NHTSA Complaint #11524060 — 2018 JEEP CHEROKEE

Please note we are religious about vehicle care, maintenance and safety. What I describe was not due to lack of maintenance and had zero warning. In early April, we were driving our Jeep on State Route 69 in Arizona and from one moment to the next went from completely normal to engine heating, smoking and alerts telling us to turn off the vehicle immediately while we were driving 50 mph with no where to pull off. We were fortunate to be close to our local Costo in Prescott and coasted into the parking lot. We quickly learned we had no engine coolant but didn't understand why since we bring our Jeep in for routine oil changes, fluid, tire and brake checks. The following week our Jeep was towed to our mechanic who discovered the coolant hose had a hole in it caused by the friction created by it laying against the air filter. This was the original design of this vehicle and should have been recalled because there is no way of knowing you have a problem until something is about to explode. We are very fortunate the engine did not blow up and cause an accident as it very well could have. Because we thought Jeep had a good reputation, we reported this to them with photos of the damage, the repair bill, the sequence of events, our mechanics contact information if they wanted to talk to him, etc.. but they did not care and are not willing to assist. Our mechanic also shared that when he called the local Jeep dealer in our area, that they had these coolant hoses well stocked as if they know it's a problem yet they don't bother to recall these vehicles because of it. We speculate any accident involving the same design where the engine exploded or caught fire, is because of this problem, and Jeep needs to do something about it. We for one would like to be reimbursed for this ridiculous repair. We have to other very old vehicles (GMC w 270k miles and a Ford w over 400k miles), never have we had to replace the engine coolant hose.