my daughter bought this car and had nothing but trouble for last few weeks. it jerked like it was trying to jump gears when ac runs, we don't know why. now just today she was driving it and lost all acceleration, for no reason, all fluids are ok levels, also having brake issue as well. if anyone knows what these cars had going on with them plz let me know she has 1 month old son. im afraid they will be hurt or stranded! im going too try to get her into another car asap. just lost my faith in fords!

I don't know about the rest of you but it's getting old....! I as well have a Ford Taurus transmission that went out for the third time. I will not replace it a 4th time....As children most of us were taught to take responsibility for our actions and I feel that the time has come for the children of the Ford Motor Co. to grow the up already!!!!! From all the complaints I have read there has got to be enough leverage behind us, especially when Ford admits to knowing about the problem, to make some changes. I admit though I am in the dark on how to go about it, maybe better business bureau or consumer affairs? If anyone out there knows how to make a move on this chicken-sh*t company lets do it Please comment to this post....and fellow non-working transmission owners welcome to contact as well because without us the consumer is powerless!!! P.S. One last thing I want to apologize to the women that have come across this and read it....I apologize for the use of the foul language I am just soooo feed up and tired of this and I'm sorry!

This was a family hand-me-down car. Last month the starter went out so I replaced that. A few days ago my car wouldn't shift from park to drive. After about 15 minutes it finally went into drive, so I took my son to school. Same problem happened again. About 20 minutes later it suddenly shifted into drive, but it's been stuck in my driveway ever since. I ended up losing my job because of this. I just put $400 into a starter and a battery, and now this. I am a single mother and a student, and cannot afford to fix this or buy a new car. I will never, never, never buy an American car. My next vehicle will be a Toyota or a Honda.

This is by far one of the best cars I have ever owned. Crash safety ratings make my first car look like a casket waiting to happen. Also the ABS saved my bacon more than a couple times. The ride is luxury car, the handling okay, fuel efficiency okay for the 1997 time frame, and reliability is about what you expect with American cars. Your going to spend money fixing them, that's why they cost less than Japanese cars (even the ones built in the US.) I was very disappointed however when the transmission failed. Having owned other cars (american and Japanese) that easily surpassed 150,000 miles without transmission incident, I found this failure particularly unacceptable. I had been religious with the fluid and filter change as well, which made it all the more unacceptable. I had purchased the car with 50,000 miles on it. It now has 170,000 miles on it, so far the tranny failure being the worst of the problems (in terms of expense.) It was a soft failure, giving plenty of notice that something was wrong. What was even more devilishly disturbing is that the actual failure was an electronic switch buried in the transmission. The transmission itself was functional in terms of the gearing, but the clutch (which engages at highway speeds to reduce slippage that occurs via the torque converter, and disengages to allow slippage at lower speeds via the torque converter) activation switch somehow had a leak where tranny fluid was getting in and shorting out the connector. The only way to fix it was to remove the tranny and open it up. Rather than take the expensive route, I went cheap and replaced the tranny with a younger junkyard sourced tranny. Slightly risky (no one wants that 1 in 10 unit that will have the same problem) but probably worth it (when you get over 100,000 you never know what else may fail. At least on american iron. Still, it is by far one of the best cars I've ever owned. But Ford really needs to address long term drive train if they want to stay in the business. And of course canceling production of your highest sales volume vehicle isn't the brightest idea (can you say failed attempt to transition to more expensive, less efficient vehicle? Did you say 500?)

BOUGHT THE CAR FROM A FRIENDS 92 YEAR OLD MOTHER. HAS ONLY 80,000 MILES ,A FEW HAIL DENT ,BUT FOR THE MOST PART REAL CLEAN. THOUGHT IT WOULD MAKE A GREAT CAR FOR MY WIFE AND TWO KIDS....... WRONG !!!!! MY WIFE DROVE THE CAR FOR ABOUT TWO MONTHS. REAL HAPPY. THE CARS MAIDEN TRIP, A VACATION TO CORPUS CHRISTI FOR MEMORIAL DAY ABOUT A 9 HOUR DRIVE . LEFT ON A FRIDAY NIGHT . ABOUT 100 MILES INTO THE TRIP ,NO WARNING...!!!! THE TRANSMISSION QUITS.... JUST LIKE YOU PUT IT IN NEUTRAL.....!!!!!!! END OF VACATION. NOW IT SITS IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE BECAUSE WE CANT AFFORD THE $2400.00 THEY WANT TO FIX IT. THATS THE LAST BLUE OVAL CAR FOR ME.....!!!!!

Ok well i see a lot of the very same problems were having with our transmission we know its going to go out all the way, no doubt. Were going to drive it til it drops so to speak. We figured out though if you accelerate until its about to shift and then let off and let it shift on its own it doesn't jerk as much. Also if you put it in neutral between gears it seems to shift easier. I know this car is junk i just thought maybe other people could try what were doing to get the most out of the car. Personally with all its problems its not worth it to pay the money needed to fix it.

I feel it should have been covered by warrenty. I made the mistake in the past I had a 1992 taurus and the transmission went out about the same time, which after there was a recall bad year. After I bought this car gave the other car to my son. 1 month later the transmission went out the second time. I already had bought this car and they said shouldn't have the same problem because it was a 1992 problem. They no longer had issues. Well they were wrong. Otherwise the car has been fairly good. I can only say better not happen again it is getting to about the same mileage the when the other when died the second time.