Complaint 1840816

Complaint Summary

STEERING

Owner Narrative

I was driving down the freeway at about 67 MPH when the message "Traction Control Disabled" came on my display & the car immediately went into "limp mode"! By some miracle I was able to muscle the car out of the slow lane, onto the shoulder as I lost my power steering once in limp mode. I waited a few minutes, car started up just fine, so I shrugged it off. Fast forward 1 week later & the same thing happened to me on my way home on a curvy mountain road. The power steering was again non-existent & luckily, there was no one behind me, nor did anyone come around the corner & hit my disabled car. Once again, it started up, no problem; however, this is when the harsh forward thrust started happening, & the transmission seemed to be slipping gears. The RPM's would rev to the 6000 range & immediately fall down to 1500. I took it to the dealer & sadly paid $3,400 for a new tranny on a 5-year-old car. (No warranty, of course). I started having the same issues about 2 years later, only this time the driver was not so lucky as they were mid-curve on the mountain road. Right as the roadway came out of the bend, the car went into limp mode, power steering lost & wheels stuck in a right turn position, car went off the roadway & into a telephone pole, broke that in half due to the angle of the pole in the mountainside & down the steep embankment about 40-50 feet. All airbags deployed & driver was able to walk away (hike away) but the car was a total loss. Driver was traveling 40-45 mph. There was no indication, no warning, just from travel to nothing.

Owner-submitted narrative on file with NHTSA. Complaint narratives are self-reported and have not been verified.