It seems to me having a brand name in the URL more often would help SEO to recognize that name. For example if there is a thread in the FORD forum then showing FORD in each URL for each thread would benefit SEO? Instead we just get domain/threads/thread.id and the brand is not getting promoted as often.
There's a few different ways you could look at this and also depends on your strategy and site structure.
As a surface-level note, it's usually good to consolidate page rank for specific topics/keywords into a main page or category (in the case of forums, a category node). One of the concerns here iis avoiding keyword canabilization, in which many other indexed URLs will compete with the main page you'd like ranked.
Even Moz.com mentions the gray area on this:
"Now the question is:
is this good or bad for my website?
Drum roll, please...and the answer is — It
depends on the situation, the exact keywords, and the intent of the user when searching for a particular term."
-
Source
Typically if you'd structure your nodes/Categories say, "Ford", "Lexus", "Chevrolet", you may want those main categories ranking under Google if the user is searching for informative pages for those topics. Obviously specific search keyphrases will zero in on the matching threads themselves.
The difference would arrive at something like the following situations:
If you build equity into a Category, users searching for say "Ford 2019 reviews" may be returned the single category at your site, say:
Google Snippet:
Ford Reviews | YourSiteName <-- taken from your XF category node title
"Ford vehicle reviews and ratings by our automotive enthusiast community"
<-- taken from the category node description
www.yoursitename.com/forums/reviews/ford
Otherwise, Google may present a few dozen or so URLs to direct threads as it is more confused about the
best recommended match(es) for the search inquiry (though their algorithm is constantly evolving to detect automatically).
