When No Boring Cars Goes too Far: Ford's (NYSE:F) Race to Make Everything Exciting

Business Insider

20-06-2025

One of the major dogmas that seems to be driving legacy automaker Ford (F) these days is 'no boring cars.' And indeed, Ford seems to be sticking to that pretty hard. It has removed several cars from its lineup, including, among others, the Fusion, the Focus, the Fiesta and the Taurus. There are reports that the Ford Escape, Ford's smallest SUV, is also on track for removal. And the question that is starting to rise in some quarters is whether or not Ford's pursuit of only exciting cars is, perhaps, going too far.
Confident Investing Starts Here:
Certainly, Ford has many exciting cars going for it right now. It has been ramping up efforts on its Ford Mustang line, including the Mustang electric vehicle series. Indeed, not so long ago, Ford rolled out a new kind of battery technology that is likely to improve its electric vehicle concepts, the lithium manganese rich (LMR) system. This kind of technological development is likely to prove helpful in getting Ford vehicles to be more regularly considered by drivers.
Ford has other improvements as well; the BlueCruise system is doing quite well, with service now up and running on over 130,000 miles of highway in the United States. This brings us closer to the dream of complete hands-free operation. And while BlueCruise itself is only a level 2 system, meaning that a human driver must be in place and ready to intervene as needed, that is still a significant step up from where we were.
Even Ford Pro is seeing some potential gains from Ford's increased infatuation with high tech. A report from back in March suggested that Ford could end up with an automated loading system for its delivery vehicles. That could be a huge win for any parcel delivery service or catering operation; being able to automatically load a vehicle means potential cost and time savings, depending on how the system is executed.
Jetsons or Terminator?
But not all of Ford's advances are wins. After all, like we said, the BlueCruise system is still a level 2 system. That means, as noted previously, it needs constant human oversight. That does not make it bad, but it does make it less than optimal. The automated loading system in Ford Pro vehicles could also be an issue; anything that increases complexity also increases potential failure risk; there are simply more moving parts and more potential points of failure. This may be a universal condition, but it is still an issue nonetheless.
Even some of Ford's current advances are having issues. The SYNC 4 infotainment system, for example, has an unexpectedly substantial failure rate. A major update came out back in late February to address this matter, which at least demonstrates Ford's eagerness to fix whatever problems it may have.
It is an issue that speaks to reliability, and in some cases, safety. So far, Ford has issued over 40 different recalls, from small ones impacting only a handful of vehicles—one recall was geared toward just three cars—all the way up to major ones impacting fractions of millions. But with over 40 recalls so far this year, and 2024—already regarded as a bad year for recalls—having just 64 in the entire year—it is looking like Ford's fascination with exciting cars is leading to some cars that are exciting for all the wrong reasons.
Is Ford Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on F stock based on two Buys, 12 Holds and three Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 12.65% loss in its share price over the past year, the average F price target of $9.71 per share implies 6.9% downside risk.