After the discovery of some small rust on my passenger doors I took it to Ford to be fixed. They ended up discovering my frame is rusted along the bottom of my doors. I am now very concerned about safety with this vehicle. It has only 97,000 which for a SUV is not much.

- Fort Wayne, IN, USA

Support frame that holds car together on front of vehicle was severely cracked. Consumer took vehicle to dealer, and they were not going to do anything. Consumer felt that the entire front end of vehicle could fall off. Then, car would flip over, and passenger could be injured or killed. Vehicle was rolling death trap. Frame should never break, it could be bent, but not broken.

- Crown King, AZ, USA

As reported on 9/5/00 (before the tire recall hearings on 9/6/00) to senators richard shelby and frank lautenberg and house representatves w.J. "billy" tauzin and fred upton: I recently read in the times that the Explorer tire that blows out most often is the rear driver side tire, which makes me wonder if there is a design defect in the vehicle. Upon closely examining my 96 Explorer (which didn't come with Firestone tires, by the way), I found that the body leans to the left (driver's side), resulting in a vertical sag of about half an inch on that side. I confirmed that the sag is not related to vehicle loading - the sag persists with both vehicle and gas tank empty; or to weakened springs - the chasis stays level, only the body sags. Also, the vehicle has not been in any accidents that could have caused this. Since then, over the last couple of weeks or so, I have been closely observing Explorer and other SUV's on the road and in parking lots. The results of my admittedly not-so-scientific survey are as follows: (1) about 50% of the older Explorer on the road show a similar sag to the left. (2) none of the Explorer's observed showed a sag to the right. (3) less than 5% of the other SUV's observed showed any sag, which was equally likely to be to the left or to the right. I thought I should pass on this information to you, for whatever it is worth, before the tire recall hearings in the senate tomorrow. Sincerely, ramesh dhingra.

- Dallas, TX, USA

As reported on 9/5/00 (before the tire recall hearings on 9/6/00) to senators richard shelby and frank lautenberg and house representatves w.J. "billy" tauzin and fred upton: I recently read in the times that the Explorer tire that blows out most often is the rear driver side tire, which makes me wonder if there is a design defect in the vehicle. Upon closely examining my 96 Explorer (which didn't come with Firestone tires, by the way), I found that the body leans to the left (driver's side), resulting in a vertical sag of about half an inch on that side. I confirmed that the sag is not related to vehicle loading - the sag persists with both vehicle and gas tank empty; or to weakened springs - the chasis stays level, only the body sags. Also, the vehicle has not been in any accidents that could have caused this. Since then, over the last couple of weeks or so, I have been closely observing Explorer and other SUV's on the road and in parking lots. The results of my admittedly not-so-scientific survey are as follows: (1) about 50% of the older Explorer on the road show a similar sag to the left. (2) none of the Explorer's observed showed a sag to the right. (3) less than 5% of the other SUV's observed showed any sag, which was equally likely to be to the left or to the right. I thought I should pass on this information to you, for whatever it is worth, before the tire recall hearings in the senate tomorrow. Sincerely, ramesh dhingra.

- Dallas, TX, USA

Consumer was traveling about 65mph on highway and heard a loud noise tread separated from left rear tire, and damaged the left rear quarter panel, knocking off the chrome cover off, and bolts broken and bent the rear quarter panel.

- Simi Valley, CA, USA

Extensive corrosin/rust of entire undercarriage.

- Syracuse, NY, USA