Ford Escape 2007: Cracked alloy wheel

ON SEPTEMBER 14 you ran a letter from David C. Jones, who had a cracked wheel on his Ford Escape XLT. I had the same problem with the same model. Because the XLT model has an alloy wheel as standard, I spoke to our local Ford dealer, who spoke to Ford and got a negative reply. The dealer suggested I speak to Ford public relations because he agreed this could be a safety problem. This I did, getting the same reply. I agree the vehicle is out of warranty, but what would happen if the wheel collapsed at speed while a family was aboard and it was proven the wheel caused the accident? The large carmakers spend millions of dollars on advertising to get us to buy their products, but it seems they are not prepared to stand behind them. It seems to me this could be a common problem with this model. Our wheel was undamaged yet the crack was quite apparent. The maker's attitude seems to be Band-Aid it and hope the problem goes away and nobody gets killed. I have changed my wheels to steels rims and would not consider another Ford.