NHTSA Complaint #11487700 — 2011 FORD EDGE

I noticed one morning driving to work that when I applied the brakes the pedal became a little bit harder to push to get the same amount of braking action. When I got to work I had the mechanic there take a look at the car because I was worried about driving it home. He checked all of the brake system and could not find a problem. He took it for a test drive and said the brakes worked fine. I drove it home and no problem. A few days later I'm on the way to work and as I approached an intersection the light changed and I applied the brakes and this time the pedal went down closer to the floor and by the time I stopped my car was 1/2 way into the intersection. If a car had been in front of me I would have been in an accident. Again the mechanic looked it over and while he was driving it did it to him one time. He stated in his 45 years as a mechanic he had never seen one where the brakes work fine, then lose power brakes, and then they work fine for awhile. You can't know when it's going to happen. You can drive it for a week and it's fine and then it will do it. The mechanic did some checking and found out that Ford knows about the issue and offered a Customer satisfaction program where they extended the warranty coverage to 150,000 miles or 10 years. This car is a 2011 Ford Edge so it is 11 years old but it only has 98,000 miles. During the Covid 19 shutdown the car was hardly driven for 18 months. Ford says it's out of warranty. How is a failing brake booster NOT a safety recall? The mechanic said brake boosters rarely if ever need replacing and certainly not before 100,000 miles. I can't afford the cost of the repair because gas prices. Is it going to take people being killed in crashes before Ford is forced to recall the car? Brakes are the most important system on the car along with steering. The brake booster randomly not working increases the stopping distance and when it quits your reaction is to push real hard and then the brakes grab.