The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

Fordlorn Ailing automaker under more fire

1. Bruise Control

The ride at Ford (F) got even bumpier this week.

The struggling carmaker said Wednesday it would recall 3.8 million pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles to fix their cruise control wiring to prevent under-hood fires. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received 550 engine-fire complaints, and allegations of three deaths have been cited in news reports or lawsuits in Iowa, Georgia and Arkansas.

The news comes as Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford and Detroit rival GM (GM) struggle with sagging sales, hefty foreign competition and massive health care costs. GM in particular is bracing for a showdown with its labor unions over attempts to cut overhead.

Ford said it will install a fused wiring harness on the affected vehicles, which include 1994-2002 Ford F-150s, 1997-2002 Ford Expeditions, 1998-2002 Lincoln Navigators and 1994-1996 Ford Broncos equipped with factory-installed speed control.

The fix will act as a circuit breaker, Ford said. "Our customers can be confident that this action will prevent a speed control deactivation switch fire," said Ray Nevi, assistant director, Ford Automotive Safety Office. "Our investigation was complex because the root cause turned out to be a system interaction rather than a single component, and we had very few confirmed incidents to analyze. Despite this complexity, our solution effectively addresses the cause."

Investors in the U.S. auto giants can only hope for such an easy solution to their many other problems.

Dumb-o-Meter score: 85. We're not sure how confident anyone is feeling about Ford these days.