Ford Motor Co. is recalling its most profitable and best-selling model line, 1.3 million F-Series trucks, costing an estimated $267 million in its North American branch in the last three months of the year.
The second largest U.S. automaker said that the reason is that side doors of certain F-150 and Super Duty pickups may not open or can be closed if they will not be fully latched.
Though the company said that it is not aware of any injuries or accidents related to the problem, dealers will correct the issue by installing water shields to side door latches on some 2015 to 2017 model year trucks.
The recall is going to be at an unfortunate time for Jim Hackett, the new chief executive officer. He is seeking to win over Wall Street with the plan he discovered this month to reduce $14 billion in costs, he decided to stimulate the faster development of driverless and electric vehicles instead.
According to analysts the F-series pickup line hauls in the bulk of Ford’s profits and will undermine much of the investment that the company is making in the new technology in order to be able to compete in the autonomous age.
Ford was up 0.4 percent to $12.32 at 9:35 a.m. in New York trading but is down 0.2 percent since Hackett’s presentation to investors, which received varied reviews. Crosstown rival General Motors Co. has outpaced the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in the same period as analysts value its autonomous and car-sharing businesses at as much as $30 billion.
