Owners of the Grand Cherokee SUV have banded together to file a class action lawsuit against Jeep and parent company FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) due to a gear shifter that was the subject of an April 2015 recall and, most recently, played a part in the death of actor Anton Yelchin last week.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the suit was filed last Thursday at a federal court in California, accusing FCA of concealing the components usability problems and did not move swiftly enough to rectify the fault.
They allege that while the recall had been published, FCA did not do enough to make sure that the million-over units of vehicles sold with the confusing gear shifter were fixed, otherwise exposing owners and drivers to the possibility of exiting the vehicle after falsely placing the transmission in ‘park’ and risking the car rolling in an incline – the exact scenario that investigators point to as being the cause of the Yelchin’s death.
The problem, prior to this, had been linked to hundreds of complaints to American safety regulators and a total of 41 reported injuries, many of them leading to the April 2015 recall. This latest legal tussle puts further scrutiny onto FCA’s safety practices.
The California lawsuit seeks compensation for owners along with a court order to compel FCA to notify owners with to get as many cars under the Group with the gear shifter in question to have the recall fix applied.
In Australia, the affected cars include the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Chrysler 300, while in the US that list expands to cover the Dodge Charger as well.
The shifter that was fitted to these vehicles are electronic, returning to its original centred position after the driver engages park, neutral, reverse, or drive. But due to its lack of tactile feedback, drivers have to rely entirely on LEDs to confirm whether or not the gear had been engaged, and can easily be read falsely.
The fix that the recall would institute, that FCA said it began rolling out to dealers just last week, equips the transmission with new software to better alert the driver of a gear shift selection and will automatically engage park when the driver steps out of the vehicle.
