Cooper

Company History

Cooper Tire and Rubber Company was founded in 1941 and is a United States tire manufacturer, dealing in automobiles, motorcycles and trucks. Based in Ohio, Cooper operates 59 facilities throughout the world. Cooper Tire is heavily involved in professional automobile racing, with sponsorship ties to A1, Champ and a variety of drifting organizations.

Class Action Lawsuits

• In 2002, a New Jersey court and declared on behalf of a class action suit involving 33 states that Cooper Tire and Rubber Company was responsible for offering steel belted radial tire replacements for any customer that experienced tread separation, extending the warranty of all new and existing tires, increasing the reliability of all tires, and creating a public awareness program about tire safety. The class action suit did not stem from any specific tire model malfunction, accidents or injuries, however it did arise from many customer complaints throughout 2000 and 2001. The case was considered historic for the tire manufacturing industry as it involved nearly 600 brands, sizes and types of tires.

• In 2005, the families of a Utah State University professor and 11 students filed a class action lawsuit against Cooper Tires and the Daimler Chrysler Corporation after one of the tires on their passenger van blew out, causing an accident that killed the professor and eight of his students. The suit alleged that both companies marketed products with faulty designs and failed to recall the products.

Recalled Tires

• In 2002, Cooper Tire recalled 3,368 Cooper Discovery A/T tires because a small percentage of them possibly had pinholes in the upper sidewall, and the majority of the recalled tires possibly had inner-liner tears.

• In 2006, Cooper recalled 296,500 tires, predominantly the Cooper Lifeliner Touring SLE H-Rated and T-rated models, because they were possibly manufactured using the wrong wire coat stock. This would have potentially caused belt separations in the tires and led to vehicle accidents.

• In 2007, Cooper recalled 91,747 Dominator Sport A/T tires because they were experiencing a high adjustment rate and were causing vehicle damage. Cooper representatives maintained there was no design flaw but voluntarily replaced the tires.

• In 2008, Cooper recalled its CS4 Touring (VR) tires size 215/55R17 that were manufactured between September 7 and October 11 of that year. The tires had possibly been cured for a shorter time than required, and this would have resulted in tread loss and possible loss of control of the vehicle. Cooper replaced all of the qualified tires at no expense to the customer.

• Also in 2008, Cooper recalled 48,037 tires from 20 different brands, including Discoverer, Wildcat and Wild Country, because of design flaws that were causing tread separation.