DETROIT - Ford Motor Co. is planning to slow down its rollout of new models as it struggles to cope with the tire recall scandal. Dealers have reported a growing number of complaints from customers who bought the company's latest, much-hyped Escape SUV. Five have been returned since it went on sale in August. The once-popular Focus compact has also been the subject of complaints, with four vehicles recalled since late 1999.

Concerned about these precedents, Ford Motor has postponed the introduction of the latest model of the Explorer SUV, many believe due to quality issues.

The company's CEO, Jacques Nasser, reported that Ford specialists are currently implementing the "6-sigma" program, the goal of which is to switch to the most stringent modern quality standards. However, Ford Motor dealers in the United States are increasingly expressing dissatisfaction with the management of the automobile manufacturing giant. In November, the next all-American meeting of the company's dealers was held in Detroit, where the top priority was named as preventing further recalls of products in 2001. "We are faced with an unprecedented number of returns," stated the chairman of the dealer council, Jerry Reynolds. According to him, sellers are afraid of losing customer trust. "Ford management must take all measures to ensure that this situation does not happen again," Reynolds said.

Excluding recalls related to the Firestone tire recall, the total number of vehicles recalled this year for safety issues has fallen 23%, according to a Ford division. However, Ford officials acknowledged that recalls related to less serious problems have increased significantly in the past two years.

Martin Inglis, the company's vice president responsible for brand promotion at Ford, believes that this is due to changes in the strategy of car manufacturers, which are increasingly focused on the customer. Trying to attract young people, the company released stylish Focus and Escape models. At the same time, safety issues remain the most pressing. That is why it was decided to slow down the pace of updating product lines. The difference in quality between Ford cars and competing models from European and Japanese manufacturers has significantly decreased over the past decades. However, according to analysts from Strategic Vision, buyers react much more sharply to defects in Ford Motor products than to similar shortcomings in Lexus models. The reason for this is the huge scale of production, traditional for Ford. "The more new models they release, the greater the damage will be if there are any defects," says analyst Alexander Edwards.

Ford will not rush to release new models