StandardShift.com

http://www.clickondetroit.com/automotiv ... lt-problem_

GM to recall over 1 million pickups to fix seat belt problem

FCA recalls 1.1 million sedans, SUVs with Euro-style shifters after injuries
The vehicles have automatic transmissions controlled by a monostable electronic shifter, similar to those in many high-end German sport sedans. A monostable shifter has just three positions: front, middle and back. The shifter rests in the middle, and the user cycles either up or down through park, reverse, neutral drive and low as desired.

FCA said the vehicles have “warning chimes and alert messages” if their driver-side doors are opened while the engine is running and the vehicle is in a gear other than park.

“However, investigation suggested these measures may be insufficient to deter some drivers from exiting their vehicles without selecting Park, so FCA US will enhance the warnings and transmission-shift strategy on these vehicles,” FCA said in a statement. “The enhancements will combine warnings with a transmission-shift strategy to automatically prevent a vehicle from moving, under certain circumstances, even if the driver fails to select Park.”
http://www.autonews.com/article/2016042 ... news-daily

Richie Knox • 20 hours ago
It's a damn shame Companies are held responsible because some people are too stupid to put their cars in park..I would love to see these fools try driving a 3 speed manual transmission. What is our nation coming to?

Other_Dr_Z Richie Knox • 20 hours ago
Be fair - those 3 speed manual transmissions were pretty obvious about signaling what gear they were in rather than springing back to neutral every time you put them in gear. It does seem absurd, though they should never have made it past initial testing in any case.

That is a horrible interface design. It's as if they said "How can we make sure people will screw up and leave it in drive while also adding some completely gratuitous complexity for no apparent reason?".

Yes, manufacturers seem to be more interested in being different than providing good user interface.

You also triggered memories of several frustrations from the last two weeks and may have the ear of someone who'd be receptive to constructive criticism.

I was given a Chrysler 200 as a rental car for my two-week business trip that culminated yesterday.

At its greatest potential, the rotary-knob shifter is an extremely marginal means of gear selection, with as little potential for tactile confirmation of the selection as the bump-shifter. In the implementation where the selected gear is denoted solely by a series of identical green LEDs adjacent to the knob in its position well towards the back of the center console, it is appalling, with visual confirmation requiring looking far to the right, far down, and drastically refocusing one's eyes from the road.

Compounding the problem was the HVAC fan speed control, also on the center console, in the same plane, fairly similar in diameter, and mere inches away, begging for unintended operation of either control (I never actuated one wrongly, but caught myself reaching for the wrong one once).

...And why was I concerned with what gear was selected while driving down the road? With no flappy paddles or +/- buttons, your choices are D or L, and the shift logic in neither seemed to have any rhyme or reason. I put a considerable amount of mileage on it in the mountains, and there were times that L put it at 2200 or so RPM and allowed it to try to run away on moderate downhill stretches, yet there were times that D put it at 3200 or so (with more gears to go) under neutral throttle on reasonably level ground and it just wailed away for no logical reason.

I had a 200 loaner that I took when I had training in The Middle of Nowhere, NY. The key to the 9 speed is simple: go fast. I got considerably better fuel economy at 85mph than a much more reasonable 70mph because it forced the transmission to stay in top gear rather than hunt between two or three nearly identical gears.

I think in another year or two the programming will finally have been worked out to take real-world driving under consideration. That said, every update we do to the transmission control module seems to help at least a bit.

watkins wrote:I had a 200 loaner that I took when I had training in The Middle of Nowhere, NY...

hey, don't refer to that area as that. you wanna see middle of nowhere ny, drive up toward binghampton and out west and such. now THAT's middle of AND nowhere, ny!! did you at least take a drive into the palisades when you were down there??

I'm pretty sure that Harriman is the middle of nowhere. If it wasn't right off 87 it probably wouldn't exist at all.

potownrob wrote:

watkins wrote:I had a 200 loaner that I took when I had training in The Middle of Nowhere, NY...

hey, don't refer to that area as that. you wanna see middle of nowhere ny, drive up toward binghampton and out west and such. now THAT's middle of AND nowhere, ny!! did you at least take a drive into the palisades when you were down there??

i have a friend in piffard. thats the definition of nowhere. i know two people in binghampton! One is the lady i get my beads from, the other works at the triple cities makerspace there

watkins wrote:I'm pretty sure that Harriman is the middle of nowhere. If it wasn't right off 87 it probably wouldn't exist at all.

i could maybe kind of agree with you, if it weren't within 20 miles of at least 2 cities/highly populated areas. it's also only 45 miles from NYC. not to mention that area is nothing like the real sticks further north and northwest of there (picture neverending farms and tractors). if you're from a big city area, then it will seem desolate, though.

The town literally only exists at all because there are two large shopping plazas there.

watkins wrote:The town literally only exists at all because there are two large shopping plazas there.

woodbury commons is probably the biggest shopping "plaza" i've ever seen. too bad it's infested with asian tourists.

Subaru recalls 48,500 Legacy and Outback models, urges owners to cease driving vehicles

Well, they ask that they don't drive these particular vehicles.

“The steering column in your vehicle may not have been manufactured to specification. An incorrect tool setting during the manufacturing process may have resulted in improper machining of one of the steering column shafts. If this condition exists, turning the steering wheel may have no effect on the direction of the wheels, increasing the risk of a crash.”

How about "Making a crash virtually inevitable"?

Read more: http://autoweek.com/article/car-news/su ... z48y1kehSf

Yikes. I wish they would provide some kind of identification information.

Here's the link from the article:
http://www.wtd65.service-campaign.com/

Here's the NHTSA link (not from the article):
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/Sea ... ids=16V292

Neither says how to know if yours is one of the affected cars.

theholycow wrote:Yikes. I wish they would provide some kind of identification information.

Here's the link from the article:
http://www.wtd65.service-campaign.com/

Here's the NHTSA link (not from the article):
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/Sea ... ids=16V292

Neither says how to know if yours is one of the affected cars.

When you get the note in your mailbox, you'll know it's your car that was recalled.

Sometimes, they don't know at all when the quality problem started. In those cases, the recall campaign is very broad, like "Every one built in the last 3 years". Other times, they have it pinned down to cars built "After Weird Bob got hired by our supplier until the day they had to let him go", and they have a smaller timeframe in mind. It can be that something shows up at high vehicle mileage that didn't happen on proving ground tests and they recall anything and everything built with that design since time immemorial.

Fiat recall

FCA is also recalling 80,474 Fiat 500s from the 2012-16 model years with manual transmissions globally to fix a glitch with the clutch release system.

FCA said an investigation found that clutch travel could “exceed design parameters,” which can ultimately restrict gear shifts and propulsion. FCA said 0.01 percent of the recalled population had damage.

The recall does not affect cars with turbocharged engines.

No injuries or accidents related to the problem have been reported.

FCA said 39,217 of the cars are in the U.S., while 7,834 are in Canada, 7,155 are in Mexico and 26,268 are elsewhere.

http://www.autonews.com/article/2016051 ... -fiat-500s