Ford, Chrysler to Clinton: Don’t Recall GM Trucks

The chairmen of Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. sent a letter to President Clinton stating their opposition to a government-ordered recall of rival General Motors Corp.’s older pickup trucks, the companies said Thursday.

The letter, which argues that a recall of GM’s 1973-87 pickup trucks with side-mounted fuel tanks would threaten the entire automotive industry, was signed by Chrysler Chairman Robert Eaton, Ford Chairman Alex Trotman and GM President John Smith.

In the letter, the executives said Transportation Secretary Federico Pena’s decision that a defect exists in the full-size trucks will create “needless, unreasonable regulatory confusion” that will hurt the industry.

Critics say the trucks are vulnerable to fires in side-impact crashes, but GM has argued that the trucks are safe and met all federal impact standards in place at the time they were built.

If Pena is allowed to order a recall, the Big Three executives said, all federal standards would be subject to arbitrary revisions years later and therefore be irrelevant.