Fiat Chrysler’s ‘Confusing’ Gear Shifter Has Caused Over 100 Crashes
USA’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has significantly expanded its investigation into the apparently ‘confusing’ gear shifter found in around 400,000 Grand Cherokees. The organisation is now looking at 856,000 vehicles in total, covering 3.6-litre V6 Grand Cherokees from 2014 and 2015, Dodge Chargers from 2012-2014 and Chrysler 300s from the same period.
The issue is that the electronic shifter - a part made by German firm ZF - returns to the middle position after each selection. It doesn’t feature a park button either, and according to the NHTSA, these two factors have resulted in numerous owners inadvertently exiting their vehicles with the car is still in drive.
The organisation reckons that 306 roll-away incidents involving Grand Cherokees can be attributed to confusion over the selector, allegedly leading to 117 crashes and 28 injuries in the USA. The NHTSA stated that their testing revealed “poor tactile and visual feedback to the driver, increasing the potential for unintended gear selection.”
It’s worth mentioning that the cars in question do have an audible and visual warning that appears if the driver’s door is opened while the vehicle is not in park.
A recall has not yet been issued, but Fiat Chrysler Automobiles says that it’s cooperating with the NHTSA’s investigations.
Source: Detroit News
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Simple solution: don’t buy an automatic
Would you trust folks that harebrained with a manual transmission?
These cars don’t offer manuals
A Disklok on your steering wheel will stop your car from stealing itself.
(It won’t)
Didn’t know how to send a personal messega, but you guys should totally leave a comment on this article as well: https://www.carthrottle.com/post/w839g9z/
Idiots always ruin it for everybody else…
“The issue is that the electronic shifter - a part made by German firm ZF - returns to the middle position after each selection. It doesn’t feature a park button either…”
I’m not going to lie that actually is pretty stupid.
It sorta reminds me if a dog clutch, of course it’s far from one still
BMW, Mercedes, Tesla, Range Rover, and Volvo are all guilty of the same thing. Never understood why a normal shifter wouldn’t work, these stupid things cause all sorts of trouble at my job since valets get into these cars and spend about 15 mins trying to figure out how to shift it.
My dad has one in his jeep it trys to mimic an actual shifter, yet the first time I drove his jeep I put it into reverse and thought I was in drive. Takes some getting used to.
It’s a total non-issue IMO. The stick doesn’t permanently move, because it’s not a ‘physical’ connection to the gearbox, it’s just a software shift P/R/N/D. It’s a really simple system once you’ve used it once or twice. And if you haven’t gotten used to it, then don’t jump out of the car without checking! If it’s anything like the ZF in my bimmer, then it’ll automatically go into park when you turn the engine off anyway. I don’t know why it doesn’t have a park button though, because that’s pretty useful (E.g. when in stop-start traffic).
Death by confused shifting
What a way to go
They have the annoying habit of not using the parking brake in the states and leaving their cars in Park gear instead. Likely to be their own fault for a lazy habit…. Just a thought
We laugh at people using their parking brakes with an automatic here. It’s a park gear, I don’t see the necessity unless you’re on an incline. Manual on the other hand, that needs a parking brake.
Americans tend to be that way - why do you think we even have such excess in our government?
That stupid thing’s better than that dial… that just annoys me.
Why can’t we just have traditional automatic shift levers anymore? It’s bad enough there are automatics at all.
Personally I miss column shifters the most. They just felt so satisfying to throw into park.
I work at a Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge dealership and I can confirm those shifters suck.
I also work at a Chrysler Dodge jeep dealership and can also confirm the shifter sucks…
And some don´t understand why the world thinks Americans are stupid.
Doesn’t include Park? There’s a P at the top of that shifter…
I get how people could become confused especially if it returns to the middle but is this an issue of confusing gearbox or simple minded people?
My mother has a GC from this time with the auto and 3.6 and she hasn’t had a rollaway ever…
As a valet, I hopped into many and parked them in tiny spots very quickly before running upstairs for more cars and I’ve never done/seen it.