Posted on 06/26/2007 10:52:03 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A fatal auto accident in Pennsylvania has stirred concerns about another potentially hazardous Chinese product in wide use in the U.S.: tires.
About 450,000 Chinese-made tires sold in the U.S. -- and possibly many more -- may lack an important safety feature, according to federal regulators and the U.S. distributor that helped design them. But the task of identifying who bought the defective tires and getting them off the road has been complicated by litigation and holes in the nation's product-recall system.
The tire defect comes in the wake of several other high-profile safety problems involving Chinese products, including the discovery of lead paint on children's toys and hazardous materials in Chinese-made toothpaste and in wheat gluten used in pet food.
"As imports grow -- and China is the largest exporter to the U.S. -- it's essential" that all manufacturers comply with U.S. safety regulations, said Daniel Zielinski, a spokesman for the Rubber Manufacturers Association, the tire industry's main trade group.
The tires in question were distributed by Foreign Tire Sales Inc. of Union, N.J., and sold under the brand names Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS in a range of sizes used on sport-utility vehicles, pickups and other light trucks. All were sold as replacement tires and not as original equipment on new vehicles.
FTS said an unknown portion of the tires either lacked a safety feature designed to make them more durable or had it in an insufficient degree. The company, which said it doesn't have the money to pay for a recall, estimates the defect could be present in as many as 450,000 tires imported from China's Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. since 2002. It said it believes other U.S. distributors have been selling virtually identical tires, which could account for as many as an additional half-million tires.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
PING!
I’m so tired of this...
Rebrand them as YiKeS tires
Maybe Khruschev got it backwards, and THEY are going to sell US the rope they use to hang us with.
They go flat again 20 minutes after they’re used.
Don’t worry, it wouldn’t hold.
America has a shortage. A rather large shortage. A shortage of integrity. Too many Americans would sell anything to anyone to make a buck.
In spite of what some freepers post, when it comes to commerce, there are things that are just plain wrong.
brownsfan: “In spite of what some freepers post, when it comes to commerce, there are things that are just plain wrong.”
Old_Mil: “There is nothing in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and he who considers price only is that man’s lawful prey.”
-John Ruskin
Wow, right on time. Thanks for reinforcing my point.
Amen. Don’t forget that this administration also ignores b the Chinese arming terrorists because corporations tells it to put on a blindfold.
Can you get MSG-free tires?
Can you get MSG-free tires?
I have told my tire guy, for a couple of years now, not to ever put a Chinese tire on my trucks. Just never trusted them and they wear out in less than a year. I don’t buy Chinese stuff unless I have no choice and I need a certain too. I absolutely will not buy their food.
I think it's more the case that some Chinese companies don't think a deal is a deal. When you contract out something to be built to a spec, you expect that spec throughout the contract. It looks like this Chinese company decided that it was OK to substitute an inferior product sometime through the deal. The simple remedy is to put the American distributor out of business by forcing a recall. No one else will then do business with Yangzhou, simply out of a fear of liability issues. There will also be a general unease with buying from Chinese-owned tire manufacturers, which means the cessation of imports from these firms. Yangzhou may have saved itself millions or even tens of millions of dollars by omitting that feature. But it has just dealt itself out of the US market. And perhaps most of auto tire markets outside of China, if not in China itself. (Chinese consumers are reflexively nationalistic, but they do pay attention to these things. They may profess an ardent nationalism, but most buy foreign cars assembled in China for their superior reliability and fit and finish).
Now it's China's turn.
ping
The rope won’t hold, but our tires will explode and our cars will go careening off a cliff. Same result.
Unfortunately, unless the only food you eat is pulled from the ground in your garden, it is just about impossible to eat foods that do not contain Chinese made ingredients.
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