Legacy automaker Ford (F) has a trick up its sleeve, one that will make an appearance at the 2026 Detroit Auto Show. The new trick in question is described as a “…racing production road car,” and several possibilities emerge as to just what it will look like when ready. While we will not know what the car actually looks like until January, the news of it seemed to be enough to spark some interest among investors. Ford shares gained modestly in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
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Speculation is already running as to just what it is Ford has to show off. Perhaps it will be a new model of the GT, which has been one of Ford’s big racing cars for some time now. Ford stopped making second-generation GT cars back in 2022, after 1,300 cars were put together. But Ford has made no real plans for a follow-up. Announcing a third-generation GT at the Detroit Auto Show could prove a coup.
Others are wondering if, perhaps, a new Mustang is in the offing. Mustang has long been one of Ford’s biggest plays, and with good reason. But there are still others who look at Ford’s Dakar rally program, back to when Jim Farley talked about a new kind of Raptor supercar. Ford has been looking more closely at off-road before, and a Raptor could fit that program’s bill nicely.
5,000 Open Mechanic Jobs
Meanwhile, for anyone with a fondness for cars and an interest to learn, becoming an auto mechanic might be a more lucrative play than you might expect. Jim Farley recently revealed that Ford had 5,000 open mechanic positions that it simply cannot fill. And for those who think that the problem might be underpayment, reconsider. Ford is offering $120,000 a year for those, which is somewhere around double the median worker’s paycheck.
Farley noted that the difficulty in filling these jobs relates to a lack of skilled labor to fill them, a point he has raised on more than one occasion. This lack of skilled workers at Ford is apparently echoed throughout American business, and led Farley to, once more, sound the alarm over the lack.
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, nine Holds and two Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After an 19.82% rally in its share price over the past year, the average F price target of $12.14 per share implies 9.84% downside risk.
