Tyre failures of the product General “52 S” for the Ford Bronco are responsible for the deaths of 18 people, say lawyers in the USA who have filed a law suit against the Group. The lawyers also claim that Continental has deliberately covered up safety faults. Continental rejects all accusations and claims that it has cooperated fully with the NHTSA at all times.
Journalists at the Detroit Motor Show have voted the Ford Focus ‘Car of the Year 2000’. The Focus is produced in Germany, Spain and the USA.
Jason Vines, Ford Vice President, has said that the company has no plans to drop Firestone as a tyre supplier, although the relationship will be reviewed “on a day-to-day basis”. Ford’s new Explorer 2002 SUV (on the market next year) will be fitted with Firestone tyres, but tyres from another manufacturer, thought to be Michelin, will also be offered.
Avon Rubber has blamed falling car production in the UK for a 40% drop in annual profits to £3.3 million. Direct sales of automotive and technical products to Ford and Rover fell £7.6 million to £27.1 million. Shares fell 12.5p to 455p.
Business analysis specialists Datamonitor predict that the European Fast Fit Market will have an annual growth of more than 4 per cent each year and reach 11 billion Euros by 2004. It is also anticipated that new competitors Ford (who acquired Kwik-Fit) and Fiat (who acquired Midas) will significantly increase their standing in the market during this period.
The Kwik-Fit group plans to grow from its present 2,000 centres to a total of 5,000 centres by the year 2010. This is made possible due to the financial backing of car giant Ford, said Sir Tom Farmer recently in a key-note speech in England.
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