Now would be a good time to hit pause that Jeep Renegade purchase. According to Automotive News, Fiat-Chrysler is holding hundreds of the baby Jeeps captive behind a fence—it’s OK, they have plenty of fluids—due to undisclosed “software problems.”
-CEO Sergio Marchionne told AN the problem was similar to what delayed the 2014 Cherokee‘s launch. While Fiat-Chrysler says it’s not related to the ZF 9HP nine-speed transmission, given Marchionne’s comments—a man who is not afraid to tell it like it is—we’re not so sure. There have already been official complaints registered via NHTSA about this transmission from two Renegade owners, who have only had the cars since mid-March at the earliest. There are also more than 150 transmission complaints lodged from 2014 and 2015 Cherokee owners, ranging from jerky shifting, stuck gears, front-axle vibration, surging, stalling, and transmission-warning lights. (Head here for more details on these problems.)
-In February, Fiat-Chrysler released the third software update for Cherokee and Chrysler 200 transmissions while replacing approximately a dozen of them per week. Owners say that despite the software updates, their problems continue. The nine-speed auto is also available on the Range Rover Evoque and Acura TLX, with similar owner complaints logged for both cars.
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- ZF 9-speed Automatic Problems Mount, Chrysler Releases Third Software Update
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- Ratios Galore: A Deep Look at ZF’s 9-speed Automatic
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- Instrumented Test: 2015 Jeep Renegade Limited 4×4
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“I’m having a very bad engineering day,” Marchionne told AN. “It’s a combination of attributes of that vehicle that is making my life horrible.” So far, Fiat-Chrysler has not officially recalled the Renegade or Cherokee for powertrain problems, only for a cruise-control software update.
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via Agya
