2014 Jeep Cherokee
Complaints about this year name transmission far more often than the model's other years — 40% of them, about 4× the usual rate of 10.2%.
First year of a new generation. The Jeep Cherokee was redesigned for 2014. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 2,639 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 681 |
| Involving a crash | 55 |
| Involving a fire | 16 |
| Recalls | 13 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- transmission — 39.6% of this year's complaints, against 11.1% across the model's other years (3.6×).
- software — 12.2% of this year's complaints, against 3.5% across the model's other years (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: software, update, updates, software update.
- shifting — 11.3% of this year's complaints, against 3.6% across the model's other years (3.1×).
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
Also unusual this year
- service transmission — 10% of complaints, 24× usual
- shift — 17% of complaints, 3× usual
- shifting — 11% of complaints, 4× usual
What owners wrote
JEEP ONLY HAS 31,000 MILES AND WE HAVE ALREADY HAD IT BACK TO THE DEALERSHIP SEVERAL TIME TO GET THE SERVICE TRANSMISSION PROBLEM FIX ONLY TO TAKE IT BACK A MONTH LATER FOR THE SAME PROBLEMS OF JUST STICKING IN A GEAR OR NOT GOING INTO ANY GEAR AT ALL AND HARD…
WHILE DRIVING ON THE INTERSTATE, THE LIGHTS FOR ELECTRIC STABILITY CONTROL, ENGINE AND PARK BRAKE CAME ON. THE "SERVICE TRANSMISSION" NOTICE AND "SERVICE PARK BRAKE" APPEARED. THEN THE VEHICLE WOULD NOT ACCELERATE AND WOULD GET TO 4 RPM WHILE GOING AT 50 MPH.…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V447000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 18V332000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 17V824000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 16V590000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V529000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 15V041000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V461000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 14V293000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 13. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Jeep Cherokee was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2014 Jeep Cherokee? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…