I agree, as we are not seeing “tons” of HF35s failing. We really don’t know the failure rate. Some believe it is very high based on the INL failure of 3 out of 4 C-Max test vehicle transmissions. A quick tally shows that Ford sold around 225,000 vehicles with HF35 transmission in 2013 and 2014. Total sales are likely around 500,000 vehicles with the HF35 to date. IMO, the primary reason potential owners should be concerned about the HF35 failures is the very high cost of replacement should the failure not be covered under warranty. Of course as vehicles accumulate 100k miles the likelihood of any part Failing increases.
I monitor(ed) the Fusion and C-Max Hybrid and Energi forums since 2012. Based on reports of failures in the forums, I doubt the failure rate is any more than several % points. There have been very few reported failures in the forums. As an example, VW TDIs had HPFP failures due to contaminated diesel fuel which were not covered by warranty. Less than 250 failures were reported in the forum out of about 100,000 early units sold. Actual failure rate reported to NHTSA was around 3.7%. So, around 6.7% (250 /3700) of actual failures were reported in the forum. So, using a transmission failure rate of 5% and the 6.7% number, we might expect as many as 750 transmission 2013/14 failures reported by members of forums. No one, AFAIK, has tabulated the reported failures in the Ford forums, but IMO, it would be less than 750.