Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) is facing more problems on the domestic front after the car manufacturing giant announced a safety recall for approximately 400,000 vehicles to replace the driveshaft flexible coupling. These vehicles mainly fell in the category of 2015 to 2017 Ford Transit vans/buses with medium, long and extended wheelbases and chassis cab/cutaways with medium wheelbases.
When it rains it pours, and separately Ford announced that it would be conducting a safety recall for Police Interceptor utility vehicles and Ford Escape vehicles.
In the affected vans and buses, continuing to operate a vehicle with a cracked flexible coupling may cause separation of the driveshaft, resulting in a loss of motive power while driving or unintended vehicle movement in park without the parking brake applied.
Additionally, separation of the driveshaft from the transmission can result in secondary damage to surrounding components, including brake and fuel lines. A driveshaft separation may increase the risk of injury or crash.
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Ford detailed in a release early on Wednesday:
Based on the field data, Ford does not expect the current flexible couplings to deteriorate sufficiently to result in driveline separation in vehicles with less than 30,000 miles. Hence, for affected vehicles with under 30,000 miles or vehicles that have had a driveshaft or driveshaft flexible coupling replaced within the last 30,000 miles, no alteration or interim repair is required until the vehicle or replaced flexible coupling reaches 30,000 miles. At that point, the customer should schedule an appointment with their dealer for the interim repair to be performed.
So far in 2017, Ford has vastly underperformed the broad markets, with the stock down about 8% year to date.
Shares of Ford were actually up 0.5% at $11.14 on last look, with a consensus analyst price target of $12.80 and a 52-week range of $10.67 to $14.04.
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