Ford Offers to Substitute Goodyear Tires Citing Customer Resistance After Recall
                    November 14, 2000

                    By JOSEPH B. WHITE
                    Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

                    SEDONA, Ariz. -- Ford Motor Co. is offering dealers and customers the
                    option of substituting Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. tires for standard
                    Firestone Wilderness AT tires on its 2001 Explorer sport-utility vehicles.

                                         Company officials announced the new option
                                         here during a product preview for the
                                         redesigned 2002 Explorer in Sedona, Ariz.

                                         Dale Claudepierre, Ford's compact sport-utilities
                                         vehicle line director, said Ford is concerned that
                                         consumers are resisting Firestone brand tires in
                                         the wake of the recall of 6.5 million Firestone
                                         Wilderness AT, ATX and ATX II tires.

                                         The recall began in August after the National
                                         Highway Traffic Safety Administration stepped
                                         up an investigation into reports that the
                                         Firestone tires suffered sudden tread
                                         separations now linked by federal investigators
                                         to 119 deaths in the U.S. and more than 40
                                         fatalities overseas.

                                         Explorer sales skidded 16.4% in October, in
                                         part because of consumer concerns about the
                                         safety issues raised by the tire recall, and also
                                         because of Ford production cuts.

                                         Ford had previously said that when it launches
                    the 2002 Explorer early next year, it would offer dealers and consumers
                    a choice of Goodyear or Michelin tires instead of Firestone brand tires.

                    Bridgestone Corp., parent of Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., said last week
                    that sales of Firestone brand replacement tires in the U.S. fell 40% in
                    September and October.

                    Write to Joseph B. White at joseph.white@wsj.com