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Why is the transmission in my 2016 Ford Territory intermittently down-shifting?

The transmission in my 2016   is intermittently violently down-shifting when slowing to a stop. What could the issue be here?

Some Territories of around this vintage experienced a problem with a dud output-speed sensor within the automatic transmission. The sensor could cause an intermittent fault where the transmission wasn’t telling the rest of the car how fast it was going and, in some cases, could cause the transmission to suddenly shift back to first gear. That sounds a lot like your symptoms. Ford reckons it had this problem fixed by early 2013, well before your car was built, but I reckon it’d still be worth a check of the sensor’s operation via an electronic scan.

The other recurring problem with the Territory’s transmission was when the transmission cooler failed internally and the gearbox oil and the coolant became mixed. That destroyed the gearbox both mechanically and electronically in pretty quick time and if that’s your problem, a rebuilt or replacement transmission is the only fix.

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