2016 Jeep Cherokee
This year drew an ordinary 1,403 complaints for a Jeep Cherokee — the model's median is 681. What they were about is the unusual part: 26.6% of them mention shifter, against 10.2% across the model's other years.
Generation 1 of the Jeep Cherokee, which began in 2014. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 1,403 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 681 |
| Involving a crash | 36 |
| Involving a fire | 14 |
| Recalls | 9 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 23 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- shifter — 26.6% of this year's complaints, against 10.2% across the model's other years (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: shifter, service shifter, red, shifter light.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
SERVICE SHIFTER WARNING ON DASH WITH ALL RED LIGHTS NEXT TO ALL GEARS ON SHIFTER. AS SOON AS I PUT IN DRIVE, THE WARNING CAME ON AND ALL LIGHTS LIT UP. WILL NOT RESET BY RESTARTING THE VEHICLE.
WHILE DRIVING ON A RESIDENTIAL STREET, MY 2016 JEEP CHEROKEE LATITUDE WITH 45,196 MILES DISPLAYED THE "SERVICE SHIFTER" MESSAGE ON THE DASHBOARD. THE PRND SHIFTER LIGHTS WERE ALL LIT UP RED. PULLED OVER, PUT THE CAR IN PARK, RESTARTED THE VEHICLE AND THE MESSA…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V332000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 15V826000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 17V824000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 16V590000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V287000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 16V284000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 20V343000 POWER TRAIN
- 23V302000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 9. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Jeep Cherokee was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2016 Jeep Cherokee? What happened to yours?
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