Ford's New $165M Screw Up Is a Lesson in Why Looking Backward Costs More Than Looking Forward...

Ford. The company that brought you the Mustang, the F-150, and now, apparently, a $165 million bill for their latest masterpiece: forgetting how backup cameras work. That’s right friends, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) just slapped Ford with one of the biggest fines in its history for dragging its feet on a camera recall. In fact, if you listen closely, you can probably hear the entire board punching air this very second. 

(Source: Giphy) 

So, what went wrong? Well, you’d think after building cars for over a century, Ford would have the whole rear view camera thing figured out. But no. Starting in 2020, drivers were noticing their own version of Crowdstrikes “Blue Screen of Death”. Meaning, instead of getting a clear view, some Ford owners were treated to a lovely blank screen. Which, let me remind you, is not exactly ideal when you’re trying to avoid turning the local Walmart parking lot into a low-budget Mad Max rendition. 

(Source: AP) 

What’s more, is that Ford's response to this whole fiasco was well… a bit of a sloth on sedatives. Translation: they pulled a friggin’ Super Micro, taking a bit too long to hit the panic button and recall the vehicles. Whereas, by the time they finally got around to it, NHTSA had already been sniffing around, and—spoiler alert—they were primed and ready to dump the hatorade. 

(Source: CNN) 

Turns out, Ford broke federal safety laws by failing to issue a recall in a timely manner and, oh yeah, not submitting their quarterly reports on time. Basically, they were caught napping at the wheel, and now they owe an inconvenient $165 million for their troubles.To put that in perspective, this is the second-largest fine NHTSA has ever handed out. Only Takata—yes, the airbag company that turned cars into ticking time bombs—has paid more. Ford’s fine includes an upfront payment of $65 million, with another $100 million hanging over their heads in case they decide to screw up again. Ooof. 

The good news though, is that according to Ford there were no deaths or injuries linked to their f**k up. But still, the NHTSA, not exactly known for handing out gold stars for “almost doing the right thing”, has now put Ford under a three-year consent decree. Translation: A glorified grounding, nonetheless. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Meaning, Ford will have to play nice with an independent third-party babysitter who will make sure they actually follow the rules this time. And if they don’t? That extra $100 million fine is ready to drop like a hammer on their balance sheet. Which just adds to the list of serious quality-control carnage Ford has been dealing with lately. 

For instance, shares plummeted this summer after a surge in warranty expenses, as Ford had to reinspect over a quarter-million vehicles after discovering some of their dealerships were botching the repairs. So yeah, if you’re a Ford shareholder, I wouldn’t be surprised if your bill to the local distillery is mimicking the same curve as Ford’s legal payouts. 

(Source: Giphy) 

But, for now the only thing to do is look onward and upward (if you can call it that). Going forward, aside from trying to avoid another $100 million slap on the wrist, they’ll be reviewing their recent recalls to make sure no other vehicles slipped through the cracks. They’re also looking to expand their test labs that focus on low-voltage electronics—because apparently, figuring out how to make a backup camera that doesn’t go on strike is harder than making their EV models actually worth buying.

(Source: Ford) 

Meaning, in the end, it’s getting increasingly harder to see a silver lining in Ford's overall business health. Now obviously do what you will with this information, but given Trump is putting the $7,500 EV tax break to the guillotine, likely hurting Ford’s EV dreams, while paying out $165 million to satisfy regulators - the light at the end of the tunnel is growing dimmer by the second. 

In the end, Ford is down -9.46% YTD, so yeah, place your bets accordingly friends. And as always,stay safe and stay frosty! Until next time…

P.S. Life comes at you fast friends, and while your favorite online stock guru is out here struggling to make heads or tails on the markets short-term direction - our team and our premium members at Stocks.News are absolutely CRUSHING it. How so? Well it all comes down to back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back massive wins over the last few weeks. Don’t believe me? Click here to see for yourself once we drop our next alert. 

Stocks.News holds positions in Ford as mentioned in the article.