I bought a used Ford Windstar van 15 years ago. On a family vacation, the transmission went out and left us on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere in central Texas (2 young kids, van was loaded down). The whole process of having the van towed, getting a hotel (happened on a Saturday night), getting a rental car, having the transmission rebuilt, and having a significant trip delay was an extremely expensive exercise involving several thousand dollars. I (privately) grumbled at Ford for building a vehicle that would lose a transmission after 65,000 miles and said I would never buy another Ford. Then, I got over it. I bought another Ford and still have it today. Sometimes life is just not fair.
