I own a 2003 Windstar Limited. It has a little over 100K on the odometer. We were traveling on open interstate, no incline, operating with the cruise control. Without warning, the rpm's jumped up like it shifted to neutral. I tried all gears on the selector as we lost momentum - nothing. At least we could have A/C while we waited. Oh, and we were 140 miles from home. The nearest dealer quoted us nearly $4000 for a remanufactured one. We had a quote for $1400 to rebuild ours, and $750 to replace with a used one. Warranties are 3 yr, 1 yr and 1 month, respectively. It isn't really important which course of action we chose, but it shows how much it costs to get what you pay for. After the repair, electrical problems have ensued and we are chasing rabbits through the ABS and Advance-trac warning lights. Like I don't have anything else to do...
After reading other forums on the WWW, I am seeing a trend and a high percentage of owners who have had the same problem occur in roughly the same way. Not all were fortunate enough to be able to coast out of harm's way. This is a life safety issue. Ford has delivered a crummy product here and needs to take responsibility.