Currently reading: Fiat Chrysler to recall 1.1 million cars over fears of parking issue
4621 cars are owned by Britons; 41 owners in the US have been injured

Fiat Chrysler has announced that it will be recalling 1.1 million cars to modifying the parking brake system after 41 people have been injured.

The car maker says that owners are incorrectly assuming they’ve engaged Park in automatic models, only to then realise the car was still in fact free to roll.

FCA claims that the issue isn’t due to a technical fault, but rather due to drivers not correctly engaging Park. It says it is voluntarily recalling the cars in order to improve the notification lights so drivers can more clearly know when their car is in Park.

Affected cars include Dodge Chargers built between 2012 an 2014, Chrysler 300s from 2014 and 2015 and certain Jeep Grand Cherokees.

Jeep grand cherokee summit 14 0

811,586 of the 1.1 million cars are in the US, and close to 69,000 come from the surrounding countries of Canada and Mexico. Of the remaining quarter of a million cars, 4621 are in the UK.

Though no reports of injury or Park issues have been reported here, FCA says it will be voluntarily recalling the cars anyway to make the same improvements. It is thought that only Jeep Grand Cherokee owners will be affected in the UK.

The car maker will be issuing dealerships with the VIN numbers of eligible vehicles, in order for them to contact owners individually to arrange the fix.

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typos1 25 April 2016

Bit like the Audi unindented

Bit like the Audi unindented acceleration thing from the 80s - a recall for stupid consumers !
fatboyfat 25 April 2016

Not sure Autocar read this in any detail.

Nothing to so with the mechanical parking brake. For some reason in America there has been difficulty in them determining that if the P button is not illuminated then its not in park! In some cases they have managed to get out of a vehicle which was not in park and with the engine still running - this really is a recall to manage the stupid people!
Own a Grand Cherokee and while I am not keen on the shape of the shift the ability to move it into any of the selections has been no more difficult than on my 5 series.
Think this may be a recall I take my time responding to until I figure out what they will actually do to the vehicle.
Daniel Joseph 25 April 2016

@fatboyfat

I think you might be right: I drove a rented 2015 m/y 300C auto around New England for three weeks last September and didn't notice any issues in selecting Park. It did have a rotary gear selector, which wasn't quite as intuitive as a lever, but all you had to do was turn it anti-clockwise to the limit and, bingo, you were in Park, with an illuminated P immediately in front of the knob to confirm. You would really have to be a bit careless to get it wrong.
Cé hé sin 25 April 2016

Daniel Joseph

That's the new model which isn't being recalled. The issue is the previous type of gear lever.
Daniel Joseph 25 April 2016

@Cé hé sin

Ah, I understand. I guess it's one of those barmy American model year designations and I was actually driving a m/y 2016 car. (Incidentally, what does "Cé hé sin" mean? Is it "Who is he?". My Irish is very rusty these days, well nonexistent actually!)
Cé hé sin 25 April 2016

Recall

What they're going to do is change the software so that if you open the door with the engine running Park will be engaged automatically.