Bought the car used for $5,200 in March. Week later we replaced a seal in the transmission. After that, & much more work, we thought everything was fine.

I drove into town with 3 kids (about a 15 minute drive), made to my destination, car was off about 10 minutes. Started it up to drive to a tball game, and it didnt want to go over 10 mph but the rpm gauge would go up to 5 & the engine would rev up. After it a little bit, it wouldnt move at all, but the rpm gauge would soar.

It will go in reverse & 2nd and 1st gear. Although, it's starting to seem to struggle there a little as well.

Mechanic says he's not 100% sure what the problem is. Suggests it may be something inside the transmission. Possibly even electrical.

I purchased my Ford Escape new off the lot. My transmission went out without warning in August 2012. I just got in the car one day and it wouldn't go forward at all, just backward. After the cost of the tow and finding someone that could put a transmission in, it was well over $3000. I writing this complaint because almost two years to the day, IT WENT OUT AGAIN!!!!!!

I depend on my car to get back and forth to work. I work for a non-profit and don't have that kind of money to replace it again! Shame on you Ford! I am a woman in my fifties and am not hard on my vehicle. I am no longer a loyal Ford customer, going with Jeep. They seem to be more reliable and last longer!

After having transmission replaced a year earlier, the new transmission goes out.

OK, so now we are thinking it must be a bad transmission, and get it replaced. It takes over a month for the new transmission to get in to the shop and put into vehicle. In the meantime we are without a car and live in a rural area. My oldest son has school, and my youngest is Autistic, and has to miss much needed multiple therapy sessions. We borrow a car so my husband can go to work. Not to mention we are spending more money to get the tranny replaced. A BIG PAIN IN THE REAR!

I should of learned my lesson. Had 99 Ford Explorer - 5 years old - and the transmission blew. Major expense. So what do I do? Buy '04 Ford Escape last year with 148000. Didn't even own it for 7 months and the transmission blew. No one else in my entire family has had this much bad luck with their vehicles. Theirs have high mileage but no problems. And do you know why? Not a one of them is a fan of Fords - only me.They drive everything else but Fords. Well from now on the majority wins - no more Fords ever! Two Fords in less than 10 years with the same problem? That's more than just a case of bad luck - that's bad workmanship. Shame on you Ford. I relied on these vehicles to go to work. Can't afford more that one at a time. I am having to take loans out on top of car loans to repair. Have no other option. Except in future to buy anything but a Ford!

3rd & 4th gears went out w/out warrning when Escape was in 6th yr/95k of service and not under warranty. Bought used @ 1-yr old. Research shows many owners with same experience. In 30+ years of new and used vehicles, I've never had a transmission failure; never expected this to happen these days except in the case of neglect, abuse of freak occurance. Obviously this isn't the case for many others like me. I've no doubt Ford is ducking and covering on this - not honorig their customers. Only 4 things I can do. Complain, fix out of my pocket, vow to never buy a Forrd again, and disuade family, friends and others as much as I can from buying one, ever. FORD, YOU'VE FAILED YOUR CUSTOMERS, YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS MANY TIMES OVER!!!!!!!!

Wow, where do I start? What an unexpected repair. I hopped in my car to go home and couldn't get out of the parking lot at work. I tried to put the car in reverse and it wouldn't move. I called Aamco, thinking because Aamco specializes in transmissions that I would get a good deal. They held on to my car for almost a week before calling me to say it would cost between $3500 to $4000 to repair. I kindly grabbed my vehicle and took it to the Ford dealership, which had it for a day to say it would cost around $2800. Since having the transmission repaired, I have had no other serious problems.

OK, 70K and the transmission is dead ??. Car is in great shape, always maintained to the top level. However, great, I still have to pay for the repair - (or rebuilt transmission) Dealer is very nice to me and took the time to explain about the drum inside that"let loose" and caused the problems. Sounds like a product reliability issue not a worn or damaged part. OUCH $3200.00 to repair. In my industry if the same issue happens over and over again we, the MFG, stand behind the product, even after 15 year. This really sounds like it's a known issue at Ford. Now that I look back, the car needed a just little more gas coming from a dead stop and up to speed. I now realize it was jumping into 2nd a little earlier and expected, but most of the time I was only driving around town. All in 2 days and DEAD TRANSMISSION.

As I am finding out, the Escape transmission is a weak point. I have owned mine since new and I guess I am pretty lucky having got this far (167,000 km) before I lost reverse and needed an overhaul. I am a journeyman auto technician so I have a better understanding than most of the reason these transmissions are failing. Turns out the bushings are not holding up which is effecting the hydraulic pressure. The first sign of the bushings failing is a leak at the front input shaft. The bushing wears causing the seal to leak. About 20,000 km later is when I lost reverse when warm, worked fine cold.

The transmission shop that is rebuilding mine said that there are aftermarket bushings which are wider and should hold up better than the smaller stock bushings. The funny thing is there is room in the case for a wider bushing... looks like Ford tried to save a few pennies on bushings and it is costing their customers thousands. The big punch will come to them is lost future sales.

I will most likely not keep mine long enough to know how long the rebuild lasts but at least it is a step in the right direction.

My wife and I bought our 2004 Excape No boundaries edition 4x4 new off the lot. We always had it serviced by the dealer including transmission flushed around 36K miles. We had noticed that sometimes after starting the car the transmission would be hard to get into gear and then thunk when it went into gear. No big thing. Late 2007 we took 2 friends to the mountains and stayed at another friend's cabin. The cabin was at the top of a very steep road with several stop signs. Each time we started off onto the hill from a stop, the transmission would slip and then thunk into 1st gear. This got progressively worse over the course of the two day stay at the cabin. We drove home and noticed that once we were on the highway there were no problems. About 2 miles from our house we exited the highway and had to stop. Taking off we got the same THUNK going into 1st. I told my wife to take the truck to the dealer the next day. The next day, on the way to her work, the service engine/OD light started up and the transmission went completely to crap. The car was noisy and barely moving. A cottmans transmission shop is near her work, so I told her to take it there. They said the transmission needed a complete rebuild. I took the Escape to the dealer and they said the same thing. We had the transmission rebuilt at the least expensive place and immediately traded the vehicle. I had searched the internet and found dozens of complaints about the transmission failing even after being rebuilt. I will say, Ford came back (after I had it fixed) and offered to cut me a good deal to install a rebuilt unit. Also, this was the only real problem the car ever had, but it was a biggie.

Transmission died 3 months after the 3-year warranty expired. The dealership said they would not cover anything because I had not had the transmission serviced at 25,000 km (15,000 miles). Ford Canada took the same stand. They phoned and bugged me about oil changes prematurely but never phoned me about something that basically voides any warranty claims. Whoever heard of servicing your transmission with only 15,000 miles on it. GM recommends servicing at 50,000 miles which makes more sense.

The Escape was driven in the city only and has no towing equipment. This transmission servicing requirement at such a low mileage means that either 1) the transmission is very weak to need such constant attention or 2) the servicing requirement is a gimmick by Ford to avoid fixing their faulty transmissions. This was my first Ford purchase in 30 years and I was recommending the Escape to my relatives until this happened. I'm sticking with GM products from now on.