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This case describes the events leading up to the recall of the Firestone tyres fitted on the Ford Explorer vehicle in August 2000. The case also contains the initial steps taken by Ford and Firestone, as well as government investigators to discover the true cause of the problem. The description is narrative style. It purposely relates events as they unfold, so that students can appreciate the difficulty in identifying the true cause of the problem. The aim of the case is to introduce quality management (and crisis management) through a set of questions. These questions and related tools can then be discussed over following lectures. The main questions are: (1) when is there a quality problem (random versus identifiable cause); (2) what to do when a problem is identified; (3) what could be the sources of the problem; (4) definition of quality; (5) quality when there is interaction between multiple firms; (6) could the problem have been prevented; and (7) what to do once a problem is solved? Other issues include: quality and product design, quality and process design, quality and role of regulators; cost of quality, etc.