My transmission suddenly failed (42K) without any warning whatsoever (present or past) while driving along a very busy highway. The vehicle started to suddenly & rapidly slow down and began to surge (rapidly speed up and slow down). The vehicles behind me were forced to suddenly brake; many quickly changed lanes to avoid a collision. I requested assistance with the cost of the repair from Dodge via the service manager. The service manager contacted the district representative, dan lewendowski, who refused to assist me with the expense. I had the vehicle towed to a notable transmission shop for repair. Upon inspecting the transmission, the transmission shop owner insisted that the transmission failed for some other reason than non-maintenance. He told me that the fluid does not lose it's lubrication at 42,000 miles. This was not the first Dodge Ram he has serviced with a transmission problem. In fact, he had another Dodge Ram in the shop the same day with the same problem (the "soft parts" in the transmission had failed). The tranmission shop owner told me that Dodge has had a tremendous amount of transmission problems and recommended that I take this matter further. I have been researching this matter on the internet and have located several websites related to the failure of Dodge transmissions. I am requesting a reimbursement of $1,900 from Dodge for the repair of my transmission. I would also like nhsta to look into this matter further to see if a recall is warranted since this appears to be a known and wide spread problem. I have the damaged/replaced parts in my possession should you wish to inspect them.

- Lansing, MI, USA