Ford Motor Company Ford Ford declares a manufacturing flaw "road damage" and refuses to cover per warranty Dearborn, Michigan

The tire indicator light on my ford fusion hybrid recently (8/20/2011) recently came on. Sure enough the passenger front tire was low – I refilled it and it slowly leaked out again so I brought it to a Firestone car care. They told me the rim was cracked, patched it, and told me to get it to the dealer. (No charge from them – very nice)
I brought the car to the dealer who confirmed a crack in the inner surface of the rim – took photos and sent them to Detroit where an engineer decided that my car had suffered damage causing the crack. My car has never been in an accident and all the winter potholes have been filled in long ago; there was no trauma.
Ford required me to pay $700 to fix a manufacturing flaw that should have been covered per warranty!
Just be wary of such issues.