Rotary Shift Knobs Spark Another Rollaway Investigation

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

First, it was Fiat Chrysler Automobiles products with a tendency to roll away, even after owners placed them in park. Then, Ford decided to make sure vehicles with rotary shift knobs didn’t do the same thing, offering a “Return to Park” feature on the 2017 Fusion.

Two weeks ago, it was FCA’s turn again. The automaker found itself the focus of a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation after more reported rollaways, this time with rotary-shift Rams and Dodges.

Well, NHTSA now has Jaguar Land Rover in its crosshairs. Care to guess why?

According to Bloomberg, NHTSA opened a preliminary evaluation on December 16 after reports of rollaways with certain JLR models. The tentative probe covers the 2012-2014 Range Rover Evoque and 2013 Jaguar XF — a potential total of 39,000 vehicles.

Seven complaints landed on the agency’s doorstep, with owners claiming the vehicles rolled away after being placed in park. The parking brake had not been set on any of the vehicles. In one of the incidents, an owner was pinned against a garage wall. Four other people were injured by the opened door of a rolling vehicle.

Both models, like the Fusion and FCA vehicles, come equipped with a rotary dial gearshift. While preliminary evaluations are only meant to determine of a problem exists, if NHTSA does find a defect, a recall could be in order.

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Namesakeone Namesakeone on Jan 03, 2017

    I know I'm late to the party, but what was the problem with the conventional automatic shifter? Too much effort? Too much space? Not futuristic enough?

  • Hydromatic Hydromatic on Jan 04, 2017

    The rotary shift dial is an elegant piece of design, but I'm not surprise how it's gone down with inattentive drivers who are used to slamming their cars into Park with balky and bulky shift levers. Perhaps the best thing for FCA to do is simply emulate what Toyota and BMW do w/r/t their shifters -- automatic Park feature when you 1)open the door and 2)shut off the vehicle. If you need Neutral for some reason, hold down an override button. Automakers need to realize that some drivers desperately need someone to hold their hand through all of this stuff and act accordingly. In other words, assume drivers are complete morons and guide them accordingly.

    • Psarhjinian Psarhjinian on Jan 04, 2017

      "In other words, assume drivers are complete morons and guide them accordingly." Gated floor or console shifters did this already. You could make a very short gated shifter that took up only a little more room than a knob, and it was obvious what "state" the driveline was in. It would even work when the indicator (if there was one) was broken. This was a problem that we'd already solved and didn't need replacement with an inferior solution, regardless of the relative intelligence of the driver.

  • WallMeerkat WallMeerkat on Jan 04, 2017

    Moving from a manual to automatic gearboxed cars, it is force of habit to pull the handbrake (E-brake / parking brake / whatever you want to call it) when parking up. (Manual / stick would usually be left in neutral - at least before starting again, the handbrake prevents movement).

  • Carl0s Carl0s on Jan 04, 2017

    I don't know if JLR changed it on the 8spd xf (mines a 2014 which is when they gave the 8spd to the v8 cars, but I think the standard cars got the 8spd a year or two earlier), but I'm sure mine puts itself in park, and it might even automatically apply the parking brake. What I do not like though is that you can slam it into P by accident when clicking between D and R, especially if you sometimes use S, so the amount of rotating needed isn't always the same. There should be programming to prevent entry into P while moving. I've been inside a 6hp26 and a 5hp19 and that parking pin is only a little thing pushing into the output shaft drum or something and I worry it could shear off.

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