NHTSA Complaint #11440660 — 2021 CHRYSLER PACIFICA

This Chrysler Pacifica is only a few weeks old with around 1700 miles on it- I had only made our first car payment a few days prior. I tried to put my car in park in a long line of vehicles, and heard a clicking noise, followed by an immediate dinging with an error message. The vehicle told me "service trans." It would not allow me to park my vehicle. Shortly after this happened, the service engine light came on. There was absolutely no indication of anything being wrong with my BRAND NEW vehicle prior to this incident. I was able to drive the car home without error in the drive function, but shortly after arriving home, the car also starting dropping out of drive. Through all of this, I was not able to place my vehicle in park. I had no option but to drive my children in a vehicle that was consistently dropping out of drive and completely not able to park outside of using the parking brake. To me, this is the worst possible safety concern. This vehicle is BRAND NEW by all standards. We drove the vehicle straight to our dealership for servicing. The vehicle died on the lot before they were able to pull it into the service bay, as the car would not turn off until it was placed in park; which could not be achieved. The dealership claimed it was an alternator issue and has ordered a replacement part, which we are waiting on as I write this report. We were told that our dealership has seen similar issues in Chrysler Pacificas recently. It is absolutely a massive safety concern to me that this could affect the transmission in such a profound way, especially so soon after driving my vehicle off the lot.