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Grand Cherokee probed
July 4, 2001: 12:42 p.m. ET

Officials investigate popular SUV for possible gearshift defect
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The Jeep Grand Cherokee is being investigated for a possible defect that may cause the sport/utility vehicle to jump into reverse, reportedly when the gearshift is in the "park" position.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has received about 48 complaints of what it terms "inadvertent rollaway in reverse" involving 1995 to 1999 Grand Cherokees, a Chrysler spokesman told CNNfn Wednesday.

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1999 Grand Cherokee Laredo (Source:DaimlerChrysler)
The incidents, first reported in Wednesday's Los Angeles Times, have caused 32 crashes and 14 injuries, but no deaths have been reported, the newspaper's report said.

"We felt there was sufficient cause to opening an investigation [after getting complaints from] private individuals," NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson told CNN.

Tyson said these problems are similar to a problem with the Dodge Dakota. Eventually those problems led to a probe that led to a recall of 123,000 1991 and 1992 Dakotas last year, because NHTSA found that the light duty pickup trucks equipped with A500 automatic transmission could be inadvertently placed in reverse when the driver believed that the transmission has been placed in park. The Dodge Dakota is also a DaimlerChrysler vehicle.

But it's too early to determine whether the preliminary federal probe of about 1.3 million of DaimlerChrysler's (DCX: Research, Estimates) popular SUV could lead to a recall, Chrysler spokesman Mike Aberlich said.

The investigation is at a very preliminary stage and Chrysler is cooperating, Aberlich told CNNfn by telephone.

"Investigations like this open every day. I'm not trying to minimize it, just trying to put in to context," Aberlich said. He said if the preliminary evaluation confirms there is a problem, then an engineering analysis would take place before there was any recall. He noted the reports of the problems were generated by an attorney who has brought a case against Jeep and Chrysler.

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NHTSA's Tyson also said this was the "first step in a defect investigation."

"We will be seeking additional information from the manufacturer before we go any further," Tyson added.

The Jeep Grand Cherokee is by far DaimlerChrysler's most successful SUV. Through the first six months of the year the company has sold 107,531 of the vehicles in the United States, making it the nation's second most popular SUV after the Ford Explorer.

But those sales are off 18.8 percent from the first six months of last year. That's an even steeper drop than the 14.7 percent decline in sales seen by the Jeep Cherokee, an older SUV model that Jeep announced plans to discontinue in January.

According to Hudson, Mass.-based Autodata, a research firm, the Grand Cherokee has seen its share of the SUV/sports wagon market fall to 5.7 percent from 7.7 percent in the year earlier period in the face of new models and new competition in the segment.

DaimlerChrysler (FDCX) shares fell nearly 1 percent in Frankfurt Wednesday. Its U.S. shares fell 17 cents to $47.08 Tuesday. U.S. markets are closed Wednesday due to the holiday. graphic

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.