My car will drive perfectly then it starts to shift a little rough. My gas light comes on with half tank, service light comes on and mileage goes to dots (yes, blank no mileage) and the speedometer stops working. I shut the car off and restart, it will shift really hard a few times and drive normally, no issues. Put on several computers, no codes show besides a miscommunication code. This is a big issue with these cars and needs to be recalled.

I will never buy a FORD AGAIN BECAUSE OF THESE ISSUES!! The car doesn't have a lot of mileage and should not be having these issues. From reading up been at least 126 complaints made of same issues, some as low as 50,000 miles. What? Someone has to die before the FORD company will do something about it?? They should be embarrassed of this car. FORD TAURUS ARE LEMONS, DO NOT BUY !!!!

2008 Taurus has 1st-2nd gear hard shift...dealer duplicated the problem at Milbank Ford in South Dakota...sent me on my way with reflash and fluid change...the trans again shifted hard after 200 mile trip...since that time the trans has had this problem over and over. Last visit to CORWIN Ford in Nampa ID had the vehicle a week and could not duplicate...I drove the car home...parked it for 30 minutes took it to the store. It slammed into 2nd gear 3 times. I truly believe Ford knows and will not fix problem....so sad Ford

I purchased this vehicle with 117,000 miles on it last August of 2014. For modern day vehicles, that's not really a lot of miles. The transmission never really shifted correctly from the day I bought it. When going about 45MPH and in overdrive at 6th gear on an incline, the vehicle's transmission would pop and the car would jerk until I really pressed the gas to get the damn thing to downshift properly into 4th gear, killing my gas mileage because I was skipping 5th. That definitely didn't seem right.

Then it started to act slow to get into gear. For example, on a cold or hot startup, when shifting into reverse, the car would slam into gear after a short delay into gear. Typically you will feel it when the car gets into a new gear but it should be quick and fairly subtle. Not so bad it feels you just got rear ended at 10mph. These were definitely signs of PREMATURE transmission failure.

So after 30,000 miles total in my ownership, I was driving home from work at about 1AM on a hot Sunday morning, the transmission makes one loud metal on metal clump as it begs for more gas to downshift while going up a hill, I press the throttle in some and BAM!, the car slams into 2nd (limp mode which is when the transmission computer defaults the fluid pressure to high to keep 2nd or 3rd gears as lubed as possible to keep it from burning up the expensive and intricately designed gear assemblies), and the transmission light came on. So I have it towed to a transmission shop and after they look at it, these cars apparently have a weak reverse drum that connects to the planetary gear assembly. The teeth are easy to strip and eventually, the drum just snaps when it isn't lined up properly anymore, sending lots of tiny and medium sized bits and pieces swarming though your transmission, damaging clutch pack assemblies and possibly ruining your valve body (the brain of the transmission). Most might think that this isn't a big deal but the problem lies in that this drum is always spinning whether or not your in reverse or drive so it gets a lot of wear and tear. So thanks Ford for using a cheap metal in a gear component that spins 90% of the time. I will add that the transmission fluid was not burned and the fluid was changed regularly.

The fix for this problem is a complete rebuild with a (you might have guessed it) new HARDENED reverse drum. Wow, a part that cost $3 dollars more than the original would have kept his from happening had Ford wised up enough to use it in the first place.

So here's the bottom line.

Do I still like the car? Yes. It's a nice car that may be the base model, but it definitely does have it's bells and whistles.

Am satisfied I will the power train? No. Any transmission should last at least to about 200,000 miles when driven by a soccer mom (the first owner) carting her kids to practice and school, getting groceries, and going to work, never being used to tow. I was shown a plethora of service records for the vehicle and it was maintained properly including transmission fluid changes. I use it for about the same purposes as she did minus the kids.

Overall rating out of 10: 4.5

Would I recommend this vehicle? No, this vehicle stays in my pockets for maintenance. The brakes are another issue with it, I will probably put a complaint about that too!

Ford, please realize that there is an issue with these. This is a safety concern. I was lucky I was only going about 35MPH when it happened but what if I was on the interstate and lost that kind of power? Definitely not cool!

Update from Jun 17, 2015: I've done some further investigation and it turns out this transmission was actually a collaboration by design between GM and Ford. The 6F50 (Ford) and 6T70 (GM) transmissions are very similar with some notable differences. They engineered this to save money by combining research and development budgets between both OEM's. Well this sounds like a great idea right. I disagree. I'm probably biased but I find it funny that the one component that has given me the most headache, more so than the brakes lol, is partially designed by GM. Anyway, these transmissions are very similar, with most of the differences lying in the electrical and valve body design. Not so much in the "hard parts" like the clutch packs, thrust washers, etc... that you will find in just about every auto transmission there is. I've built my share transmissions so I'm speaking from experience here. There are four wave plates on GM's 6T70 that are faulty and have since been updated. The old plates would warp, become brittle, crack, and eventually break causing loss of gear ratios three through six and reverse. GM realized the issue and released a fix. Thanks GM! :) Ford has not released their version of the updated wave plates. According to several transmission shops that I have called around to, the fix for Ford's 6F50 is to use the GM wave plates. Who would've thought right? Honestly this makes me happy but at the same time disappointed in Ford. It's quite bitter sweet actually. I'm thankful that there are two multibillion dollar companies that have engineered this current paper weight but I'm disappointed that Ford has not taken ownership of there mistake.

There is a bit more to the problem though. Earlier I mentioned that the valve bodies are slightly different in both model transmissions and indeed they are. It may perhaps add more to the problem with the Ford versions. Part of the reason that the wave plates are faulty is because of a change in shift solenoids in the valve body. Ford uses only seven shift solenoids and a shift actuator to control all gears and reverse. The actuator being primarily for reverse. It's to cut costs. GM's model uses eight. Both transmission models have defective wave plates that need to be replaced but Ford's have an additional problem which should be noted, sporadic line pressure in the transmission fluid. This problem actually worsens the condition of the wave plates and actually causes the part to literally break, being ground up and sent swarming though your transmissions innards. This faulty line pressure may be the reason so many of us have problems with these transmissions. So to Ford I say thanks for not owning up to your problems. My next vehicle may very well be a GM product instead. I understand all vehicles have problems and I firmly understand that if it can fail, it will. I simply believe that if a car manufacturer is going to open up a giant can of Murphy's Law by cutting corners than they should own up to their mistakes! PERIOD!!!!

It needs to be a recall on the 2008 Ford Taurus transmissions. After having only about 16,000 on this car, because it was hardly driven, how did the transmission go bad???????? I contacted the Ford Company and they said that it was not a recall and they didn't have any complaints. In order to have a recall on something you have to call in and make your complaint with the Ford Company. If anyone is having transmission problems with the Ford Taurus, please call it in and let them know what is going on with your car. The number to call is 800-392-3673. We should not be paying out money to get transmissions repaired on these cars. I really think, this is happening alot and transmissions are going out in these cars. Please let your voice be heard with the Ford Motor Companies.