Ford Five Hundred Limited - 2005 Review

I purchased a certified used Ford Five Hundred SEL in January 2008 with 17,000 miles on it.  Since purchasing this car I have had problem after problem with it!  On the way home from the dealership, the transmission started to slip.  I called the dealership and was told that the transmission was a "smart" transmission (CVT - continuously variable) and needed to get used to my driving style.  Since then the vehicle has been back to the dealership over 9 times for the following reasons:

Slipping Transmission, car won't accelorate past 45 mph, loss of power...yet nothing has ever been fixed.

This is a very nice, economical car, however I would not recommend it to anyone.  This may have been the first model year for the Five Hundred, which is now the Taurus, but there should not be this many problems with a car that now only has 23,000 miles on it.