It’s been 25 years since the auto industry and the media covering it were consumed with a recall of some 6.5 million Firestone tires on Ford Explorers.

In August 2000, the Dearborn, MI, automaker was all-hands-on-deck defending the top-selling SUV in the U.S. against charges that it skimped on engineering and testing. Japanese-owned Bridgestone-Firestone was defending its tires and engineering and uncharacteristically pointed the finger at Ford for tire-tread separations and rollovers that government investigators blamed for almost 300 deaths and hundreds more serious injuries.

It was the recall heard ‘round the world. And it claimed the job of then-Ford CEO Jacques Nasser in August 2001. It also spurred a new law that requires tire-pressure monitors on our dashboards.

WardsAuto Senior Editor David Kiley wraps up his tenure as WardsAuto Podcast host with a chat with long-time automotive reporter and editor-in-chief of Headlight.News Paul Eisenstein.