NHTSA Complaint #11698597 — 2017 FORD ESCAPE

I have a 2017 Ford Escape with an EcoBoost engine. My car was running a little bit rough and the check engine light turned on. I made an appointment with an independent service location that I trust to diagnose the issue. After reading the computer code, which noted a cylinder misfire, they noticed that the coolant level was low, did some investigating and found a Ford-issue technical service bulleting from 2022 detailing the likelihood of a coolant leak into the engine. They scoped the cylinder and confirmed the presence of coolant in the cylinder and noted the only repair was a replacement of the entire long block. I then sent my car to a Ford dealership and asked them separately to diagnose the issue, and they returned with the same diagnosis and suggested repair. The safety of me (a lone parent), my 8yo son, and our dog are put at risk every time I have to drive the car since we don't know when the engine might give out completely. I've now been restricted to only driving very small distances until I can find the required $9K to replace the engine. I do not feel comfortable driving my car (which has been great until now), but cannot afford an indefinite rental car, nor a new car, and have no alternative but to drive it. This is a KNOWN ISSUE (as evidenced by the Technical Service Bulletin) and a few older models have actually been recalled, but for some reason, the remaining have not. Ford will not cover any cost of the repair because of the age of the car, even though it only has 52K miles on it (which is extremely low for its age). All known safety issues should be covered regardless of the age of the car. I understand there is an active class action lawsuit against Ford for this very failure, which speaks volumes as to how widespread this safety issue is.