NHTSA Complaint #11493070 — 2020 ALFA ROMEO STELVIO

When leaving to go to work, I pressed the button on the gear shift to put the car into reverse and then drive. I heard something click into the cupholders as I drove. It was the gear shift button. The plastic actuator button fell off completely. It would not fit back in. I think the plastic broke. I continued to drive to work, but when I got to work, I could not put the car into reverse. I was able to pull into a space, and put it in Park (which is a different button on top of the gear shift). When I returned to my car, it was impossible to move the car out of park. Manually putting the button back on, or taping it into position did not work. There was no override (I called the dealer to verify what I should do). Trying with my fingers to push the keypad inside did not work. I had to have the car towed to the dealer. The tow truck driver had difficulty also, as he could not put it into Neutral to avoid damage. There is a bolt on the transmission underneath to take it out of gear, but the dealer said that requires a special aftermarket tool, not provided with the vehicle. It was impossible to get the car out of park by trying to insert fingers or other objects into the hole where the button had been. This was literally a walk home scenario. With this plastic button broken - the car was stuck in a parking garage in park indefinitely. Only the tow truck driver's persistence of jamming different kinds of objects into the gear shift for over 35 min allowed him to finally be able to activate the switch with the button missing. It's at the dealer now, but I was basically stranded with no ways to override this and get the car in gear. This seems like a concern (and a fairly simple root cause to solve with a more robust button - or a minimum some kind of accessible alternative method to get out of park)