By Eve 
This is no longer a fluke. It’s a pattern.
Federal regulators are now investigating transmission failures in an additional 1.27 million Ford F-150 pickups, widening a safety reckoning that Ford has spent years trying to contain. The probe targets 2015–2017 trucks equipped with the 6R80 six-speed automatic transmission, a unit already linked to a massive earlier recall involving sudden, dangerous downshifts.
The investigation is being led by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and it includes hands-on testing. That alone signals concern. Regulators don’t escalate to physical inspections unless warning signs are stacking up.
The alleged failures are serious. Trucks unexpectedly downshifting into first gear at speed. Vehicles slipping out of reverse and into neutral while backing uphill. These are not comfort complaints. These are loss-of-control scenarios in America’s best-selling pickup.
The suspected cause should sound familiar. A failing sensor tied to a rapidly deteriorating wiring harness. It mirrors the same root problem behind Ford’s earlier recall of 668,000 F-150s. This time, it’s a different sensor, which conveniently keeps it from being labeled an official expansion. But the outcome is the same: nearly two million trucks potentially affected by strikingly similar transmission failures.
That repetition is the real indictment.
This wasn’t an unpredictable defect. It was a warning ignored. Ford knew the 6R80 had vulnerabilities. Instead of rethinking the system or aggressively fixing it across model years, the company kept building trucks around it. The result is a growing list of owners dealing with unpredictable behavior in vehicles designed to haul, tow, and work in real-world conditions.
The stakes are obvious. A pickup that can’t reliably stay in gear is a hazard to drivers, passengers, and anyone sharing the road. It undermines trust in a nameplate that Ford built its dominance on.
Now Ford Motor Company is once again under scrutiny, and the industry is watching closely. If regulators confirm systemic failure, this won’t be brushed aside as isolated complaints.
This investigation exists because patience ran out. Because warnings piled up. And because the auto industry doesn’t correct itself until it’s forced to.
Elizabeth Puckett