Ford knows there is a problem with the 2006 Freestyle CVT transmission but won't do anything about it because there weren't enough cars with the problem to recall. Not my fault they discovered the problem so stopped making the car so kept the number low. I see many, many people that have had the problem. My biggest complaint is it stranded me one day but started running again a few hours later. The next morning I called the dealer and talked to the Service mgr about the problem. I wasn't sure if it was safe to drive and it was still covered under the extended warranty. The mgr told me since the wrench light went out it would be a waste of time to bring it in because if no light they can't detect a code. Continued to drive the car and was in traffic when it decided to just take off on its own. I was approaching a red light when this happened and was stomping the brakes trying to stop the car as the transmission tried to go full blast. Almost rear-ended a woman with three kids. Scared me to death! Now the transmission is out and the mileage is 400 out of warranty and I didn't get hurt or kill anybody so Ford says too bad for you!! The car is now worth $10k, I owe $12k and a new transmission is $8k. Think Ford will have to get this car back. Really mad. Realize they won't recall but should help people who have this same problem since hundreds have. Thought Ford being an American company would take care of their customers. Their customer service sucks! I found out they knew all of this when the salesman talked me into this great car! I got suckered into that one. This mistake will never be made again because I will NEVER purchase a Ford just for the principal of the thing. In the past years had a Chevy and an Oldsmobile that had problems out of warranty and luckily they took care of it and at least met me in the middle. I went to fix my Freestyle and could get parts from a friend who works for Ford at cost from the Ford warehouse. The dealer said they wouldn't accept them even though they came from the same place they would buy them from or they wouldn't give me a warranty. That was the last straw! Ford can keep their piece of crap!

We only had our Fordfreestyle for 1 year and the factory warranty had just expired. We had no warning of any kind not even a check engine light! My husband and I were only about 5 minutes from our home when the transmission went out and stranded us along the road in the middle of summer with a car load of groceries! We called our local ford dealership to find out if there had been any recalls and low and behold no recalls of any kind and they proceeded to tell us it would cost us fifty dollars to run a test to detect the problem and afterward told us it needed a new transmission and it would cost us 5,500 to get a new transmission. This was very disturbing news because my husband and I live on a fixed income my husband is disabled! By luck we found a local transmission specialists who found a used transmission from another state but unfortunately it had 20,000 more miles then our vehicle . I am very upset with the ford company not standing behind there products! This was suppose to be a new style of transmissions and from what I can tell they are junk and causing alot of people money and hardships! This is very discouraging I don't think my family will be purchasing another ford vehicle anytime soon!!!!

The first time the transmission problem started was approximately seven months after buying the car from Liberty Ford in Randallstown, MD. The dealership did replace the transmission, thankfully, but the issue with me is I only had the car for about SEVEN MONTHS!

Update from Jun 15, 2012: To update, I have since gotten rid of my car that I really loved. The transmission went up a second time and I was unable to afford the very expensive transmission for this car. I cannot remember at this time exactly when the transmission went up after the first time...but I've only had the car for a total period of two years or less.

we purchased the 2006 ford freestyle two years ago this past december. after putting only 30,000 miles on it, the transmission went without any warning. the wrench light came on about two miles from our home and before we made it home the transmission went while turning onto our street. we have gotten inside information from ford stating that there has been a technical service bulletin put out for this problem however ford thinks it's not necessary to inform their customers of this problem nor do they feel obligated to fix the damage that was known to exist. they now want $6000 to put in a new transmission or $8000 to rebuild the existing transmission by replacing the hard parts. the car is valued now at roughly $8000 to $9000 which has made the decision not to repair the vehicle a no brainer, however we now still owe $12,000 in a car loan for a vehicle that is absolutely of no use to us. so here we are a family of 5 with out a vehicle and three years for payments left. ford claims to be a family oriented company, obviously they weren't thinking of my family when they made that claim.