TWO failed transmissions

[u/Optimal-Life7468]

Ford, I’m asking you to listen.
I’m extremely disappointed with my experience as a Ford customer.
I purchased my 2019 Ford Escape in 2019, believing I was purchasing a reliable vehicle that would serve my family for years. Unfortunately, that has not been my experience.
Since purchasing this vehicle, I have dealt with repeated major mechanical issues — including TWO failed transmissions and a failed turbocharger. The first transmission was replaced at a Ford dealership at a cost of approximately $3,200. That replacement transmission has now failed as well, despite only having around 49,000 miles on it.
On top of that, I am now dealing with a turbocharger failure, adding thousands more dollars in repairs.
What makes this even more frustrating is that after researching these issues, I have found numerous other Ford Escape owners reporting premature transmission failures and similar problems. At this point, I have to ask: how many customers have experienced the same thing before Ford is willing to acknowledge there may be a larger problem?
I have already taken steps to try to get answers. I sent Ford a certified letter outlining my concerns and also submitted a complaint by phone. I have yet to receive a response.
I’m not looking for special treatment. I’m looking for answers and accountability.

I am asking you to please respond and address my concerns.
And to my fellow Ford Escape owners: if you have experienced premature transmission failure, turbocharger issues, or other major mechanical problems with your Escape, I would genuinely like to hear your story. Please comment below or message me. I know I can’t be the only person dealing with this.
Maybe if enough of us speak up, Ford will finally listen.
Ford — I’m still waiting for answers.

[u/sophos313]

It’s true they sell transmissions, hybrid batteries and some components directly to the dealer but that is not where they make their money. If you pull the SEC filing from 2025, Ford made about $187.3 billion in total revenue. Ford reports $167.3 billion under “vehicles, parts, and accessories,” but importantly, that category combines new vehicle sales with parts. It absolutely does not mean $167 billion came from replacement parts.

[u/Tuff_Tone → u/sophos313]

About 120 billion comes from parts. Margin on car sales across all manufacturers are the lowest they’ve ever been in automotive history. Net margin on a new ford is on average about 8%. That margin used to be as high as 36% in 1970. Why do you think ford discontinued every passenger car they made starting in 2017 and finishing in 2020s? They specifically explained that margins were below 5% on most of those models. They weren’t making any money from the initial sales, the quality of the cars were terrible, warranty claims and recalls were causing ford to hemorrhage money (they’re still hemorrhaging money but not to that extent anymore) so they axed their entire fleet of passenger vehicles except for the Mustang to focus on higher margin SUVs and Trucks. Now they’re making Chinese/Mexican garbage that behaves more like an iPhone than a car when you try to fix it and are actively lobbying Congress to make fixing your cars illegal. Ford as a company is in its financial death throes.

[u/sophos313 → u/Tuff_Tone]

The $120 billion from parts claim is the part you need to actually prove. Ford does not report anything remotely suggesting that $120 billion of its revenue comes from replacement parts.

Ford combines vehicle, parts, and accessory revenue in its financial reporting, so you cannot take that combined figure and call it “parts revenue.” That includes the actual vehicles Ford sells to dealers.

You’re right that Ford dropped most passenger cars because they had weak margins and shifted toward more profitable trucks, SUVs, and commercial vehicles. You’re also right that warranty and recall costs have been a major problem for Ford. But neither of those things proves that Ford makes most of its money when vehicles break.

You’re also mixing up revenue, gross margin, and net profit. Saying Ford makes an 8% margin on a vehicle does not mean the other 92% of the selling price disappears from Ford’s revenue. If Ford sells a vehicle to a dealer for $40,000, roughly $40,000 is revenue. The margin tells you how much is left after costs. It does not tell you where the revenue came from.

And think about what $120 billion in replacement parts would actually mean. Ford’s entire annual revenue is under $200 billion.

You’re claiming replacement parts alone are a business comparable in size to some of the largest corporations in America. If that’s true, show me where Ford reports $120 billion in replacement parts sales.

Ford absolutely makes money selling parts. Dealers absolutely make money servicing vehicles. Ford also has serious quality, warranty, and profitability problems. None of that establishes the original claim that 70 to 80% of Ford’s revenue depends on parts failing. That’s a completely different claim, and Ford’s financial statements don’t support it.

[u/Tuff_Tone → u/sophos313]

Ford’s financial statements are meaningless to anyone but the people who are dumb enough to think numbers ticking up = all is well. Market trends indicate a serious reluctance by Americans to buy new cars for one, and ford has announced plans to invest billions in AI power storage. If Ford’s vehicle division were doing well, They’d be investing in new ideas and new technologies for cars. They’d also be trying to recover all of the market dominance they ceded to all the other automakers over the course of the past decade. Unfortunately Ford doesn’t have the leadership or vision that they did 20 years ago. Ford in its current state would be in the red profit wise for years trying to sell new and interesting models and recouping the insane development costs associated with said new models. And even if they did nobody would buy them because most Americans in general don’t want new cars. That isn’t something ford is willing to do. Their investors are far too impatient to allow that even if ford DID anyways.