AUTOS

Ford Seeks New Trial in Bronco Case: The Dearborn, Mich., auto maker asked a judge to overturn a $62.4-million jury verdict against it, charging that two auto safety experts rigged tests to support allegations that its Bronco II was unsafe. The verdict, reached in October in Indiana, holds that Ford Motor Co. was negligent in the serious injury of two Indiana women hurt in a rollover of the Bronco II, a sport-utility vehicle discontinued in 1990. Ford asked Superior Court Judge David Rimstidt to order a new trial, saying auto safety experts Michael Kaplan and Robert Hooker supplied misleading testimony, a spokesman said. Kaplan denied Ford’s allegations. Rimstidt, who presided at the trial last year, was not expected to issue an immediate ruling.