My daughter in college takes the car to the Ford dealership in Wichita Falls, TX for a dragging noise coming from underneath the car. The dealership says the skid plate is broken and dragging. After about $200 to repair, daughter goes to pick up the car and is then asked about the hard shifting transmission problem.....she has never experienced this problem!! She calls me (dad) to tell me that the car is now driving terrible and wasn't doing that before she took it in. I tell her to take it back to the dealership at which time they say the transmission is completely out of fluid and needs to be replaced....$4000.

The car is a 1 owner car with only 117,000 miles (all highway miles) and had the transmission fluid changed at NTB at 95,000. The car has never left any leak spots on the driveway....ever! Check engine light and wrench light are now on and have never been on before this last repair to the skid plate. Have purchased Ford vehicles my entire adult life but will never again. This is ridiculous to need to replace a transmission on a vehicle with 117,000 miles!! Seems like this is simply a bad transmission that has conveniently gone out after there is no more warranty.....very disappointed in FORD!!

It started leaking transmission fluid, so in an attempt to delay the costly fix of what ever the problem was, I continued to fill the fluid. After being fed up with that, and almost breaking down on the highway, I had it diagnosed. There was a leak in the very small transmission line, that the mechanic said "could've been knocked loose by a small rock on the highway," cost me $600, plus the cost of a rental. $600 in repair cost from a stupid little rock?!? Really?! Is it just going to spontaneously combust too? Or fall aparr into a million pieces out of no where?! I can see it happening. Worst purchase ever.

The 5-speed automatic in the Fusion is without a doubt the most unrefined automatic transmission I have ever driven. The ’89 Mazda 626 that I drove with 250+K shifted better than my Fusion. It is very difficult to extract smooth and seamless shifts, even after changing the transmission fluid multiple times. Here’s a series of occurrences where the transmission struggles through gears:

1. When slowing down (coasting with my foot off the gas) in stop-and-go traffic, and pressing the gas again at about 15-20mph, the car sometimes struggles to find the right gear. On occasion, the car has shaken and the tires have chirped.

2. When the car is cold, the shift from 1-2 is often excessively delayed.

3. Recently (only happened once however), upon accelerating from a stoplight, the car slammed through each upshift. No warning lights appeared. I pulled over, turned the car off and on, and the car drove normally afterwards.

To me, all of these symptoms have to eventually lead to transmission failure (especially after having to change burnt tranny fluid after only 30K). My concerns to the dealer are always dismissed. After reading numerous complaints about the Fusion’s transmission, and now that I am outside the powertrain warranty, I sold the car before further problems could occur.