Focus SES 2.0L

• Automatic transmission
• 40,000 miles

I have a 2005 Ford Focus ZX4 SES, automatic, I bought it used with about 25,000 miles on it, I have owned it now for just over a year and currently have 40,000 miles on it. The transmission suddenly decided to downshift by itself, I thought at first I must've hit the shifter but when I looked down it was still in the correct position. When I realized what was happening I tried to think of what to do, my car was revving and I was on the gas, it was just in too low of a gear for that speed, just when I was about to hit the brakes to slow down it went into Neutral by itself, I looked in my rear view mirror to see if anyone was behind me and there was an 18-wheeler accelerating to speed, I had nowhere to pull over I just prayed he was paying attention, all of a sudden the car jumped into gear again and revved up and shot forward, I was only a mile from my office when this happened so I figured I could make it to the parking lot. I continued on at a low speed in case it down shifted again, it then upshifted and my car acted like it was in the wrong gear, then it shifted into the correct gear right before I made it to my office. The office is only 1/4 mile from a Ford dealership so I figured I could drive it over there, as soon as I pulled onto the road it went into Neutral, I waited for it to kick into gear as it had before but it didn't, oncoming cars were getting closer so I put it in Reverse, it kicked into Reverse and I drove backwards through the lot and parked. I had my car towed to a dealership only to find out that Ford did not provide a factory powertrain warranty on the 2005 Focus, they provided one on the other models that year, just not the Focus. I did not know this because I bought it used, and as the Ford Rep. I spoke to on the phone said "If I had bought it used at a Ford dealership instead of CarMax I would've had that explained to me". Because Ford is all about quality and treating their customer right, correct? Of course. So I am stuck with a low mileage vehicle with no transmission, I can't afford the repairs that are said to cost between $2-5,000, so I am stuck paying a car note and insurance for a car I can't drive and borrowing cars and asking for rides. Thanks for the help Ford. Oh and by the way, Ford says there is no known problem with their transmissions, but I found a website, besides this one, where owners had the same low miles 30-50,000 and the same symptoms on their transmissions. No known problem, obviously. I printed out the pages and pages of complaints and mailed it to Ford, so that they could be made aware of the problem.