Ford and Firestone Controversy Centuries ago Ford Motor Company and Firestone Company developed the perfect collaboration and built a strong and wealthy business relationship in which Firestone manufactured tires to be used on Ford’s motor vehicles. Unfortunately, this relationship came to a screeching end after a fatal crisis began around 1999 in which Ford Explorers equipped with Firestone’s Wilderness AT, radial ATX, and ATX II tires caused a series of serious fatal accidents. When the treads of these wheels peeled off the casings vehicles going at highway speeds would enter into ghastly rollover crashes. Although the root cause of the crisis that occurred remains an overall mystery, Ford Motor Company and Firestone Tire Company both act as examples of two organizations in violation of business ethics and further illustrate how ones disregard to act in compliance with ethical and lawful actions, especially in the business setting, is simply not acceptable and could lead to catastrophic consequences in the end. Ethics, which deal with personal moral principles and values, and Law, which deal with societies values and standards that are enforceable in the courts, are leading factors that play huge roles in the day-to-day business environment. According to the Ethical/Legal quadrant provided in the Marketing textbook by Kerin, both Ford and Firestone clearly fall within the unethical/illegal section, due to the fact that both displayed in their actions a blatant disregard in both categories, particularly in that of Business Ethics, which abides by the rule that “ethical exchanges between sellers and buyers should result in both parties being better off after a transaction” (Kerin, Marketing). Obviously this was not enacted by either of the companies. Allegedly committing documentation cover-ups, overlooking early knowledge of tread separation in Firestone