While the No 2 automaker publicly stood by Japan's Bridgestone Corp's US division, Ford executives have privately said it took the tire maker too long to get them the data that showed the problems with the 15 inch ATX, ATX II and Wilderness tires.

Firestone last week recalled 14.4 million of the tires, about 6.5 million of which are still in use. The recalled tires, many of which have had their treads peel off, in some cases had insurance claims and lawsuits filed against them at 10 times the rate of the company's other tires, according to data Ford and Firestone released Sunday.

"Frankly, do you always make the right decisions? I don't know," Firestone vice president Christine Karbowiak said on Monday. "Maybe 20 years from now, when they're doing studies of this (recall) in Harvard Business School they may say the company should have done this or might have done that differently.

But at the time, we were making what we thought were the right judgments." Consumer groups and plaintiffs attorneys have said Firestone and Ford knew of the problems earlier than this year and did nothing. They have called for the recall to include 16 inch tires, which have had similar problems overseas.

Last year in north Africa, the Middle East, southeast Asia and South America, Ford replaced more than 46,000 tires - mostly the 16 inch models because of the lost treads and blown tires.

However, Ford and Firestone said the recall of the 16 inch tires in the United States was unnecessary because usage patterns overseas are different. Firestone's data showed a spike in claims and lawsuits against the recalled tires in the 1996 to 1998 period, but Karbowiak said the actual number of claims were extremely low and not above normal.

The real surge was this year, she said. Most of the recalled tires were made at the company's Decatur, Ill, plant from 1994 to 1996, when replacement workers were used during a prolonged labour problems, including a 10 month strike.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that former workers at the Decatur plant said in court depositions that Firestone cut corners on quality control at the factory.

Karbowiak said all its workers were properly trained and the comments were made by "disgruntled" former employees. She added that all possible causes of the lost treads and blowouts were being looked at, including looking again at manufacturing processes, the company's design and Ford's specifications for the tires.

Consumer complaints earlier in the year caused the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to open an investigation into the tires in early May. But Ford vice president Jason Vines said Firestone did not share its data with the automaker until July 28, when it used company-owned Cray supercomputers to analyse the numbers.

Ford officials said one reason for the delay was negotiations about confidentiality. Firestone would not share its data with Ford after doing so with NHTSA out of fear the tire maker would lose its right to keep documents secret, important in light of the numerous product liability lawsuits it faces.

On Sunday, Ford and Firestone explained how the problems with the recalled tires first appeared on 16 inch Wilderness models in Saudi Arabia and that region in the spring of 1999, followed by 15 inch versions in South America last summer. A study in the southwest United States of both sizes of Wilderness tires ended in April with no conclusions.

But Ford officials said a Houston television station startled them in February with reports ATX tires were dangerous and another study was launched that has not closed yet.

They have been frustrated with Firestone's inability to properly inform the public about which tires were affected by the recall. Ford went as far as taking out ads in such major daily newspapers as USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post Friday and Sunday to alert Ford owners of which vehicles are affected.

The automaker also sent public relations executives to Firestone's Nashville, Tenn, headquarters to help with the public campaign. Nevertheless, Ford officials said Firestone's tires were "world class" and they would continue to use them, extending a relationship that dates back to 1906. But they added that, even if they wanted to switch, the world's top tire makers did not have enough capacity to meet the demand.

-- (Reuters)