general problems of the 2000 Ford Escort

The first defect is about the shifting gears light. I can not see the shifting gears at night unless I turn the car's light on or sometimes I use a light app to see them. This is because the shifting gears don't show up on the screen and also there's no led lights for the shifting gears the other problem I want to report is that these cars have always had loud noises and I am suspecting there's transmission/engine defects. Now I am left with a disabled vehicle because the transmission just decided to break on me, I drove it perfectly fine the day before it broke down. The next day, as I was using the car, I turned it on and the steering wheel became really hard and the car was moving super slowly so I decided to park it right back. After I told a mechanic expert about it, he told me the transmission is gone. I don't have no money to repair it because transmission replacement cost a lot of money. Ford should really take a look at this vehicle and fix the many defects they came up with.