 WARNING: 6 Paragraphs Long! Patient/caring readers onlyThe number one thing you have to watch out for is that ridiculous auto/manual/automatic transmission. In all due honesty I absolutely love everything else about this car. I love the seats, I love the handling, I lovethe entertainment system, I love the engine, and I love the color and style. But that transmission is such a negative that it takes away all the positives. I can't enjoy the rest of the car when the transmission nevershifts correctly. It's most annoying habits to me were the loss of acceleration in 3rd gear and up. 1st and 2ndgear pulled just fine. Whenever it shifted into 3rd, there would always be a nasty chattering sound and accelerationwould drop. Next, the transmission would not let me accelerate to passing speeds on the highway, especiallyon an incline. I put the foot down, the transmission downshifts, the car starts to accelerate, and just as soonas the engine picks up in RPM, it up shifts, killing the acceleration. I found that to pass effectively in this car I hadno choice but to give it full throttle. Not what I call an economical pass. Now, this is ALL bad news about the tranny... now let me explain the title of my review. My car is sitting at my workplace,collecting dust and God knows what, because the transmission can't figure out what gear it was last in and therefore IT WILL NOT START. This is a major issue that I have read HUNDREDS of reviews on from loyal Focus owners. It's just 2000miles out of its powertrain warranty, so Ford is giving me the middle finger and has the audacity to tell me that it's a'normal issue' (a normal problem... who would have thought) and that I'm already looking at roughly $2000 to get it fixed.Problem is... I'm a low level bachelor who doesn't exactly have the largest savings account built up in my young existence.I know it may have been stupid to finance a car without a respectable financial foundation, but I've always known theFocuses to be very good cars. I got a decent deal with my non-existent credit, and I could afford it, and then some. Payingfor preventive maintenance is not a problem for me. Paying for extensive repairs when I've done my part in keepingthe car stays in tip-top condition IS a problem.So right now, I've got a dead car sitting at my job 24 miles away, my bank account is getting thinner, and let's just say myfamily and friends are too 'busy' to help out a brother in a time of great need. I am in good with my boss, but he called and told me that he can't keep flexing for me and will have to let me go and hire someone else. If I lose my job, then I lose thecar. And if I lose the car... well... fat chance getting another job to buy another car with because with no car and can't transportmyself to and from a job and this is just a spiral of doom developing before me.All of this... because Ford basically released an overly-complex, software-dependent, unproven and flawed transmission designto the public that can and WILL fail. After reading so much dirt on the transmission, I drove to work everyday feeling fearful that it would let me down... and it happened. I can't hate the car as much as I can hate Ford for such an asinine support.Expensive repairs... failed repairs... DEATHS. I have come across so much material from other Focus owners that has mademe decide to NOT have it fixed. Hopefully I can find some way out of the loan and get myself in something with a good oldfashioned manual transmission before I lose my job and/or my life over this mess.