It’s chunky, but is it safe?

FOR the second time in little more than a month, Ford is facing the recall of potentially dangerous tyres. On August 9th, the company and its long-time supplier, Bridgestone/Firestone, revealed that 6.5m tyres would need to be replaced, the vast majority of them used on the Ford Explorer, the world's bestselling sport-utility vehicle (SUV). The latest recall, announced this week, affects up to 200,000 tyres supplied by Germany's Continental, mostly on Ford's Lincoln Navigator SUV. Though far less serious than the first recall—so far it has been linked to only a few minor fender-benders and no deaths—it is nonetheless embarrassing for Ford. Nor does the rest of America's auto industry, which has come to rely on SUVs for a disproportionate share of earnings, like the idea of a spotlight shining on them.