Transmission

screen or filter in transmission might be getting clogged. slowing the circulation of transmission fluid, giving for slugish shifting.

Better take it to a reliable trans repair shop, preferably a locally owned one, and have it looked at.. my 99 Taurus with 65k was also running beautifully until there was a pop and a loud thump we felt thru the seats, the planetary gearset fractured and totally trashed everything, amazing amount of damage internally.. I've got a complaint into my local Ford dealer which will probably go nowhere, but it's worth a shot having it on record just in case someday they own up to all the crap they've put out..I'm thinking that Ford may have covered trans repairs to a point up to 7 years under certain instances however you may have too many miles.. like the 3.8 headgaskets they were covering up to 7yrs 100k miles, sort of a hidden warranty deal, if you bitched loud enough, you may have been covered if you had a 93 or 94 with that engine... far as I'm concerned Ford should have covered everyone who had that engine, there should have been a major recall issued in the interest of customer satisfaction,, a known major issue that also trashed entire engines frequently, and let's not forget the trans issues with the ax4s and all of it's past and current connotations, more known junk...