Lawsuit Filed Against GM Over ‘Shift To Park’ Issue In Chevy Malibu, Blazer, Traverse And Volt
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A class-action lawsuit has been filed against General Motors over the commonly reported ‘Shift to Park’ issue that some of its vehicles experience, including the Chevy Malibu, Blazer, Traverse and Volt.
This class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan by three separate plaintiffs in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Maryland, Car Complaints reports. The suit alleges certain GM vehicles fail to detect when the gear selector has been shifted into Park, blocking the ability for the user to shut the vehicle off. Typically a ‘Shift to Park’ warning message will appear on the driver information center when this happens. The user can jiggle and or move the gear shifter in order to remedy the issue, although this technique does not always work.
The suit says GM is aware of this widespread issue but has not acted to properly fix affected vehicles. The automaker has issued several technical service bulletins to address similar problems in a range of vehicles, including the Chevy Malibu, Blazer, Bolt and Traverse, as well as the GMC Acadia. Some customers have also paid out of pocket for repairs, which included replacing the entire transmission drive unit as well as the transmission control assembly park switches.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received several reports from Chevy and GMC owners complaining they have experienced a similar problem with their vehicle. GM Authority did a quick perusal of the owner complaint section on the NHTSA website, which turned up several relevant complaints, including one from an owner who suggested GM issue a full recall for affected Chevy vehicles.
“Get ‘Shift to Park’ message when car is placed in park and turn off ignition,” the complaint read. “This seems to be a common error reported widely on 2016 through 2020 Chevrolet vehicles. I have even seen service bulletins mentioned. Why has Chevrolet not recalled this since it seems to be a weak switch used? This is not covered under the bumper-to-bumper warranty since I have 54,000 miles on a two-year-old car. This shouldn’t be failing after two years”
This isn’t the first time GM has been sued over the seemingly prevalent ‘Shift to Park’ problem. A band of GMC Acadia owners sued the automaker over the issue back in 2019 and two other similar lawsuits were filed in May and August of last year. We’ll provide an update on this latest legal proceeding when more information becomes available.
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Ive had it replaced on my 2018 Chevy Treverse twice already ,thank god it was still under warranty!! But how many more times is this gonna happen!!
My 2017 Malibu does this as well, shift into park. I have to giggle the shifter back and forth. I bought it brand new in May 2017 and it only has 18,890 miles on it. Took it in to the Dealership today for a different issue, I was driving down the road and it jerked real hard then engine light came on and loss of power. They said it is the power train control module. Luckily anything to do with the power train is still under warranty or it would cost me $1000.
I had the same issue with my 2016 Malibu earlier this year. It cost me 1100.00 to have it fixed.
I have a 2013 Chevy Malibu LTZ, that has the Shift to Park Issue. I used to be able to jiggle the shifter and it would occaisonally stop. Now I cannot get it to totally shut off, It just keeps dinging the message Shift To Park. So I just leave it. What else can I do? Today when I got to work, I could not shut it off after 2-3 minutes of tapping the shifter, backing up and going forward numerous times so I just left it. I came out 5 minutes later and it had not timed out, I had shut the radio off before I went into work and noticed the date defaulted to 12/26/2018 not sure what that was about. Will I end up with a dead battery if Information system stays on when I leave the car?
My 2014 Caddy does the same thing. The fix is to just press the shift lock out button on the shift knob and let it snap back once. Been doing this for years and it’s never failed me.
I have a feeling it’s not hardware but software instead. Just a guess. Seems to happen when I rush the proceedure of turning off the car and getting out?
Good luck.
I have a 2014 Caddilac ELR does exactly the same thing and I agree that it is not hardware but a software issue. Come on now GM get it together. A software fix is cheap for everyone.
I have a 2017 Chevy Volt that I’ve been getting this “Shift to Park” message for weeks. My car died three times. I took it to a Chevy dealer who said they fixed the issue lol. That’s a joke. Now it’s stuck in front of my sons house with no power steering and the same shift to park problem. I called the guy back at the dealership and he’s like well your car isn’t under warranty anymore, get it towed here and we will look at it.
LOL Load of BS it’s still under Voltech warranty and Shift to Park is covered under Voltech.
Here’s another complaint the screen for the radio all of the sudden run black I can’t tell what channels I am on. I went to an audio repair store I’ve gone to the dealership they tell me I could cost up to $1,500 its not a fuse. The audio repair store told me that the screen is cracked. The screen is not cracked there in there to make money. Something electrical has gone wrong on this 2014 Chevy Malibu. The dealer I bought it from Oakville Ontario won’t even guarantee the repair. They told me I did not buy the vehicle from there. I have the bill of sale I have the banking information. The finance which is through the bank could not believe it when I explained it to them that they told me I did not buy the car from that dealership. It’s time that government stepped in and stopped this crap that these dealers are doing. Ripping people off.
My 2018 chevy traverse is having the shift to park warning. It comes and goes. This should be a routine check for any chevy dealer since this problem keeps occurring in different models.
This is annoying especially when you can’t cut the engine off. 😒
This should be a recall
How can I join the lawsuit? I’ve had this problem for a while! It’s crazy and there should be a recall
I am having that same issue first it wouldn’t shift to park, and now it wont shift out of park. I have a 2017 Malibu.
Im having the same issue but now its stuck in park. 2017 Malibu- i need to be apart of this aswell.
When are they actually going to do something about this lawsuit? I am sick of having this issue with my 2017 Malibu that mind you only has 20,000 miles on it and this has been an ongoing issue.
Typical for gm to let its owners down like this. They just do not seem to care about certain product problems. We are a former gm family that moved on because of problems with a gm product.
my 2019 malibu started doing this at 12,000 miles. thankful under warrantee, and now this recall should take care of it.
I have a 2017 Malibu that has the same issue when I go to turn it off. “Shift to park” is displayed on the dash and I have to restart it and wiggle the shifter ( multiple times) to shut it off. I also have the key fob issue that is not detected when I try to start it. Once I finally get it started I can’t shut it off. 🤔
My 2017 Malibu was doing the same thing. Dealer installed a wiring harness and that worked for a while but problem returned. Now installed a switch. This one on my dime. As of now it’s working. BTW $28 part and 2 hrs labor.
I don’t why GM and every other car manufacturer for that matter just don’t use a standard gear selector like they did prior to all this “look at me my car is different and unique” garbage. For example I have a 2010 Chevy Equinox LTZ and I have never had this problem and I am also on my sixth GM vehicle… I owned a 1997 Lumina, 2001 Pontiac Grand Am, 2002 Camaro Z28, 1996 Chevy Blazer LS, 2010 Chevy Equinox LTZ, 2019 Buick Enclave… Never a shifter problem in any of these cars and they where all used cars at that. Just go back to making things simple there is no reason why a gear selector has to be over done!
I was disappointed yesterday Jan 10 2022 about my 2019 Malibu car. I couldn’t shut off my car as it thought I was not in park. There is a shift to park message shows in the screen when my car is already in park. I have noticed this message since last week. The milage is only 9222. Yesterday I went to GMC asap and they fixed it. I’m so thankful that the warranty of the car will be expired in March 2022.
My car started doing this as well “shift to park” when it’s already in park. This is a real concern as you can’t turn the car off. Nobody has extra $ to jst let their car run until it automatically shuts off. Huge concern!!