millenium,
it sounds like you are very aware of your vehicle. however, most people do not do as you do. we have to trust the manufacturer to advise us as to how often the care needs maintenance and to do the required maintenace at that time.
the manufacturer of a product has the responsibility to build in compensations for their product to be used at lower or higher standards to compensate for all those who do not follow the letter of the maintenance. I worked on the Ford assembly plant in Wixom, Michigan making t-birds and lincolns when i was an undergraduate on weekends and during the summers. the cars are built to be off inches in height from the ground on all four courners and still meet the inspection standard. there are many areas that have compensations built in which are inherant in their system. they have attempted to catch up with the Japanese and others, but the bottom line is money, and they count on american loyalty to purchase american products as well.
it's true also that suv's have a much greater chance of rolling over because their center of gravity is so high, but it is the job of the engineers to find solutions to these problems. in this case, ford would have lost billions if they waited to have the vehicle perfected before they began production, and after the production is begun and they are getting so many orders they can't keep up with them, it would be very unprofitable to stop and fix it them. that's why they tried to conpensate with the underinflated tires. when i was at ford and gm, the line didn't stop for anything; maybe if some were killed, until they could get the body out of the way, but it just *did not stop* and have 20,000 people standing around not working.
where ford betrayed us was when they continued selling these vehicles after they knew there was a problem and didn't warn people that they were in danger.
it reminds me of an encounter i had with a manufacturer of oven cleaner, which is a caustic substance that melts your skin. i asked him why they didn't put a skull and crossbones on it to be certain that even people who did not speak english would realize it's dangerous. his reply was that if they put a skull and crossbones on the can, people wouldn't buy it because they would think it was dangerous **which it was**. he said they weren't concerned about foreigners because they were based in cincinatti. I advised him that there are a great many people in this country don't read and write english well. it's pretty obvious to anyone who has ever called an institution such as a bank and has to pick a language first before doing a transction. but the oven cleaner manufacturer didn't care until i served them with a lawsuit and helped them do the right thing and change their policies. but taking on ford and firestone is a pretty heavy duty thing to do in this country, they own most of the political leaders. AND, you won't find very many lawyers who want to put themselves and their families in danger to fight them, unless the situation appears to be worth a lot of money, and has a high profile, which may happen here.
venuzuala is leading the charge by filing criminal charges against high officials at ford and firestone (involuntary homocide), and the people in venezuala can't get bought off like the people we have who have already sold their souls to the devil (aka major corporations), and the corporations pay off both sides to be sure to have one elected that is on their payroll.
their are people in venezuala who are going to be putting people in prison when this is all said and done. have you noticed what the political issues are here? prescription drugs. nothing about this incident has been discussed by the donkeys or elephants. they have seen to it that the only person who would bring it up at the debates has been cut out of them.
i'm going to be sure to vote for Ralph Nader, he is the only one running who refuses to take any money from any corporation. he is the only candidate who would lead this country out of the madness we find so intolerable that we have to shut it out of out minds so we will remain sane. the only problem is that if he had any chance to win after he had been illegally prevented from being in the debates, the corporations would kill him, just like the kennedy's and black leaders.
I know a lot about this because i was an anti-war activist in the 1960's and found myslef being followed by the FBI for burning my draft card on television at the 1967 Pentagon demonstration. the american civil liberties union got me off, but the Feds kept after me for years until they got so frustrated because they couldn't get me for anything and so they framed me and i was in jail for months fighting it. i was such a "risk" at the ripe old age of 19 that i couldn't get bail, and my family had to pay off a crooked judge to get me a "deal". that was a real boost for my ideals, getting framed for a crime i didn't committ, then being able to walk away from it when they found out my family had the money to fight them, and paid off a "fixer".
I requested my FBI file when the freedom of information act was implemented, and they sent me 30 pages with everything blacked out but my name and address because it was "classified." in other words, they knew that there was information that would get them in trouble even, though this was over 30 years ago, so they just wouldn't let me see it. they claimed it had nothing to do with me, although they could not answer my question, "If it has nothing to do with me, why is it in my file?"
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