NHTSA Complaint #11281325 — 2014 FORD ESCAPE

A CHECK ENGINE LIGHT CAME ON AND I TOOK IT IN TO HAVE LOOKED AT. THE DEALERSHIP TOLD ME THE TORQUE CONVERTER WENT BAD - EVEN THOUGH I ONLY HAVE 51,000 MILES ON MY VEHICLE. BASICALLY THE CLUTCH SLIPS WHEN I DRIVE. THEY TOLD ME TO REPLACE THAT IT WOULD BE ALMOST $5000 BUT THAT THEY RECOMMENDED JUST REPLACING THE WHOLE TRANSMISSION SINCE IT'S ONLY $900 MORE. I ASKED IF THIS NEEDED TO BE REPLACED IMMEDIATELY AND THEY SAID IT WAS JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THE WHOLE THING GOES OUT COMPLETELY. NOW I AM TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHETHER IT IS SAFE TO EVEN DRIVE TO TRY TO GET A SECOND OPINION. PARTS OF A TRANSMISSION SHOULD NOT GO OUT ON SUCH A LOW MILEAGE CAR. CLEARLY THERE IS AN ISSUE WITH THE TRANSMISSIONS IN THIS MODEL AS NUMEROUS OTHER PEOPLE HAVE REPORTED SIMILAR ISSUES. THE DEALERSHIP SAID THIS WOULD NORMALLY BE COVERED UNDER THE POWERTRAIN WARRANTY - BECAUSE I AM UNDER 60,000 MILES - BUT THEY SAID IT ISN'T COVERED BECAUSE THAT EXPIRED IN AUGUST. I CALLED 'FORD CUSTOMER CARE' AND THEY JUST SAID THERE WAS NOTHING THEY COULD DO, NO EXPLANATION. FORD NEEDS TO FIX THIS.