2021 GC L came to DEAD STOP

[Stocktontanya]

Last night, my BRAND NEW car (Jeep Grand Cherokee L Limited) tried to kill me. Driving down 1187 going 40 miles an hour, it came to a DEAD STOP, put itself in park and would not crank or start back up. All I could hear in the panic was screeching tires from cars trying not to hit me. The seatbelt also did not stop me and I was thrown into the steering wheel. My car has less than 900 miles on it. After a panic attack of EPIC proportions and a sleepless night, I immediately drove it to the dealership today and of course they can find NOTHING wrong with it. They are going to keep it a few days to double check a few things, but to say I will no longer be able to drive this car without SEVERE anxiety is an understatement. It has less than 1000 miles on it and I haven't even made my first payment. Trading it in, I will automatically lose $3100. If I don't trade it in, I don't think I would ever be able to get over the anxiety of driving it. Talk about a lose/lose situation. All I could think about is if I had been going faster and there had been more traffic, I could have KILLED someone including myself.
Thank you to the kind salesman who, when I pulled up this morning, said "I love your car" and I proceeded to break down crying and hand him the keys and say you can keep it. He was so helpful in calming me and getting it checked out right away.
Has anyone ever had this happen to them in ANY car ever?!
I've owned it 21 days exactly. I can't lemon law because it's the first time this has happened, but honestly I am not sure I want to take the chance of it happening two more times to activate the Lemon Law (as I understand it).

 

[Sarge]

Talk to a lemon law lawyer. One serious instance like this might be 'enough' depending on your state laws. Also, if would be extremely helpful if you have any corroborating evidence like bystanders, nearby traffic or security cameras, or your own video of this (dash cam, or you making a video of it at least once it came to a stop. Without any proof, it's hard to win. If I were you, I would immediately buy a front/rear facing dash cam and leave it running 24/7 (they usually keep recording over prior recordings unless they sense a crash, so make sure to lock/save the video if there is another event.)

Good luck. I don't know if I would ever drive it again if I were you. On the other hand, I've had lots of weird 'one time' electrical failings that can't be duplicated. It's like these cars are possessed. Mine has also repeatedly refused to move, with the auto-brake emergency brake activating for no discernible reason, but it's always been at a stop when that's happened to me.

You can try turning off all the 'auto brake' and 'emergency braking' features in the car as well, but then you're not getting the benefit of your bargain either. Good luck. Please do report back if you have any updates, in case this happens to others.

 

[eleceng1979]

Surprise, surprise…. Welcome to the GCL yellow and brown pants club. What I can tell you is mine has done it multiple times and there is nothing you can shut off to prevent it, I have tried. It’s not real funny as you defensively drive from the rear view mirror in traffic. The vehicle is doing it due to false detection of vehicles in my case, when no vehicles are present. It is a system malfunction, not an incorrect feature setting. I would not hard wire install a dash cam as we are taking about electrical malfunctions of the Jeep. Any customer modifications could be grounds for losing a lawsuit after your vehicle harms someone. They make ones with 12V plugs for the power/cig lighter sockets. FCA could try to argue that any alterations would void the warranty and be a reason for the malfunction. We all know that to be BS, but with millions or more dollars on the line, they will do anything. Their legal team is laughable at what they have already tried to use against us owners.

@JeepCares you listening yet? My offer still stands, which lawsuit do you want? I can smell class action from here. FCA/Jeeps ignorance claim is out the window as this issue was reported here, to your corporate folks, the NHTSA, my dealership, and my lawyer. I reported all of this on 11/22/2021. The words plausible deniability do not apply. If I was @JeepCares, I would get off the sidelines and call someone about 3 pay grades above you to warn them of the incoming legal cases. See you in court.

See here to jog your selective amnesia.

Jeep Cares - Please read - Which lawsuit do you want? - "L" Owners better lawyer up - I smell class action

April 2021 L Summit Reserve order, 8/21/2021 Receive/signed date. Currently sitting at 3050 ish miles, 3 dealer visits totaling roughly 2 weeks due to a lengthy list of issues with zero repairs made. I have described my open issues below. My problem is, I have a vehicle that is unsafe to...

wljeepforum.com

I am sorry this has happened to you. Jeep was told. Not my fault they are incompetent and intend to cause harm to vehicle owners. If you have no intentions of suing Jeep, then trade/sell it for the $3K loss. You will easily be over that in legal fees.

 

[Stocktontanya]

Surprise, surprise…. Welcome to the GCL yellow and brown pants club. What I can tell you is mine has done it multiple times and there is nothing you can shut off to prevent it, I have tried. It’s not real funny as you defensively drive from the rear view mirror in traffic. The vehicle is doing it due to false detection of vehicles in my case, when no vehicles are present. It is a system malfunction, not an incorrect feature setting. I would not hard wire install a dash cam as we are taking about electrical malfunctions of the Jeep. Any customer modifications could be grounds for losing a lawsuit after your vehicle harms someone. They make ones with 12V plugs for the power/cig lighter sockets. FCA could try to argue that any alterations would void the warranty and be a reason for the malfunction. We all know that to be BS, but with millions or more dollars on the line, they will do anything. Their legal team is laughable at what they have already tried to use against us owners.

@JeepCares you listening yet? My offer still stands, which lawsuit do you want? I can smell class action from here. FCA/Jeeps ignorance claim is out the window as this issue was reported here, to your corporate folks, the NHTSA, my dealership, and my lawyer. I reported all of this on 11/22/2021. The words plausible deniability do not apply. If I was @JeepCares, I would get off the sidelines and call someone about 3 pay grades above you to warn them of the incoming legal cases. See you in court.

See here to jog your selective amnesia.

Jeep Cares - Please read - Which lawsuit do you want? - "L" Owners better lawyer up - I smell class action

April 2021 L Summit Reserve order, 8/21/2021 Receive/signed date. Currently sitting at 3050 ish miles, 3 dealer visits totaling roughly 2 weeks due to a lengthy list of issues with zero repairs made. I have described my open issues below. My problem is, I have a vehicle that is unsafe to...

wljeepforum.com

I am sorry this has happened to you. Jeep was told. Not my fault they are incompetent and intend to cause harm to vehicle owners. If you have no intentions of suing Jeep, then trade/sell it for the $3K loss. You will easily be over that in legal fees.

If you want to add my name to the list of people for a class action, I'm in. I cannot, in good faith, drive this vehicle knowing it could harm me or GOD FORBID another unsuspecting driver. I opened a case with the NHTSA and I will call Chrysler first thing on Monday. I have a few people who have contacted me with the same issues living in my area in Texas. One of them has a number of a lawyer I am calling on Monday.
Thank you for all your information. I plan on passing this on to anyone who will listen. I haven't even paid a payment. I've owned it for 21 DAYS. It's unacceptable. I've known several people who've owned Jeeps in the past with ZERO issues. I don't know when they became so unreliable and problematic.

 

[Megiddo62]

Sounds like a emergency recall... has Jeep done anything with this?

 

[hamada128]

The safety features on this jeep is a joke. None of the rear or front auto braking works on my overland when it's supposed to do so.

 

[Wlinse]

Your jeep tried to kill you? Comical. No, it didnt.

A sensor malfunctioned or a set of inputs was calculated by your Jeeps computer which resulted in the action. Nothing more.

It's definitely an issue and I hope you work it out, but there's thousands of other L models out there whom have not experienced this issue.

 

[Wlinse]

The safety features on this jeep is a joke. None of the rear or front auto braking works on my overland when it's supposed to do so.

If you put a stroller behind your Overland and idle into it, It'll stop.

 

[hamada128]

If you put a stroller behind your Overland and idle into it, It'll stop.

It does not. I used to have Durango with the same system and I can tell the difference when backing up in my drive way.

 

[eleceng1979]

Your jeep tried to kill you? Comical. No, it didnt.

A sensor malfunctioned or a set of inputs was calculated by your Jeeps computer which resulted in the action. Nothing more.

It's definitely an issue and I hope you work it out, but there's thousands of other L models out there whom have not experienced this issue.

So a malfunction of the vehicles safety system while in traffic at highway speeds, stopping completely, locking the vehicle in park isn’t attempted murder? If I threaten a person with deadly force via words it is, but this isn’t?

You do realize we are not talking about the automatic braking, avoidance systems. The OP and myself have experienced a full on stop for zero reason. My occurrence happened at the same time my power steering failed, ABS malfunction lights came on and my headlights were flashing/strobing. This is not normal “I’m a stupid driver following too close” behavior. This is a vehicle slamming on the brakes with full force for zero reasons, in traffic, locking out the transmission.

Maybe you should review what the terms “fail safe programming” mean. In order to have such safety systems given autonomous abilities, they are programmed to fail in a safe manner to prevent catastrophic failure. Hence the auto braking event when the subsystems fail.

I find displeasure with your insensitive attitude regarding failures and events you have not experienced. You even go as far to justify it with your rationale. Where was this attitude and doubt of my truth in November? I know, You was not registered or an owner then. I wouldn’t stop doing business as a supplier with FCA, spend thousands in litigation, and lose all future discounts over a lie. I need to prove nothing to you, I plan on doing that with my suit. I wish you safe travels.

You do realize grand wagoneers have rear ends and transfer cases locking up? Can you imagine a full rear end lockup at highway speeds? Is that not serious by your standards? This is all worse than ford explorers and Firestone tires by far

 

[Sarge]

This is deadly serious. It cannot be understated.

I've had mine show 'forward collision system off' warnings while driving down the road. I've had mine lock the brakes on while at an intersection for no discernible reason. Fortunately all I did was piss off everyone at the light behind me as I struggled to get the car to move (I ultimately had to cycle the ignition on and off completely and it finally started moving again). It did that another time while I was loading luggage at a hotel, also trying the patience of all the people behind me while I again struggled to figure out how to make it move, and another time while it was parked in a garage. It just unilaterally locks the brakes and won't allow the vehicle to move, even if in gear. It now feels like just a matter of time before it tries to come to an abrupt halt on a mountain pass or a two lane road on a blind corner and someone gets killed. Unbelievable. If nothing else, they need to disable this system on all vehicles until they figure it out, but of course they're doing nothing about it.

It seems to me we need to be filing reports with the NHTSA and probably creating a website as well to warn potential buyers and owners of these problems.

 

[ScoWeazy]

I had an issue where the jeep shut off a couple times at low speeds and demanded to be put into park and wouldn't move until the ignition was cycled. I had the dealer do all the available software updates and it hasn't done it since and that was 3-4k miles ago. I also turn off the auto braking and use warning only. I think I have the sensitivity on that that turned down as well. Ironically, the safety features seem to cause the most problems so I try to minimize their use without turning the off completely. Since the updates and tweaking it a bit, I've been loving my GCL.

 

[Trailrated]

If you want to add my name to the list of people for a class action, I'm in. I cannot, in good faith, drive this vehicle knowing it could harm me or GOD FORBID another unsuspecting driver. I opened a case with the NHTSA and I will call Chrysler first thing on Monday. I have a few people who have contacted me with the same issues living in my area in Texas. One of them has a number of a lawyer I am calling on Monday.
Thank you for all your information. I plan on passing this on to anyone who will listen. I haven't even paid a payment. I've owned it for 21 DAYS. It's unacceptable. I've known several people who've owned Jeeps in the past with ZERO issues. I don't know when they became so unreliable and problematic.

Don't even waste your time talking to Jeep. Seriously.

I opened several cases with them, its a complete waste of time. They could care less and are so incompetent its mind-blowing.

The only expectation you should have is that you are documenting the issue with them directly for legal purposes. note your case number upfront, time to not resolve, attempts made to contact. etc.

 

[Wlinse]

So a malfunction of the vehicles safety system while in traffic at highway speeds, stopping completely, locking the vehicle in park isn’t attempted murder? If I threaten a person with deadly force via words it is, but this isn’t?

You're free to feel however you want, but the histrionics is tiresome. As I said before; the vehicle is not trying to kill you.

And your example in the quoted sentence above is beyond stupid and makes zero sense.

Your profile signature states you are dedicating all your free time to making Jeep look bad on the internet so carry on with that, I guess.

 

[JGC3]

Don't even waste your time talking to Jeep. Seriously.

I opened several cases with them, its a complete waste of time. They could care less and are so incompetent its mind-blowing.

The only expectation you should have is that you are documenting the issue with them directly for legal purposes. note your case number upfront, time to not resolve, attempts made to contact. etc.

I've also called them several times, and it was a waste of time. No help at all and no returned call as promised. @JeepCares

 

[Sarge]

They must be completely overwhelmed by the number of problems people are experiencing with this car, and I hear the Wagoneer is even worse. Who knows about the rest of their lineup. They would probably have to file for bankruptcy if they staffed up to manage all of this in a professional, responsive manner.

 

[FlyingAvocado]

I can't help but wonder if the "key fob" issue is somehow the cause of @Stocktontanya sudden breaking on the road, especially since they reported being unable to restart the vehicle when it happened. This description of the defective part leads me to believe it could be the case:

• Brake Transmission Shift Interlock System (For Automatic Transmission Vehicles Only) – The RFHM contains the controlling logic for the Brake Transmission Shift Interlock (BTSI) solenoid. The RFHM monitors the key position from the Ignition Node Module (IGNM) received over a private serial bus, hard wires brake input, as well as inputs, received over the CAN data bus to perform the BTSI solenoid control functions.

@Stocktontanya if you've been working with the NTSB on this issue, you might want to point out this recent "customer satisfaction campaign" as it may need to be classified as a safety recall.

Tagging @JeepCares because the RFHM issue needs to be looked into as a real possibility of a much more serious issue than just bricked parked vehicles.

 

[JWCJeep]

This post along with the Forward Collision thread and a few others, made my decision the other day very easy after owning my GCL for less 72 hours and having the so Called “No Start” situation happen, to reverse my sale and return the car.
I wish all the new GCL owners the best of luck.

 

[eleceng1979]

You don’t stop sales due to vehicles not starting. They have been selling GCL’s knowingly that were killing batteries due to faulty modules. I think all adults realize there is always a spin on any headlines. The person above linking this module to the braking inputs, keys and transmission interlock did a stellar job laying the real truth upon us. Anyone find irony with this thread starting and this stop sale order? I bet the stop sale order is just more histrionics.

The person who reversed their sale just made the smartest decision of their life.

@Stocktontanya , seeing how you are beyond an easy return, I would contact an attorney. Seeing how you are in/near a large metropolitan area, you probably have many to choose from. You have standing and a slam dunk case if your vehicle is affected, obviously complete due diligence to see if your vin is impacted. This would extend far beyond vehicle cost.

 

[Sarge]

Mine has repeatedly said 'forward collision system disabled', and then it comes on again usually after a restart. Other times, when stopped, it has applied the parking brakes or what feels like 'all the brakes' and refuses to move, with the engine running, the transmission in gear, seatbelt on, etc. When that happens, I have to completely cycle the ignition to get it to move.

At first I thought it was a safety system and I wasn't doing things right or something, but it's more than that.