NHTSA Complaint #11496941 — 2017 FORD ESCAPE

Firstly, this story will not surprise the NHTSA since the issue that plagued me has plagued many. It's clear that complaints started in 2010 & lead to Reed et al. v. Ford Motor Company. On the evening of September 18, 2022 my check engine light illuminated. I parked it/left it in front of my house that night, all day on September 19, 2022 & then was barely able to get to Perry Ford (Santa Barbara, CA) on September 20, 2022. There were no lead ups, no other warning lights, no increase in temperature, no messages - overall no other symptoms. One mile out from the dealership, the steering starting locking up & it started aggressively chugging. Luckily, I was on surface streets because it was dark out, there were cars honking at me & trying to go around me. I dropped my key & some details in the Early Bird drop box. A rep told me over the phone that I needed a new engine. He talked in circles & used the phrase - “coolant intrusion.” He gave me a $10K figure, so I had more questions. At the dealership & before I had read hundreds of accounts of the same EXACT issue from other Ford owners, I asked a different service rep about the absurdly inadequate warning system & the likelihood of this happening to an engine with 36K miles on it. He said, “This happens to this car a lot. We have a lot of these on the lot right now for this. I even had a girl in here a few weeks ago with the same thing that only had 10K miles on here car.” He also used the phrase “coolant intrusion.” I asked for a diagnostic report - I never got one. I asked for a lead time, I got 3 different answers. They ordered a new long block engine & 63 days later, my car was ready. The final invoice is attached you may also find it “funny” that the service notes say "low on coolant" - of course the level was low because it had intruded my engine prior to their inspection. By submitting this report, I would not only like to recuperate my money, but I would like to see Ford be held responsible.