Opinion ID: 785703
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Formation of Ford's QVM Program

Text: 8 On April 3, 1987, a wedding party in New York was killed when its limousine was hit and split in half as it crossed an intersection. National media coverage of this accident, coupled with other reports of limousine fires and tire blowouts, prompted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to conduct an investigation of the limousine industry. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that there were approximately fifty to sixty coachbuilders nationwide. A few large coachbuilders converted up to one thousand vehicles per year, but many coachbuilders converted one hundred vehicles or less. Some coachbuilders had engineering backgrounds, others did not; some worked out of dirt floor garages, and others out of modern facilities. At trial, Robert Hellmuth, former director of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Vehicle Safety Performance, testified that there was little uniformity in the conversion techniques being used at the time. Most coachbuilders either disregarded the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards or were unaware they existed. 9 After the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's investigation, Robert Hellmuth urged Ford, General Motors, and the members of the limousine industry to pool their resources to develop testing to make sure that limousines were in compliance with federal safety standards. At trial, Robert Hellmuth recalled his discussion with Ford and General Motors as follows: 10 I said, you know, [the coachbuilders] are buying your product, and it would certainly be a wonderful idea for you to help them out, because they certainly don't have the facilities you do, they don't have the technical information you do, and if, if they can't rely on you, you know, they're really not going to be able to build a safe vehicle. (Tr. 1536-37.) 11 Thereafter, Ford assembled a team of forty-five to fifty engineers to ensure that the 418-Town Car chassis met all federal safety requirements when stretched within certain defined limits. After spending over one year and millions of dollars designing and testing the new 418-Town Car chassis, Ford initially limited 418-conversions to end-products that weighed 7,100 pounds or less and were not longer than 85 inches. Later, Ford determined that 418-Town Cars could be safely stretched to 120 inches. 12 After conducting this research, Ford formed a vehicle certification program called Quality Vehicle Modifier (QVM). Through its QVM program, Ford distributed information explaining how to convert Ford 418-Town Cars into limousines that met Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. The manufacturing guidelines, which were available to non-QVM participants and QVM participants alike, set forth conversion techniques, quality control procedures, and continuous improvement practices. As an incentive for complying with its guidelines, Ford paid QVM participants $2,000 to $3,000 for each 418-Town Car properly converted. If a QVM participant stretched a 418-Town Car outside the limits Ford specified, or stretched any other Ford product, the coachbuilder would no longer be eligible for the QVM program incentives unless it provided test data establishing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards compliance. 3 Ford engineer, Roy Radokovich, testified that by helping coachbuilders build safer products that met all Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, Ford hoped to reduce the potential liability it faced from having its name associated with untested limousines. Radokovich further testified that Ford hoped the QVM program would improve its product image and help Ford compete with General Motors in the luxury car market. 13 Within two years after Ford's introduction of the QVM program, General Motors introduced a similar safety program, the Cadillac Master Coachbuilders program (CMC). The vast majority of coachbuilders in the industry participated in the QVM or CMC program or both. 14 Shortly after unveiling QVM, Roy Radokovich visited Craftsmen's facilities and asked Robert Haswell to enroll Craftsmen in the program. Haswell testified that he declined for the following reasons: (1) Craftsmen had little to gain from joining, as it was already employing the conversion techniques described in the QVM manual; (2) Craftsmen had already safely built and sold a number of limousines that exceeded the QVM's length restrictions, and if it were to stop building these longer limousines, Craftsmen would dissolve; 4 and (3) Craftsmen did not want to purchase insurance naming Ford as an insured, which was a requirement of the QVM program. At trial, Radokovich admitted that he was impressed with Craftsmen's building process. He testified that Craftsmen had all the QVM information Ford had disseminated, and that Craftsmen had built conversion parts in accordance with the QVM guidelines. A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration safety compliance engineer who inspected Craftsmen's limousines in the early 1990's agreed that Craftsmen appeared to be following QVM practices. 5 15 At trial, Craftsmen argued that although QVM disguised itself as an overseer of safety, it was actually formed to increase Ford's profits from its control of the limousine manufacturing market. Marc Haswell testified that Ford's safety goals were belied by the fact that some QVM builders reduced the gauge of the metal they used and omitted structural pieces that ensured the structural integrity of their limousines. Marsha Tortora, one of the first participants in QVM, testified that from 1990 to 1997 Ford did nothing to determine whether her limousines were safe. Craftsmen claimed that during that time period, Ford never tested the safety of any of the vehicles produced by QVM manufacturers. 16 Robert Hellmuth, former director of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's office of Vehicle Safety Performance, gave a different account of the efficacy of the QVM program. He stated: 17 The people that got into the QVM program really started building nice vehicles because they had something they could hang their hat on.... They had all the Ford test data[.] Ford did all the crash work for them, did all the documentation, they did everything. Basically if you were in the QVM program and you built it like they told you to build the thing, it would be fully certifiable, it would meet the [federal] standards, it would be a safe vehicle. (Tr. 1547-48.) 18 Hellmuth further testified that Ford's QVM handbook was [b]asically a cookbook recipe on how to build a limousine to meet all the federal safety standards. (Tr. 1547.)