NHTSA Complaint #11706820 — 2020 FORD EXPEDITION

My transmission started jumping gears and slipping at 65k miles. I had it checked out then and the mechanic said that these transmissions shifted rough, but they were not really sure why and that they reprogrammed the computer and that should fix it. It went on intermittently for the next 6 months to a year and I took it in again and was told they couldn't get the transmission to shift rough or skip so I would have to come back once it got worse. The longer I drove it, the worse it got until I would regularly lose all power to the wheels even at high speeds as the transmission failed to find a gear to engage. I finally took it back to the dealer again and this time they found that the front differential had failed and was full of metal shavings, the transmission was shifting really hard and missing gears and the driveshaft seal had failed and begun leaking as well. The vehicle had approximately 90k miles on it, and Ford didn't even recommend a transmission service/fluid change until 100k. I drive almost exclusively highway, rarely use 4WD, and had only towed twice with less than half it's capacity. I pressed the Dealer and Ford on how it's possible that a transmission fails before it's first recommended service. They said it shouldn't have and offered to replace my transmission with a remanufactured one for the low price of over $9,000. I had the transmission rebuilt at a local shop who said they are regularly rebuilding these expedition transmissions and that they fail frequently. The vehicle losing all power to the wheels, with no warning lights and searching for gears with no warning is incredibly dangerous. After doing this several times, it did eventually throw the first loss of power blinking lights across the dashboard, and day transmission fault.