Remember about a week ago, when we brought in news of 422,613 cars that needed to be recalled over faulty windshield wipers? More specifically, the issue was in the wiper arm, which could break during use and cause the wiper itself to fail. New reports say that legacy automaker Ford (F) knew about this flaw some time ago, but only issued the recall after government pressure got involved. This news left shareholders oddly happy, as Ford shares gained fractionally in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
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The reports noted that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) filed a Consent Order in 2024 that required Ford to conduct a study of its safety data from the preceding three years. That review found that there were “elevated warranty claims” dealing with that exact wiper arm failure on vehicles built after 2022. In 2022, there was a recall that addressed the same issue, and Ford had ultimately logged more than 1,500 warranty reports over the matter.
Ford fixed the original problem in 2022, with a fix at the supplier-level manufacturing process. And there were plenty of vehicles outside the original recall window that had the same problem. But Ford did not move, and it took that three-year lookback order just to get the process going.
Helping Haywood High
We know that Ford has been concerned about finding the next generation of mechanics for quite some time now, and now, it seems to be moving to make that generation known. Haywood High School in Brownsville, Tennessee, now has a Ford Future Builder Lab of its own, which will help drive technical education at the school and get more students interested in new technology.
The new facility offers 3D-printing capabilities, laser cutting systems and microcomputer access. Interestingly, this is not the first Future Builder lab in Tennessee. Currently, there are four other labs scattered throughout the state, which will hopefully help produce some of those mechanics that Ford is eager to field going forward.
Is Ford Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on F stock based on four Buys, eight Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 35.21% rally in its share price over the past year, the average F price target of $13.88 per share implies 8.99% upside potential.
