Chrysler Pacifica Owners Say Minivans Suddenly Shut Off
One owner, Adam Cohen, a lawyer in Leesburg, Va., said he
and an advocacy group, the Center for Auto Safety, will file a petition with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Monday calling on the agency to open a formal investigation of the stalling issue in Pacificas and to order a recall.
In 2015, the highway safety agency found that the automaker had failed to promptly notify vehicle owners of recalls
and delayed initiating repairs of defective models in 23 recalls covering 11 million vehicles.
“I understand you have to find the source of the problem before you can fix it,
but there’s still a safety issue here,” Mr. Cohen said in an interview.
The company “routinely monitors the performance of its vehicles using information from multiple data
streams,” including formal complaints filed with regulators, Fiat Chrysler said in a statement.
Since the beginning of this year, more than 50 Pacifica owners have filed complaints with
federal safety regulators about their vehicles suddenly losing power on the road.
Both Mr. Cohen and Mr. Patel have left their Pacificas with their dealers
and have declined to take the cars back until the stalling issue is cleared up.
Mr. Patel, whose Pacifica had 308 miles on it when it shut down on the highway,
is trying to get his dealer or Fiat Chrysler to buy back the minivan from him