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61-518: Penske Automotive was founded as United Automotive Group in 1990 by Marshall S. Cogan and later came under the control of Penske Corporation and Roger Penske in May 1999. Several years later, on July 2, 2007, United Automotive Group changed its corporate name to Penske Automotive Group, Inc; and changed its ticker symbol on the NYSE to PAG. In February 2009, General Motors declared its intent to part with

122-538: A company that manufactures lithium-ion batteries for plug-in hybrid vehicles. Cogan has also served as Chairman and Director of Color Tile, Inc., Knoll International and Sheller-Globe Corporation . Firestone Tire %26 Rubber Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is an American tire company founded by Harvey S. Firestone (1868–1938) in 1900 initially to supply solid rubber side-wire tires for fire apparatus , and later, pneumatic tires for wagons, buggies , and other forms of wheeled transportation common in

183-848: A domestic tire plant, which gave it a virtual monopoly. This included both general price and foreign exchange controls . When the ten-year period came to an end in 1979, Firestone retaliated by increasing production, making entry less attractive. Headquarters eventually canceled expansion and failed negotiations led to no further investments. Bridgestone Americas, which has served as the American branch of Japan-based Bridgestone since 1992, moved their corporate office to downtown Nashville in October 2017. In April 2012, Bridgestone Americas opened up its new Bridgestone Americas Technical Center in Akron, Ohio. The $ 100 million facility, located near

244-552: A jury. However, by then, Mr. Cogan had settled the case as to himself. Putting aside the correctness of the factual determinations made by the District Court, including the hotly disputed question of when Trace had entered the zone of insolvency, in 2007, the Supreme Court of Delaware, the laws of which governed the obligations of the directors of Trace, ruled that the fact that a company may be near insolvency (i.e., in

305-918: A month of waiting, the delegation was brought to meet Taylor, and after a further six months of negotiations the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Patriotic Reconstruction Assembly Government's Ministry of Finance in January 1992. This MOU provided for taxes to be paid by Firestone to the Taylor government, and for the Taylor government to provide protection to Firestone's employees and assets in Liberia. Firestone resumed operations in March 1992, but once again had to halt in October that same year as hostilities escalated. Over this period,

366-657: A reduction from $ 28.8 million–$ 38.5 million to $ 2.4 million .) Shortly afterward, Firestone extended this to a complete withdrawal by the end of the 1974 season. The manufacturer returned in 1995 to the CART Series with technical assistance from Bridgestone. Firestone has been the sole supplier of tires for the IndyCar Series since 2000 and will run until the 2030 season. In 1950, Firestone along with General Motors and Standard Oil , were charged and convicted of criminal conspiracy for their part in

427-443: A small community southeast of downtown Los Angeles that at the time was mostly farmland. There Firestone identified 40 acres (16 ha) of beanfields for the site of his new manufacturing plant. Architects Curlett and Beelman designed a spectacular four-story Italianate -style complex, with its own power plant and decorated with polychrome murals by Gladding, McBean depicting the tire and rubber-making process. A year after

488-460: A tread separation than any other SUV. Labour economists Alan Krueger and Alexandre Mas concluded that one of the main reasons for the high defect rate of Firestone tires was linked to a dispute between the unions and Firestone at the Decatur plant 1994–1996. They find that the tires manufactured at the plant in question around this time featured substantially increased defect rates, rising with

549-399: A “zone of insolvency”) does not cause the directors of a Delaware corporation to have obligations to creditors. Therefore, the basic legal premise on which the court found Mr. Cogan and others to be liable to Trace or its trustee (other than with regard to borrowed money, for which Mr. Cogan clearly was liable to Trace) turned out not to exist. In 2006, Cogan was named to the board of Ener1 ,

610-486: Is also an alumnus and benefactor of the Boston Latin School having graduated in 1955. Cogan started his career at CBS and worked at the investment firm, Orvis & Co., before joining the investment banking and brokerage firm of Carter, Berlind & Weill as an auto sector research analyst in 1964. Cogan was soon a partner in the firm and his name replaced the departing Arthur L. Carter in 1968 as

671-645: Is home of the company's racing tire production for the NTT IndyCar Series . The plant manufactures all Firestone Firehawk racing tires. It is the first new tire plant in the city of Akron in more than 70 years. Bridgestone also opened up a $ 6 million test track adjacent to the Advanced Tire Production Center to support passenger tire testing and development. The test track opened in autumn 2022. Bridgestone has invested more than $ 125 million in its Akron operations since 2012, when

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732-494: The Boston Red Sox , Sotheby's and L.F. Rothschild in the buyout boom of the 1980s . Cogan began building what would become Foamex International in the mid-1980s after the departure of his long-time partner Stephen Swid. Swid would go on to acquire the music publishing division of CBS Records , later known as SBK Records . Meanwhile, Cogan bought Foamex Products, a division of Firestone Tire & Rubber . Over

793-569: The Great American streetcar scandal . The scandal included purchasing streetcar systems throughout the United States and dismantling and replacing them with buses. Radial tires were introduced to the U.S. market by rivals B.F. Goodrich and Michelin in the late 1960s, and Firestone lacked their own radial tire. The first radial tire developed and produced by Firestone was the ill-fated Firestone 500 radial. Manufacturing of

854-500: The Saturn brand by closing or selling the division, either to investors or to dealers, as part of restructuring plans dependent upon the receipt of a second round of government loans (" bailout " funding). In June 2009, it was announced with much fanfare that Penske Automotive Group would purchase Saturn and its assets from General Motors. Less than four months later, on September 30, the deal collapsed as Penske announced it would terminate

915-612: The University of Pennsylvania taught classes and wrote papers on the issues of misjudgments and poor decision-making by the management of Firestone. After years of bad publicity and millions paid out in compensation to victims, Firestone was losing vast amounts of money, and its name was severely damaged. Firestone established the Firestone Natural Rubber plantation in Harbel, Liberia in 1926. From 1926 until

976-881: The 1940s, Firestone was given a defense contract to produce plastic helmet liners; while outproduced by Westinghouse Electric , they still made a fair amount for the M1 Helmet . On September 2, 1940, William Hoppmann, the General Manager of Firestone's Havana office was discharged from his position under the suspicion of being a Nazi agent. On October 11, 1941, a fire at the Firestone Rubber and Latex plant in Fall River, Massachusetts destroyed 5 out of its 8 buildings and destroyed at least 15,000 tons of rubber. The fire caused $ 12 million in damage (equivalent to $ 192 million in 2023 ). In 1951, Firestone

1037-426: The 500's debut, Thomas A. Robertson, Firestone's director of development, wrote an internal memo stating "We are making an inferior quality radial tire which will subject us to belt–edge separation at high mileage". Firestone introduced strict quality control measures in an attempt to fix the inherent problems, however they were not successful in eliminating the basic faults. In 1977 a recall of 400,000 tires produced at

1098-558: The 500, a recall, involving seven million tires. The report went on to indicate that Ford also had been complicit, stating that The Ford Motor Company had instructed Firestone to add a nylon ply to the tires it manufactured in Venezuela for additional strength and that Ford had made suspension changes to the Explorer model available in Venezuela. Ford did not specify adding the nylon ply for U.S.-made Firestone tires nor did it change

1159-468: The Explorer suspension on U.S. models at this time. An abnormally high failure rate in Firestone's Wilderness AT, Firestone ATX, and ATX II tires resulted in multiple lawsuits, as well as an eventual mandatory recall. In 2001 Bridgestone/Firestone severed its ties to Ford citing a lack of trust. The lack of trust stemmed from concerns that Ford had not heeded warnings by Bridgestone/Firestone relating to

1220-650: The South Gate plant was closed in 1980 and 1,300 workers were laid off. East Los Angeles College has proposed a new satellite campus at the site. In 1928, the company built a factory in Brentford, England , a longtime Art Deco landmark on a major route into the city; this closed in 1979. After its purchase by Trafalgar House , the building was demolished during the August 1980 bank holiday weekend, reportedly in anticipation of its becoming listed . In 1936,

1281-438: The U.S. As a private equity investor, Cogan acquired a number of businesses in the 1970s and 1980s. He was also a partner of Cogan, Berlind, Weill & Levitt an investment banking and brokerage firm that would be instrumental in the consolidation of the financial services industry in the 1970s. Born to a Jewish family, Cogan graduated from Harvard College in 1959 and received his MBA from Harvard Business School . Cogan

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1342-458: The U.S. Bankruptcy Code. At that time, Trace’s principal assets were shares of Foamex International and United Auto Group, both of which were publicly traded U.S. corporations, and shares of CHF Industries. Eventually, a Trustee was appointed for Trace, and he sued Mr. Cogan and the other former directors of Trace. His theory was that Mr. Cogan had treated Trace as a personal holding company (which it was), and had improperly taken money out of Trace in

1403-541: The company also opened its first Firestone Tire and Service Center (later renamed Firestone Complete Auto Care). Firestone Complete Auto Care is the division of Firestone that offers automotive maintenance and repair, including tires. In 1927, Henry Ford and Harvey S. Firestone visited Southern California to select locations for new factories. His friends said Ford wanted to be near the ocean and picked Long Beach and suggested Firestone locate in South Gate, California

1464-594: The company had paid $ 2.3 million in taxes to the Taylor government (equivalent to $ 4.49 million in 2023 ), which some say helped legitimize Taylor's Greater Liberia government and finance and enable its attack on ECOMOG controlled Monrovia. Operations did not fully restart until 2003 at the conclusion of the Second Liberian Civil War . Since the end of the war, Firestone has invested over $ 100 million in restoring and rebuilding its facilities in Liberia. The company's ventures in Liberia have been

1525-441: The company name was changed from United Automotive to Penske Automotive in 2007. In July 1999, Cogan's holding company, Trace International Holdings filed for bankruptcy protection . Cogan had used Trace International to hold his controlling interests in two publicly listed companies, Foamex International and United Automotive Group. Trace had pledged its stock in the two companies as collateral for certain loans. After declines in

1586-523: The company opened a plant in Memphis, Tennessee . With a work force exceeding 3,000 employees, the Memphis plant was the largest tire manufacturer in the company's worldwide operation. On July 1, 1963, the company celebrated the production of 100 million tires in Memphis. The Memphis plant closed in 1982, and most of the plant buildings were demolished. The EPA considers the tract a brownfield site , and

1647-681: The company opened the Bridgestone Americas Technology Center. Firestone Complete Auto Care is an chain of automotive maintenance shops founded in Nashville, Tennessee in 1926. There are over 2,300 Complete Auto Care locations in the United States, all of them independently owned by Firestone, with about 20 million customers each year as of 2002. At the start of 2022 Bridgestone, parent company of Firestone, announced that it will expand its hybrid and electric vehicular services The Indianapolis 500 auto race

1708-546: The company to the Japanese company Bridgestone , which was able to buy the company for much less than it had been worth a decade and a half earlier. The companies celebrated the 20th anniversary of the merger in 2008, and changed the name of the tire division to Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC. In 1972, Firestone received a ten-year import "concession" by the Kenyan government to secure Firestone's investment in

1769-529: The company's seventeen manufacturing plants, including six in one day, and relocated the company from its ancestral home in Akron, Ohio to Chicago, Illinois . He spun off non-tire related businesses, including the Firestone Country Club ; it was considered a deliberate plan to boost the stock price, and it paid off. In 1988, after discussions with Pirelli , Nevin negotiated the sale of

1830-418: The complaints, tested the tires and tried to assert that the tires had been abused or under-inflated. On September 6, 2000, in a statement before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Transportation subcommittee the president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen , Joan Claybrook , stated: ...There are a number of parallels between this recall in 2000 and the 1978 recall of the Firestone 500...there

1891-428: The deal with GM blaming manufacturing uncertainties with certain models. This corporation or company article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Marshall Cogan Marshall S. Cogan (born 1937) is an American investor and entrepreneur and former financier and trader. Cogan was the founder of United Automotive Group , which he built into one of the largest retailers of cars and trucks in

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1952-691: The design of the Ford Explorer. In 2006, Firestone announced renewed efforts to recall tires of the same model recalled in 2000 after the tires were linked to recent deaths and injuries. According to Firestone's last filing with the National Highway Transportation Administration, only 90,259 of more than 2.5 million recalled tires were confirmed as removed from service. In November 2013, two recalled Wilderness AT tires were found in Atlanta, Georgia. One of

2013-523: The era. Firestone soon saw the huge potential for marketing tires for automobiles , and the company was a pioneer in the mass production of tires. Harvey S. Firestone had a friendship with Henry Ford , and used this to become the original equipment supplier of Ford Motor Company automobiles, and was also active in the replacement market. In 1988, the company was sold to the Japanese Bridgestone Corporation. Firestone

2074-679: The event of Cold War hostilities in Eastern Europe. Built in southern California, this missile was replaced in 1962 by the MGM-29 Sergeant system. In 1961, Firestone acquired the Dayton Tire division from the Dayco Corporation. Dayco later sued both Firestone and Goodyear , alleging that the two companies conspired to monopolize the tire industry in the United States. The United States District Court dismissed

2135-521: The firm was renamed Cogan, Berlind, Weill & Levitt. Among Cogan's partners at CBWL were Sandy Weill , later chairman and CEO of Citigroup , Arthur Levitt , later the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Roger Berlind a noted Broadway producer and long-time member of the board of Lehman Brothers . In August 1973, Marshall Cogan left the firm after disputes with his fellow partners to focus on leveraged buyouts . Cogan's first deal

2196-454: The form of unduly high salary, salaries to his wife and payments to his daughter, loans to Mr. Cogan, his wife and others that had not been repaid and other expenditures for what the Trustee characterized as primarily personal purposes. Significantly, the other shareholders of Trace did not complain. However, the Trustee said that Trace had been in “the zone of insolvency,” (which Mr. Cogan and

2257-501: The former headquarters, tire plant, and technical center, houses 450 employees whose jobs are to develop innovative and advanced tire technologies for the company. In June 2022, Bridgestone opened up its $ 21 million Advanced Tire Production Center which replaced the Firestone Advance Tire Works Plant at the original Firestone Tire and Rubber Company headquarters which opened in 1910. The new building

2318-498: The largest manufacturer and marketer of flexible polyurethane foam and foam products in North America. In 1990, Cogan founded United Automotive Group, today known as Penske Automotive Group . Under Cogan, United Auto was a leading acquirer, consolidator and operator of automobile and truck dealership franchises. Cogan merged his company with Roger Penske 's business in May 1999 after Cogan ran into financial difficulties and

2379-556: The lawsuit. In 1965 Firestone acquired the Seiberling Rubber Company . In late 1979, Firestone brought in John Nevin, the ex-head of Zenith Electronics , as president to save the hemorrhaging company from total collapse. It was more than a billion dollars in debt at the time and losing $ 250 million a year (equivalent respectively to $ 3.39 billion and $ 847 million in 2023 ). Nevin closed nine of

2440-403: The new tire was performed on equipment designed to manufacture bias-ply tires. During the 1970s, Firestone experienced major problems with the Firestone 500 radial. The Firestone 500 steel-belted radials began to show signs of separation of the tread at high speeds. While the cause was never proved, it is believed that the failure of bonding cements, used by Firestone to hold the tread to

2501-531: The next few years, Cogan continued to acquire businesses to merge with Foamex, acquiring three regional producers in 1988. Cogan merged General Felt into Foamex and acquired Great Western Foam Co., a major foam producer on the West Coast. In 1993, Cogan created Foamex International bringing together his various businesses and took the company public in December 1993. During the mid-1990s, Foamex grew to become

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2562-552: The onset of the dispute and subsiding when the dispute was finally settled at the end of 1996. Other similar plants of Firestone did not report similar increases in the defect rate in this period. Where the Rubber Meets the Road is an advertisement jingle that was frequently used in the 1960s and 1970s, especially on televised sporting events. The jingle was sung by Don Rondo . Bridgestone/Firestone also produces tires under

2623-587: The other directors vehemently disputed) and that because of that Mr. Cogan and the Trace Board had owed fiduciary duties to Trace’s creditors. In 2003, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, in a very lengthy opinion, agreed with most of the Trustee’s contentions. For example, it found that Mr. Cogan had received salary over a six-year period totaling $ 39.6 million, which it said

2684-715: The outbreak of the First Liberian Civil War in 1990, the Firestone Natural Rubber Company was the largest plantation of its kind in the world. It was originally envisioned for 350,000 people to be employed on the newly created plantations. However this was more than the number of able-bodied men in the entire nation at the time, which created intense pressure for labor. In the period between 1926 and 1946 Christine Whyte concluded that: The collusion between Firestone and government officials to keep wages low and coerce workers onto

2745-488: The plant opened in 1928, it expanded to double the initial size, and by 1954 grew to nearly one million square feet (23 acres; 9.3 ha). The town grew around Firestone, its main boulevard was named after Harvey, and Los Angeles became the number one tire market in the country. By the mid-1970s, Ford and General Motors had massive layoffs as Firestone and other manufacturers opened new plants in non-union locales like Wilson, North Carolina . After considerable downsizing,

2806-530: The plantations was at best substantially overlooked, at worst regarded as a form of "development" in itself. In September 1990, rebel NPFL forces (led by Charles Taylor , who would later be convicted of war crimes ) executed sitting Liberian president Samuel Doe and seized the Harbel plantation. Firestone had to evacuate its American workers as a result. In June 1991, Firestone sent a delegation to Monrovia in an attempt to restart operations in Harbel. After

2867-427: The possible presence of hazardous substances or contaminants have deterred its redevelopment . During World War II , the company was called on by the U.S. Government to make artillery shells , aluminum kegs for food transport, and rubberized military products. Barrage balloons were produced at Akron. Firestone ranked 55th among U.S. corporations in the value of wartime military production contracts. In

2928-427: The problematic Decatur, Illinois plant was initiated. Firestone blamed the problems on the consumer, stating underinflation and poor maintenance. On October 20, 1978, Firestone recalled over 7 million Firestone 500 tires, the largest tire recall to date. Congressional hearings into the 500 also took place in 1978. The tire was found to be defective and the cause of 250 deaths. In May 1980 after finding that they knew

2989-784: The subject of considerable scrutiny and criticism, including a 2005 Alien Tort Claims Act case brought in California by the International Labor Rights Fund and a 2014 investigative report by ProPublica entitled "Firestone and the Warlord", and a PBS Frontline documentary by the same name. In 1996, several state agencies in Arizona began experiencing major issues with Firestone tires on Ford Explorers. According to news reports, various agencies demanded new tires, and Firestone conducted an investigation of

3050-448: The tire carcass, may have allowed water to penetrate the tire, which in turn may have caused the internal steel wire to corrode. In March 1978, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced publicly a formal investigation into defects of the Firestone 500. The NHTSA investigation found that the tread separation problem was most probably a design defect affecting all Firestone 500s. In 1973, only two years after

3111-584: The tires was offered for sale as new at a used tire retail shop. Some outside observers have speculated about the blame worthiness of both parties. Firestone tires being prone to tread separation and failure, and the SUVs being especially prone to rolling over if a tire fails at speed compared to other vehicles. A subsequent NHTSA investigation of real world accident data showed that the Ford Explorer SUVs in question were no more likely to roll over after

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3172-512: The tires were defective, the NHTSA fined Firestone $ 500,000 (equivalent to $ 1.55 million in 2023 ), which at that time was the largest fine imposed on any U.S. corporation and the largest civil penalty imposed since passage of the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Act. Multiple lawsuits were settled out of court and the constant negative publicity crippled the company's sales and share price. Harvard Business School and Wharton School of

3233-444: The value of Foamex and United Auto Group in 1998 and 1999, Trace became insolvent as the value of its assets fell below the debt it owed. In 2003, Cogan and several directors of Trace would be accused of having drained cash from Trace International. Cogan was found by second circuit court of Delaware not guilty of all charges on June 25, 2005. Trace was a holding company through which Mr. Cogan held his principal investment assets. It

3294-404: Was $ 6.9 million more than executives with similar responsibilities would have received at other companies. The court also rejected claims by Mr. Cogan that he was entitled to substantial offsets against his obligation to repay the loans he had received from Trace. In 2005, the decision of the District Court was reversed on appeal on the basis that the judge had improperly failed to submit the case to

3355-405: Was a documented coverup by Firestone of the 500 defect, spurred by the lack of a Firestone replacement tire. When the coverup was disclosed, the top management of the company was replaced as Firestone was severely damaged in reputation and economically. But a key difference is that the Firestone 500 was used on passenger cars, which rarely rolled over with tire failure. NHTSA documented 41 deaths with

3416-542: Was given the defense contract for the MGM-5 Corporal missile . Firestone was given a total of US$ 6,888,796 (equivalent to $ 64.8 million in 2023 ) for the first 200 units. Known as the "Embryo of the Army," it was a surface-to-surface guided missile which could deliver a high-explosive warhead up to 75 nautical miles (140 km). It was later modified to be able to carry a nuclear payload for use in

3477-574: Was incorporated in Hamilton, Ontario , and the first Canadian-made tire rolled off the line on September 15, 1922. During the 1920s, Firestone produced the Oldfield tire, named for racing driver Barney Oldfield . In 1926, the company opened one of the world's largest rubber plantations , extending over one million acres (1,560 sq mi; 4,050 km ), in Liberia, West Africa . That year

3538-534: Was originally based in Akron, Ohio , also the hometown of its archrival, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company , and two other midsized competitors, General Tire and Rubber Company and B.F. Goodrich Company . Founded on August 3, 1900, the company initiated operations with 12 employees. Together, Firestone and Goodyear were the largest suppliers of automotive tires in North America for over 75 years. In 1906, Henry Ford chose Firestone to supply tires for its car models. In 1918, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Canada

3599-519: Was owned 70% by Mr. Cogan and 30% by three investors who were friends of Mr. Cogan. In 1999, Trace ran into serious financial difficulties because a major bank withdrew a $ 1 billion commitment to finance a restructuring of Trace and its holdings due to events, which had nothing to do with Trace or Mr. Cogan that led to a serious disruption in US financing markets. These financial difficulties caused Trace to file in 1999 for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of

3660-519: Was the takeover of General Felt Industries (GFI) in 1974 which he completed with fellow investment banker Stephen Swid . Cogan would then merge GFI with Knoll International and use Knoll as a holding company to acquire a series of businesses. Among Cogan's most notable acquisitions were takeover of the Sheller-Globe Corporation and later the purchase of the 21 Club . Cogan was unsuccessful in his high profile bids to acquire

3721-532: Was won in 1911 by a car running Firestone tires, as did all winners of the race from 1920 to 1966 . The company also provided tires to NASCAR from 1948 to 1974, and to Formula One from 1950 to 1974. Citing rising costs as the cause, Firestone announced its withdrawal from professional motorsports in August 1974 with the exception of Formula 5000 and Formula One. The change was forecast to reduce Firestone's annual race testing budget from between $ 6 and $ 8 million to around $ 500,000 (in 2023, roughly equivalent to

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