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We just bought our Ford Taurus about 4 mths ago from the county police car auction.  The first problem I encountered with it was about 3 weeks ago.  I went to the local diner for breakfast and when I came out to leave I couldn't get it out of Park, I was going to check the fluid in it but I was on an incline so it would have been pointless.  Fifteen min later I tried again and it went into gear that time.  A week or so after, the car ran fine until you hit 20 mph and then it would go into neutral, go down to 5 mph and go back into first gear.  I checked the fluid and there was just a smidge of fluid on the tip.  I hardly ever drive this car, and obviously my hubby has not been checking the fluids (must I do everything!)  I can smell a burnt scent on the dipstick.  SO, I think maybe he burnt up the transmission, first gear and reverse are the only 2 gears that work.  ANy thoughts??  He swears he has been checking and blames this on a leak but there was no leak coming from under, I checked.  He thinks its coincidence that the tranny had very little fluid in it when this happened.  One person did look at it, dont know how much he knew about tranny's but he mentioned the torque converter when he smelled the burn on the dipstick  

Being that the car was parked on an incline and put into park without the emergency brake put on first, will make the trans hard to get out of park. If you smell burnt fluid on the dipstick,and at a very low level, Your trans was burnt up because of low fluid level. Nothing you can do now but to have a total rebuild, and always replace the converter on a rebuild.