The firm will pay $51.5m to avoid potential challenges, a sum which not only pays a fine to every single US state but covers the cost of investigations and a $5m consumer education campaign.

It also creates a fund to reimburse customers who bought replacement tyres before Ford started its recall programme.

The move only heads off potential suits from individual states, and hundreds of private lawsuits are still pending.

But the payout could help blunt the thrust of the private cases.

Recall

The tyres were fitted to the Ford Explorer model, the car giant's main entry in the key sports utility vehicle market.

But the company had to spend over $2.1bn on recalling the tyres after US federal investigators linked them to 271 deaths and over 800 injuries.

The investigations focus on scores of accidents where the tread peeled from certain Firestone tyres. The experience was a root cause for the sacking of Ford chief Jacques Nasser earlier in November.