Posted by Rick on November 10, 1999 at 10:58:08:
In Reply to: Ford's tire recommendation for 95' Explorer posted by Jim Barstow on November 09, 1999 at 23:16:50:
Jim you hit a button of mine. This is my personal and not professional opinion. This is not personal so when I use "you" I am referring to the collective and not yourself.
It is a shame what a couple of lawsuits will do. You end up dumming down everything to the lowest common denominator because a couple of idiots refuse to take responsiblity for their actions. Hence everyone hides behind their lawyers for fear of some large settlement. It is disappointing that even the consumer advocacy groups are falling in line.
Hence ... "deviating from the manufacturer's recommendation can drastically alter the handling of an SUV." REALLY!!! I would claim that most of the people on this board are looking for tires that "drastically" alter the handling of their vehicle. Just look at any of the snow tire posts. How many snow tires come on your car as original equipment? Are they drastically different than your original tires??? Is that what you want??? Yes for both questions. Is that drastically different performance inherently "bad"? I don't think so. Will they perform drastically different in other performance categories (Dry, wear, ...), YES! Second point that I will not explore is who is defining "drastically"? The engineers in Dearborn? Consumer Reports? Some third party? The public? It would be a given that they would all set different thresholds.
However, because "some people" (not tires) insist that they drive their truck (Read SUV) like a car then get "so surprised" that it responded like a truck and not a car. Now they missed all of those dam stickers they now insist on putting in the your SUV, they have not picked up a newspaper in the last 5 years, and they have not seen one TV program about SUV's flipping over so this is a big secret to them. But after killing themselves or someone else, rather than take responsibility for their actions we blame the product. Someone is to blame, it's not me, these manufacturers are "rich", they sue, and the courts hand them the money.
If I buy a new set of tires for my Yugo and flip the car. Did the tires flip the car? Not likely. Just because the tire purchase came before the car flipped does not establish causality. Can I actually get any given set of good tires to flip my Yugo? Yes I can. What caused the car to flip? Driving style causes the car to flip. Would I be driving in a correct manner to get it to flip. No!!!
When used correctly trucks are fun and can be safer than cars. Can you replace your tires with anything but orginal equipment? They have not passed a law yet that says that you have to buy original equipment. So it's not illegal (yet?). Are they making a well informed recommendation to you? Yes. Do you have the right to be stupid, flip your car, and blame someone else for your stupidity, YEP. Welcome to America!