Dodge and Transmissions

Why would we have to have a new transmission put in our relatively new Caravan?? It just crossed 56,000 miles. I’ve heard of transmissions being a common problem for some older Caravan models, but ours is a 2005. What we started noticing a couple weeks ago was that we would hear a high-pitched rubbing sound from the front-end when we took low speed turns to the right. This was odd and we asked around a bit but heard anything from bearings to CV Joints. This went away and then we started feeling a jerky movement when starting from a stop. I attempted to make an appointment at our local Dodge dealership but each time, the phone was disconnected. Finally, I just asked Rachel to take the car in. They took it in this past Monday and said it was definitely a bad transmission and they would replace it. Fortunately, we purchased an extended warranty and it was all covered except for a $100 deductible including a rental. They said we should be changing the fluid and having the tranny checked every year. We never had that done till now, but never observed any reason for this. All said and done, we are satisfied and things are good to go. We also had a few days to revel in a new 2008 Caravan.Have any of you experienced a similar situation? Is this common?

-Timmy