Be Careful Driving These Cars!

For those of you who own a 2009-2010 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup and/or a 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee, listen and listen good!

The 2009-10 Dodge Ram 1500 has a problem where the variable-speed gears in the rear end will stop turning (mostly at highway speeds), causing the rear wheels to lock up.  Several people have complained to NHTSA about the rear wheels locking up while on the highway and their truck spinning out.  Of course, NHTSA started investigating, and found out that there is a small software glitch that tells the gears to stop spinning.  This means that up to 230,000 Ram 1500 pickups will be recalled.  The closest dealer will fix the truck for free!

With the amazing new Jeep Grand Cherokee, everything seemed fine until somebody called Jeep to tell them that a fire had just occurred.  Jeep, not expecting something like that, called NHTSA almost immediately.  NHTSA found out that the power-steering fluid hoses can leak onto the hot engine, which could start a fire!  If you take your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee (with any engine) to your local dealer, it will be fixed with heavy-duty hoses.

Not only is this bad for Mopar’s reputation, but it could also cause (hopefully) false concern about the rest of the product line that SRT, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, and Ram sell.  Let’s hope that the problems are limited to these two vehicles.  If you want any more information, you can go to:  http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/defect/results.cfm for the Grand Cherokee, or http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/defect/results.cfm for the Ram 1500