6 July 2001: The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a formal investigation into a possible transmission fault on Grand Cherokee cars after receiving nearly 50 complaints about the vehicle's automatic transmission slipping into reverse while parked with the engine running.

DaimlerChrysler will cooperate with the NHTSA investigation, but notes that there have been less than 50 complaints out of a vehicle population of over 1 million.

The investigation could lead to a recall, or a finding that that there is no transmission problem, which has officially been termed 'inadvertent rollaway in reverse'. It involves 1995 to 1999 Grand Cherokees.

The incidents have led to 32 crashes and 14 injuries, but no reported deaths. About 1.3 million of the SUVs are affected by the investigation. In one reported instance a motorist was pinned against a pickup truck by his Cherokee and in another a woman was knocked down and dragged along her driveway into the street. One of her legs was crushed. BB