25 May 2001: The fallout from the ongoing scrapping between Ford and Firestone over the latter's tyres has hurt the Japanese tyre company even further, with GM and Nissan moving to drop Firestone tryes from some cars they manufacture.

Ford last week recalled more than 13 million Firestone tyres, amid a damaging tit-for-tat series of blame-laying statements from both sides over the high-profile rollovers of Ford Explorer (left) vehicles. The two companies then formally ended a 100-year relationship.

Nissan will drop Firestone from its Altima mid-size sedan when it launches the redesigned 2002 model in September. GM is considering switching an unspecified number of car and truck models, from the Chevrolet, Buick and other brands, to Bridgestone from Firestone (Bridgestone, however, is a related company to Firestone). BB