That pesky "E"

[MagicFen]

Hi all,

As a new T-Bird owner (of a used '03 with just over 17K miles) I see that I now have the "E" showing up on my display. Seems that I saw something about this in an old post, but I'm ****ed if I can find it now. Manual is alarming in stating that this is a transmission "malfunction"??

The car is not under warranty (I purchased privately - not through a dealer), yet I will be looking into the possibility of getting one through some service, if not a dealer, in the near future based on suggestions herein.

Can anyone tell me if this is a serious issue, or just a sneaky way to get the car brought in for service?