One of the great things about working for a magazine as established as Tire Review is simply the vast history available at my fingertips. Every one of the approximately 1,500 issues published since TR was founded 111 years ago sits one floor above me in our library. Any question I have about the history of any tire technology, regulation, organization, personality – whatever – is there for the taking.
So, too, are intimate views of world history – two World Wars, a Great Depression, the rise of the automobile (yes, TR was around even before the wide-spread use and ownership of cars!), and all of the technological and social changes the world has seen over the last century-plus. And we have stood witness to every single event that has impacted the tire industry: from the initial challenges posed independent dealers by mass merchants (a movement led by a major tiremaker), tire patent and design lawsuits, international battles over natural rubber cartels and sky high prices, the Firestone 500 and every other major recall and finger-pointing exercise, and the growth of a new cottage industry in our capital – legislation and regulation.
One such bit of NHTSA business was enacted in 1977 following numerous court contests and years of legislative efforts, and that was the Uniform Tire Quality Grading program, which is celebrating its 34th year of existence in 2011. Perhaps this will also be its last, for UTQG may go to the government acronym scrap heap once the long-awaited new tire testing and labeling regulations are enacted.
While there is no doubt the government messed up UTQG from the start, it is important to remember why UTQG even came to pass. When corporations are left to their own devices, bad things can happen. Such was the case here where the lack of industry standards and aggressive advertising left consumers confused over the tires they bought and used. One so-called “100 level” tire – the best, based on the scale of the times – would last considerably fewer miles than another 100 level tire. Angry tire buyers took their case to Washington and the rest is history.
Back in June 1978, TR did an extensive investigation into the history, mis-management and potential result of the UTQG. The report covered 18 pages in the magazine, and was read, reported on and reprinted widely for years. It was one of a long list of crowning achievements for our little magazine.
Since most of you were not around back in the mid-1960s when UTQG first started and are now faced with whatever NHTSA will dole out with the new testing, grading and labeling scheme, we thought you’d enjoy a trip in the Way-Back Machine to see how TR covered the birth of UTQG.
Why would we take the time to publish an old story, and one of such length and depth? Simple: To fully understand what dealers, manufacturers and others will face with the proposed new tire testing, grading and labeling program, we need to review the birth of UTQG, perhaps the most contested piece of regulation to ever hit the tire industry. Sorry it is so long, but as George Santayana famously said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Part II of this opus will appear in this space on Friday.
