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Chrysler recalling hundreds of thousands of Jeep Grand Cherokee and Commander SUVs

The public might associated ignition switch recalls with General Motors - and with good cause - but that's not the only automaker calling its vehicles back in to fix that sort of issue.
Last month we reported that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was investigating an array of Chrysler Group vehicles for electrical-related safety issues. The administration and Chrysler subsequently issued a recall for 700,000 Dodge Journey crossovers, Dodge Grand Caravan minivans and Chrysler Town & Country minivans. But while the Jeeps that were also under investigation were not covered in that recall, they are being addressed in a separate one now.
Although Chrysler reports that it is only aware of a single accident stemming from this issue, it is "committing now to conduct a recall out of an abundance of caution." The recall affects the 2006-2007 Jeep Commander and 2005-2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee, of which it reports there are 792,300 on the road: 649,900 in the United States, 28,800 in Canada, 12,800 in Mexico and a further 100,800 outside of North America.

Buy this instead of a Wrangler | 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk Review

In our first encounter with the 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk at Fiat Chrysler's Chelsea Proving Grounds, we saluted the new model's impressive on-road demeanor. In its off-road mode, however, we couldn't ignore the pre-production throttle calibration – it was super sharp and difficult to modulate with the precision needed to navigate obstacles. We were told then that Jeep's engineers were aware of the problem and were fixing it for production models. So we recently set off for Bundy Hill Off-Road Park in Jerome, Michigan, in a production-spec Grand Cherokee Trailhawk to check their work and get a better idea of the overall package. We can report that the Trailhawk's throttle has been fixed for production, landing it properly in Goldilocks territory. In the off-road Mud setting, the throttle is soft and easy to modulate. You can balance this rig with the gas pedal, reaching just past tip-in to steadily prod forward. But the gas pedal doesn't delay when you really need power. Move beyond the initial tip-in, and the engine responds quickly, which is a good thing, as a sluggish throttle is almost as dangerous off-road as one that's too sharp. Rock mode promises even more precise control over the throttle, although our lack of a spotter and a desire to avoid damaging the 700-mile-young Trailhawk kept us from hitting Bundy Hill's rockier sections. The wet, non-snowy weather meant we didn't properly test Snow or Sand mode. This test model was equipped with FCA's popular 3.6-liter V6, but like the rest of the Grand Cherokee range, more power is available from the 3.0-liter EcoDiesel V6 and the 5.7-liter Hemi V8. You don't need them – the 3.6-liter and eight-speed automatic are perfectly fine on the trails. Faced with an incline, the transmission holds its gear without complaint – you don't even need to switch into manual mode. Despite the 4,800-rpm torque peak, the V6's 260 pound-feet arrive early enough that you don't need to strong-arm the throttle. So that's resolution for the pre-production issue. But our time at Bundy Hill exposed a different and ultimately much easier to fix problem for the production model. Late fall in Michigan is not always a good time to go off-road – sub-40-degree temperatures and a steady, depressing drizzle can turn a relatively simple trail into a slippery mess of wet clay. Conditions like these can easily overwhelm an on-road tire like the Goodyear All-Terrain Adventures the Trailhawk uses.

The Apple of the auto industry isn't Tesla, it's Jeep

Whenever Apple is going to have a new product for sale in its stores, the fanboys line up in such great numbers that it's surprising Ticketmaster hasn't figured out a way to capitalize on the multitude of anxious buyers with credit cards ready to go. When Elon Musk talks about a new car being added to the lineup, there is an analogous group of people, and Musk has cleverly set up a model in which people place deposits for their place in line. The number of deposits (two per customer only, it should be noted) for the Model 3 is some 400,000. Because Tesla is a Silicon Valley company that has a highly desirable, highly designed suite of products for which there is demand the likes of which is completely uncharacteristic for the category, it is often compared to Apple. After all, has anyone gotten into line to buy a Windows phone? Do you even remember the Zune? So it must be that Tesla is like Apple. But there is one nontrivial problem with this comparison: Apple sells its products in mass quantity. Tesla, even though it just had its best quarter ever, delivering a record 25,418 vehicles - up 69 percent over the first quarter of 2016 - is still, when compared to the car industry in general, selling a specialized product. No, the automotive brand most like Apple is Jeep. Just as with Apple's quickly identified design language - either for the physical phones and computers or the interfaces for same - there is no mistaking a Jeep. Like Apple's legion of fans, there are people for whom a Jeep is not merely a form of transportation, but a statement about one's way of life. Like the companies that wish they could have designs that are Apple-like and do their utmost to have a similar objects or appearances (sometimes landing them in court, a la Samsung), is there a single automotive company that wouldn't like to have some of Jeep's magic? While there aren't people who are lined up outside of dealerships when a new Jeep goes on sale, there is probably more interest in the forthcoming Wrangler than in the accumulation of interest in a half-dozen other vehicles from other companies. And like Apple, Jeep is a comparative volume play. Last year FCA US LLC delivered 926,376 Jeeps. Walter P. Chrysler and the Dodge Brothers must be spinning at high velocity in their graves, because the U.S. total for Chrysler brand was 231,972, and Dodge was 506,858. The sum of the two - 738,830 - is well shy of Jeep's sales. On a global basis, Jeep sold some 1.4 million units in 2016.