2018 Jeep Cherokee
This year drew an ordinary 681 complaints for a Jeep Cherokee — the model's median is 1,325. What they were about is the unusual part: 36.3% of them mention service shifter, against 2.3% 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 | 681 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 1,325 |
| Involving a crash | 11 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 7 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 23 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- service shifter — 36.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the model's other years (15.4×).
- lights shifter — 7.2% of this year's complaints, against 0.2% across the model's other years (29.2×).
- shifter light — 13.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.7% across the model's other years (4.9×). Owners wrote it as: shifter light, light comes.
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 light comes on intermittently. Have noticed a “catch” that occurs at times when accelerating when the light is on but not every time.
SERVICE SHIFTER WARNING LIGHT COMES ON AT THE DASH WHEN DRIVING.ALL INDICATOR LIGHTS ON SHIFTER LIGHT UP. PULLED OVER AND TURNED CAR OFF AND BACK ON AND IT WAS GONE.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V282000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 18V494000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 18V332000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 17V543000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 18V524000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 17V670000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 25V011000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
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 2018 Jeep Cherokee? What happened to yours?
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