NHTSA Complaint #11593526 — 2017 FORD FOCUS

I was recently driving on the highway in a 70 speed limit zone when the transmission suddenly failed. One minute I was going 70mph with normal feeling and then suddenly the gas/acceleration stopped working and the car went down to around 20 mph within a second, suddenly it felt like being in neutral and I had no control. It would not respond to pressing the gas pedal. It started to buck and shake. Braking felt really erratic and strange and it lunged as I tried to get off the highway. Red transmission failure light came on with red blinking message to stop car immediately. It was terrifying and I could have been killed. I was thankfully able to get to the shoulder to let it stop. We let it sit for about 15 minutes and turned it on again but it was the same. Gas did not respond normally. It was unable to go over 8mph and Reverse no longer worked. It was towed home. It is dead now, nothing improved after sitting. Not worth the repair. Ford claimed this issue was fixed on the 2017 but clearly not, and some are a ticking time bomb like mine was. There was no prior indication of any problem- no strange feeling, no noises, no warning lights, no acceleration problems, etc. It was obvious that it was the transmission that completely failed. A family member who is a mechanic confirmed it. I had been planning to drive this for several more years. Now I need to suddenly get a new car without getting the benefit of having this as a trade in. But at least I am alive! Never getting a Ford again!!