Like everyone else, I was shocked when I heard about Anton Yelchin being killed in a "freak accident" in which his car rolled back and crushed him against an iron gate. It seemed bizarre. How does that happen?
Today I learned that the car was a Jeep Grand Cherokee -- just like mine -- and the light bulb came on, and suddenly it all made sense. I've been living with this vehicle for well over a year, and I'm painfully aware of how its shifter functions. It's an incredibly stupid design.
Basically you have a shifter stalk with PRND indicator lights on top of the knob. The knob doesn't move like a normal shifter. It's more like a two-way joystick that you nudge forward or backward to move the shift indicator in that direction, then the stick bounces back to its center position. Which means: the indicator light on top of the knob is your only way to tell what gear it actually ended up in -- unless the sun is shining into the cabin, in which case the light isn't really visible and you are left with no clue.
So, basically, to put it into park: Grab the shifter and nudge it forward two or three times, then shade the knob with your hand so you can see whether it actually went into park or not.
Looking at the photos of Anton's sloped driveway and the gate and brick columns there, the "freak accident" seems a lot less freaky and a lot more like an accident waiting to happen with this vehicle.
Today when I was backing out from the hardware store: I grabbed the shifter and nudged it back, then shaded it with my hand and saw it had jumped past R and landed on N. Then I had to jiggle-and-shade it a couple more times before it ended up in the gear I wanted. That's standard operating procedure for this wretched thing.
I've received the recall notices, but -- unfortunately -- that's all they are: notices. They're telling me that there's going to be a recall to fix it, someday, eventually, whenever they figure out how to fix it.
But what about the parking brake? Shouldn't Anton have had his parking brake on? Well. . . Obviously I can't speak for him, but I've practically given up using mine. The parking brake indicator is minimal and easy to overlook, with the result that several times I've found myself driving around town with the brake on, burning up the brakes, and didn't even know it. After a while it's easier to just not use the damned thing.
And I find myself wondering. . . What in the world were they thinking at FCA when they designed this piece of garbage? I mean, what was the process that led to this weird design, and how did it ever get approved for production? What were they trying to accomplish? I have no idea. It couldn't have saved them any money, even. You'd thing they've been in business long enough by now to figure out how do make a shifter, wouldn't you?
BY COMPARISON, my Tesla Roadster has a push-button shifter that is utterly foolproof, and a hand brake right next to it that is impossible to overlook. It's mind-boggling that a startup car company with their first model can come up with something so functional, while a company with the size, history and experience of FCA is putting out a design that makes no sense whatsoever, and is dangerous too.
Today I learned that the car was a Jeep Grand Cherokee -- just like mine -- and the light bulb came on, and suddenly it all made sense. I've been living with this vehicle for well over a year, and I'm painfully aware of how its shifter functions. It's an incredibly stupid design.
Basically you have a shifter stalk with PRND indicator lights on top of the knob. The knob doesn't move like a normal shifter. It's more like a two-way joystick that you nudge forward or backward to move the shift indicator in that direction, then the stick bounces back to its center position. Which means: the indicator light on top of the knob is your only way to tell what gear it actually ended up in -- unless the sun is shining into the cabin, in which case the light isn't really visible and you are left with no clue.
So, basically, to put it into park: Grab the shifter and nudge it forward two or three times, then shade the knob with your hand so you can see whether it actually went into park or not.
Looking at the photos of Anton's sloped driveway and the gate and brick columns there, the "freak accident" seems a lot less freaky and a lot more like an accident waiting to happen with this vehicle.
Today when I was backing out from the hardware store: I grabbed the shifter and nudged it back, then shaded it with my hand and saw it had jumped past R and landed on N. Then I had to jiggle-and-shade it a couple more times before it ended up in the gear I wanted. That's standard operating procedure for this wretched thing.
I've received the recall notices, but -- unfortunately -- that's all they are: notices. They're telling me that there's going to be a recall to fix it, someday, eventually, whenever they figure out how to fix it.
But what about the parking brake? Shouldn't Anton have had his parking brake on? Well. . . Obviously I can't speak for him, but I've practically given up using mine. The parking brake indicator is minimal and easy to overlook, with the result that several times I've found myself driving around town with the brake on, burning up the brakes, and didn't even know it. After a while it's easier to just not use the damned thing.
And I find myself wondering. . . What in the world were they thinking at FCA when they designed this piece of garbage? I mean, what was the process that led to this weird design, and how did it ever get approved for production? What were they trying to accomplish? I have no idea. It couldn't have saved them any money, even. You'd thing they've been in business long enough by now to figure out how do make a shifter, wouldn't you?
BY COMPARISON, my Tesla Roadster has a push-button shifter that is utterly foolproof, and a hand brake right next to it that is impossible to overlook. It's mind-boggling that a startup car company with their first model can come up with something so functional, while a company with the size, history and experience of FCA is putting out a design that makes no sense whatsoever, and is dangerous too.
