"if I recall, Terry Haines has suggested the difference is that Mondeo trannies are manufactured in Germany; ours are made in the good ole USA, where, apparently, tolerances are a little more liberal"
Actually what I'm pretty sure he said was that ALL MTX75s are made in Germany (which I know to be a fact - we have no US factory) but they are rebuilt in the US. Germany makes the best gearboxes in the world. Problems with replacements (which are typically rebuilt) are very frequent. The clutch is a German Sacs (one of the best brands in the world). The MTX75 in many US cars goes >150K with no problems. Euro Mondeos = no problems. US Focus MTX75 = no problems. More problems late 99, and 00 in the US with the trannies. Now, the Mondeo uses the same tranny/clutch but the transaxle/engine is ASSEMBLED & INSTALLED in Belgium I believe. Focus is built at another factory & being the new star, QC is higher than US Contour. It is possible that the problem relates to some improper assembly/installation in the US, especially later as QC seems to have dropped. Perhaps assembly & installation has some critical steps. This is my hypothesis. Then, recurrent tranny failures are secondary to the US rebuilt ones (Terry has a great pic of one of these).
