the euro version? I just don't understand why they refuse to capitalize on their success in WRC...For those that don't know they are ahead in the manufacturers' cup this year by 29 points. Why not build a car to fight the EVO's/STI's? They can obviously build one that can do it in competition, (OK, Mitsu didn't run this year but you get my point), so why the hell can't they build something that could do the same on the street???

 

Its better than the last restyle but I still think the Fusion and the Edge are the only vehicles I like that chrome grille styling on. It looks HORRIBLE on the 500 and even a little weird on the Focus. I do like the lines of the coupe though, once you get past the front end.

 

The tires exploding was a result of people swerving when they blew out? did you read my post before you quoted it??? A tire blowing out = expolding tires By saying they blew out in the first place you pretty much restated what I said.

 

There is no such thing as exploding tires.

You can have a blow-out, but this is very far from "exploding tires."

Let me guess, you also read the National Enquirer??

 

youre arguing semantacs? You win! How about if I had said blowouts due to defective tires in multiple multiple SUV's.

 

Statisically, the LR tire blew out more often than not, panic stop with unequal traction on the rear in a vehicle with a high center of gravity and a narrow track and well the results speak for themselves.

 

The tires were S rated, so they were designed to go 112 mph for upto 8 hours without failure at the proper air pressure (may not have been possible to adequately inflate the tires to a proper air pressure given the load imposed by the vehicle). However, the reccommended inflation pressure from Ford in most cases was 26 psi, I believe now that that the reccomended pressure is 32 psi.

A big problem with the tires on the Exploder was probably due to the already low air pressure combined with poor maintenece which allowed the tires to lose even more pressure (you lose roughly 1% a month as the air migrates out of the tire naturally if all things are perfect) combine that with cold air which decreases air pressure by 1% for every 10 degree drop and the problem worsens.

So when summer comes around and people have failed to check thier air pressure, the tires were most likely below the 20% threshhold which constitutes a dangerously underinflated tire (26 psi x .20 = a friggin measley 5.2 psi). Combine that with a tire's worst enemy HEAT and boom! Or that they just came apart like they were put together.

As a consequence, the feds enacted the TREAD act which now requires vehicle manufacturers to install an active or passive tire pressure monitoring system on all new vehicles produced.

 

The focus redesign looks like a saturn. Where is this "excitement" I'm supposed to see? Boring as heck. The first gen focus looks best to me.

 

EEEW did the focus find a staurn and make babies?

 

UK's Focus ST:



Turbocharged 5 cylinder

 

Does anyone know why they refuse to bring that here

 

Stupidity!

 

Honestly, it wasn't really the tire pressure - it contributed, but there were actually other reasons that were more significant contributors to the failure. Low tire pressure just aggravated the other conditions.
Let's not proliferate conjecture or heresay... people believe things if they read them enough times!

The TRUE reason for the WRECKS was tread separation and violent loss of control (not a simple flat-tire or even a blow-out... blowing out a side wall is fairly common and still manageable, but a 20-30lb chunk of tread coming off and slapping the car, fenders, steering linkages, tie-rod ends, E-brake cables, etc can actually take control of the vehicle away from you... BIG difference guys) - and there were 3 or 4 main reasons for the TREAD SEPARATIONS...
1) Design of the "wedge" that supports the outer wall/corner
2) The direction of the reinforcement chords which caused internal heat buildup
3) The "recipe" for the rubber used had more lubricants than normal - which made them easier to produce, but the laminating glue could not bond as well (not to mention they re-glued cold ones in the plant to minimize production losses which is a no-no!)
4) The steel chord construction design was flawed - it had voids in the center which allowed movement and friction, compounding the other problems.

The whistle-blowers in Firestone's Decatur, Ill plant claimed and proved that they were forced into re-gluing casings and tread caps after it had been proven unsafe, because Firestone didn't want to "eat" the costs associated with scrapping so many cores simply because the glue didn't stick the first time. This came out in court documents on December 11, 2000. Firestone quickly accepted "liability" for the design and procedures once evidence and witnesses were produced.

Here's a link to an archived USAToday article about it...
Officials to say adhesive linked to bad tires
"Ford Motor and Bridgestone/Firestone are expected to tell federal safety officials Monday that both companies are coming to similar conclusions about Firestone tire failures on Ford Explorers — conclusions that appear to exonerate Explorer and tire workers."

"...focus on problems in the tire manufacturing process involving adhesives between the tires' steel belts and on the tires' design in the so-called wedge area, which is a layer of rubber between the belts."

Another good article...Depositions don't match company's lines
Another... Firestone leaves an indelible mark
"Look back 22 years, to accounts of the Firestone 500 radial. Treads were peeling. People were dying. Defective tires were traced to the factory in Decatur, Ill. Congress held hearings. Tires were recalled.
This time, Bridgestone/Firestone ordered a massive recall after Ford analyzed the tire company's internal data and spotted an unmistakable pattern of tread-peeling problems on Firestone P235/75R-15 ATX and Wilderness AT tires. The Decatur plant, again, built most of the tires that failed. "

Here's another link to the possible causes brought out in court...
http://www.sptimes.com/News/webspeci...tone/wrong.swf

Before I digress on the Explorer subject, and ask that we return to the original topic of the thread, I'd like to point out JUST how much influence the media has had on this subject, and what so many of us educated gear-heads in here actually believe happened in that fiasco.
Many actually still think the problem was related to the design of the Explorer due to Firestone's legal approach, or at least linked to the tire pressure recommendation from Ford, when in fact there has YET to be an Explorer of any year/model riding on GoodYear or Michelin tires to suffer the same results or have tread separation, even when they are inflated to the same 26psi rating. No Kidding.
THIS is the same influence the media has when it comes to convincing people that Asian cars are superior to Domestics.
Hear it enough times, don't look into it for yourself, and viola... you believe whatever they tell you and even start preaching it yourself!

Now, having resolved this little side bar - we will now return you to our regularly scheduled programming which is already in progress!

The last I heard, the folks at Dearborn don't think the European styling will sit well with the American market. (DON'T ASK ME!?!?)
You know, overwhelmingly, it seems that aggressive styling that is popular overseas is continuously doped-down if brought to the USA, and I don't get why.
Look at the Monero-turned-GTO...
Look at the Mondeo-turned-Contour...
Look at the Focus...

Crap... I dunno what they are thinking.

 

Focsu was very long in the tooth and due for a redesign. Doesn't do much for me but I'd never buy a Ford.

Same lame powertrains??