NHTSA closes investigations of Chevy, Ford spare tire loss

WASHINGTON (Nov. 27)—The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has quietly dropped investigations of whether two popular Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. vehicles have an increased tendency to lose their spare tires in operation. NHTSA found no defect trend in the case of 1.24 million Ford Explorers, model years 1991-94, whose spare tire cable winches allegedly failed while the vehicles were in motion. The agency also found no problems with 2.28 million Chevrolet S10 pickup trucks, model years 1991-96, which were the subject of 171 complaints alleging failure of the wire cables holding the spare tires to the trucks.