My brother saw a 60 Minute program regarding the the famous actor getting crushed by his Jeep Grand Cherokee. The culprit seems to be the rotary shifter getting confused on whether the car is in Park. I thought I had seen something earlier in the year when I first purchased my Durango regarding this problem. Seems like this is legit. My Durango actually rolled/slide down my parents driveway this past weekend. My brother thought it was due to an icy driveway. I know I engaged my parking brake - since I always do it regardless of grade of surface. I can't believe the vehicle just slide down the driveway.

Here is a recent article:


http://autoweek.com/article/car-news...lowing-crashes

 

You can go here to check for recalls:

https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls#vehicle

 

The grand cherokee does not have the rotary shifter. Those gear shifts are a joy stick type where shifting it requires you to move it like a normal shifter, but it returns to the original position afterwards. Chrysler stopped using it because it is confusing due to the lack of physical feedback on which position it's in. You would pull it back to put it in drive, but the stick returns to middle after selection. But if you think that kind of shifter is confusing, BMW one is worse. But, BMW engages the parking brake if the door is opened no matter what gear it's in. That's what chrysler did in the recall to fix the issue.

As to your issue, it's not the same. Even the article you posted notes it's a different issue because the grand cherokee and durango use different shifters. The article also notes that there's no recall at this time. Did you read your own article?

And there's no way it would roll if the parking brake was engaged. It's not an electric parking brake on the durango, it's mechanical. Your durango was in neutral or reverse and no parking break. Human error.

 

Actually on the parking brake I'll say this - mine feels extremely weak. I stomp it pretty firmly and sometimes it simply fails to engage and pops right back up, and I have to stomp it 1-2 more times to get it to ratchet and engage. And even when engaged, if I forget to take it off, even shifting into drive and just idling is enough to roll like it's not there. Not sure if that's the POWAH OF THE HEMI or just a weak brake...but I had a Ram 1500 with the Hemi and same parking brake style and it didn't feel anywhere near as weak.

 

Here is an article with news on rotary shifter issues. This seems to be a different issue than the jeep stuff.

http://www.knoe.com/content/news/Gov...407618475.html

It's unclear to me if the allegation is that people are failing to put it in park, or if the documented roll aways were in park and rolled anyway.

I will say that I don't like the rotary **** and preferred the shifter on the earlier version, although the new transmission is worlds better. I have inadvertently spun the volume **** instead of the shifter. The thing works in my opinion, but really, look at the previous design vs the new. You didn't gain any storage or anything. I suspect it was just cheaper to manufacture.