Consumer Complaint Detail

FIRESTONE / RADIAL ATX / 9999

Recalls
0 Injured
Investigations
0 Death
Complaints
No Fire
Components - Details
NHTSA Complaint Number: 0000086474 Incident Date: Jan, 01 1970
Consumer's City: ARVADA Consumer's State: CO
Vehicle Transmission Type: Manufacturers Name: FIRESTONE TIRE & RUBBER CO.
Model Name: RADIAL ATX Model Year: 9999
Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No Component's Description: Tires
Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No Persons Injured: 0
Vehicle's VIN#: Date added to File: May, 25 2021
Date Complaint Received: Jan, 09 2002 Complaint Type: IVOQ
Incident Reported To Police: No Purchase Date: -
Was Original Owner: No Anti-lock Brakes: No
Number of Cylinders: 0 Date of Manufacturer: -
Was Vehicle Towed: - Description of the Complaints: I just discovered that my 1999 ford ranger 4x4 off-road pickup, which was factory equipped with 16" tires, has a 15" spare. the engineers at ford have decided that mismatching tire sizes poses no adverse driving conditions for consumers. i feel that emergency handling with a 15" spare mounted on the front of my vehicle would be a challenge and potentially dangerous. i doubt that any tire manufacturers would recommend or support this practice. what did the dealership or ford motor company do when i brought this matter to their attention, you ask? absolutely nothing! it would be very interesting to see the results from some independent test conducted by a consumer group or from any tests that ford may have performed. could this be another recall in the making? i hope so, as i think that under certain conditions, driving a vehicle in this configuration could be very dangerous! this is not limited to the 1999 model year. ford has done this on the 2000, 2001 and is still doing it on their 2002 rangers equipped with 16 tires. apparently ford has no problem aggressively marketing and upgrading the standard 15 tires to optional 16 tires. they just dont see any need to upgrade the spare. i strongly disagree with fords attitude, as i see a real problem with driving mismatched tires even temporarily, and especially on the front of my vehicle. (tiresize: p235/75r15)