IMHO Michelin is living largely off of their reputation from many, many years ago when they were the first to mass market radials in the U.S. I’m had Michelins, and while they’re good tires, IMHO there are many other options now that are just as good for less money. Tire technology has evolved greatly since Michelin acquired their 'best" reputation.
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Please explain just HOW Michelin would know when YOUR tires crack? What you suggest is completely unreasonable for Michelin to do. As the vehicle owner, it is YOUR responsibility to check such things. You can’t say all Michelins crack nor can you say other brands do not. It depends on time, use, environment and more. No tire company could accept that responsibility nor would GM for the same reason.
As for your motorhome;
I rarely see such irresponsible behavior admitted in print. You took not only your own life, the lives of your family and the lives of every other driver around you as risk with this 7000 lb vehicle because you ignored cracks in the tire. If it was just your risk, I’d say have at it, Darwin will prevail. You should be ashamed of yourself for choosing to put others at risk as you did. Stop driving.
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And then blaming it on GM. My paranoid fear is that we have become so litigious and hyper-sensitive, that at some point no one will want to manufacture anything anymore. Reasonableness in all things.
I don’t think it’s too unreasonable to ask that car manufacturers not make vehicles that could kill you through no fault of your own. Tell the 275+ families who lost someone from this how easily riled they are?
“Tell the 275+ families who lost someone from this how easily riled they are?”
I’m not sure if you’re referring to the particular tires that were on that were on that 2011 Cadillac SRX or what?
You are always good at citing sources of information. Could you please reference some text regarding those 275+ deaths? I’ll have a look. Thanks,
CSA
Actual deaths was 124…sorry…Not 275. 275 are the numbers so far that have been injured.
And based on article above…GM admitted they should have recalled the vehicles at least a decade earlier…in other words many deaths were preventable.
And no GM execs get thrown in jail for this !! Wow !
I think that in many other countries, they would be in jail. In China, they would be shot.
We don’t throw company executives in jail in this country for murder. They usually just get a Golden Parachute worth many millions of dollars.
Mike…I’ve been in cars that have stalled at speed, and lost my power steering as a result. (In particular, I’ve owned a Cobalt with a dying PS motor, that would, from time to time, lose PS function.)
In any event, being able to safely control a car after loss of power assist is one of those things that a competent motorist is expected to be able to do. The Cobalt I mentioned is VERY easy to control (think “one -handed”) at 20 MPH or better, from personal experience. I can therefore only conclude that any motorist that crashed after power steering failure was an incompetent motorist*, and ought to shoulder some of the blame.
It’s worth noting, too, that many of the affected motorists had extremely heavy key rings, in contrast to advice to NOT have an undue number of keys in the ignition. There’s blame to be shared!
- (Excluding those motorists with a physical handicap.)
The ignition switch problem is why I will never purchase GM product. But I don’t put this tire problem in the same category .
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I’m not a small guy…and have been an avid weight lifter for decades. In my 30’s I was into power lifting.
And I’ve driven a couple vehicles of the past 40 years that lost power steering wheel…and trust me it was NOT easy to steer. One was while I was stopped at a red-light…I heard the power steering belt break…and I had a very difficult turning the corner…Some vehicle may be easy…some may be difficult.
How many of those people were older? I know many younger people who have no upper body strength what-so-ever…So I wouldn’t be surprised they couldn’t either.
GM takes the blunt of the blame because they knew for decades there was a problem and refused to do anything about it. They even admitted that.
Wow! I just got done reading some articles about the fake news used by NASA/NOAA (recently revealed by a retired NASA employee) to influence the U.N. climate summit. Unbelievable!
Now, more fake news! It’s everywhere!
@MikeInNH says, “I don’t think it’s too unreasonable to ask that car manufacturers not make vehicles that could kill you through no fault of your own.”
It’s a CNN article. You must read carefully. The headline doesn’t exactly tell the story.
The real news was that the attorney in charge of compensating victims tells the real story…
“Feinberg found that in 74% of the fatalities that were approved by the fund, the driver or passengers were at least partially responsible for the deaths through factors such as driving under the influence, excessive speed or failing to wear a seat belt. But none of the awards were reduced because of those contributing factors.”
It is definitely tragic and sad that people have died or been injured, I agree and my sympathy goes out to those involved, but many of these situations involving millions of vehicle are blown way out of reason. Many people don’t want to accept the responsibility for their own actions and ambulance chaser lawyers are looking to make a buck. The Fortune article points out over 4,000 people piled on with claims and over 90% were thrown out!
CSA
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I’ll agree…steering a car with INOP PS is a pain at “parallel parking” speeds…but you’re not likely to die at those speeds. Get the car up to 30 MPH, and it’s a LOT easier.
I don’t think “being able to safely bring the car to a stop” following a PS failure is asking too much, frankly. If it IS too much to ask, then we need to do stuff like putting a redundant belt on the PS pump. I’d argue the lack of redundancy implies that a loss of PS shouldn’t be life-threatening.
I’m not saying GM is blameless, either. I’m saying I’d expect a driver of “adequate competency” to deal with an emergency of similar magnitude without offing themselves.
UM…That was reported about 5 years ago. Fox News Article?
You completely missed the point…The point is GM knew about the problem years earlier and decided to do nothing about it. Doesn’t matter if it was 1 death or 10,000…
“UM…That was reported about 5 years ago. Fox News Article?”
UM… This is new. Story has been out a couple of days. It involves the 2015 U.N conference.
Fox news? No, I’ve seen it in lots of publications, but not Fox,.
“You completely missed the point…The point is GM knew about the problem years earlier and decided to do nothing about it. Doesn’t matter if it was 1 death or 10,000…”
That was the point? Oh. I have a few of these cars and haven’t done anything about them. I have checked them out thoroughly and I don’t have any problems with them. I’ve got a 17 year old car that’s waiting for GM to warranty forever (I mean do the Recall) on a valve cover gasket (unbelievable!). I have a couple more of those, too, but not that old.
I can remember paying attention when Nader started in on Corvairs and spinner wheel covers (unbelievable!). That was the beginning of this endless parade of recalls and overreach by well meaning government agencies. I can only hope the new administration scales it back, way back.
CSA
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Clearly you don’t have an understanding of Statistics. Just because your vehicles don’t have a problem doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Whatever happened at that 2015 climate conference did not hinge on one paper. Other sources indicate that the group representing 188 countries already had decided how they were going to vote without influence from that paper. Maybe it was flawed. Not all research ends up being accepted over time. Researchers design an experiment and think they did it correctly, but may not have put the proper emphasis on the background of the data collected. It appears that NOAA re-evaluated the data and decided they should not rely on it in the future. That is why papers are presented in an open forum: to get unbiased reactions from colleagues so that we can improve future studies. Stuff happens, we learn from it, and try to do a better job next time. All this hoo-ha about evil lying scientists seems to be from people with an agenda or from well-meaning people that don’t understand the process.
“Clearly you don’t have an understanding of Statistics. Just because your vehicles don’t have a problem doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
That is not necessarily a factual statement. I do know a bit about cars and also have an understanding of much ado about nothing (no, not the comedy), know government overreach when I see it, and making cars needlessly too expensive. These recalls aren’t free. We pay for them, one way or another, big time, whether we want them or not.
I’m not say all the recalls are not warranted, but often the ones that are major are recognized by the car manufacturers themselves. With all the negative fake news stories, strong arming by the Feds, ambulance chasing lawyers lining people up to pile on, can you blame manufacturers if they’re reluctant to be overly cooperative?
My concern operating a vehicle isn’t the ignition switch that could turn off if I hang a bunch of junk on a key ring, or a leaky valve cover gasket on a 17 year old car with over 300,000 miles on it. Give me a break.
My concern is with distracted/texting, speeding, drunk (like many in the GM ignition lawsuits) drivers coming at me and my family members, over the center line, nearly every trip out on the roads.
Since I’m big on personal responsibility, I feel it needs to apply to everybody, not just me.
CSA
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Wow…who told you that. They recogonize a problem because of many consumer watchdog groups and the information age. Trust me…without these problems being posted by many consumer watchdog groups and access by consumers to all this information companies like GM would NEVER EVER do a recall on their own. History has proven that.
Quote from Mustangman: “I rarely see such irresponsible behavior admitted in print. You took not only your own life, the lives of your family and the lives of every other driver around you as risk with this 7000 lb vehicle because you ignored cracks in the tire. If it was just your risk, I’d say have at it, Darwin will prevail.” Unquote
Incorrect, it was 9000 lbs. Can’t do better than success, the tires did not come apart. Risk tolerance is a variable thing; some are very cautious and others are less afraid to push the envelope.