2018 Nissan Leaf - Filed complaint today with NHTSA

[Don Q Tran]

2018 Nissan Leaf - Filed complaint today with NHTSA

ON my brand new 2018 Leaf, if from a Dead stop, either in Forward or Reverse, I open the Driver side door, the car will put itself into Park and lurch. I hear a loud clunk as the Parking mode engages all by itself.

I'm thinking WTF.

There are different reasons I can think of, but I might have to open the driver door to see if my tire is going to hit something or shoo away a neighbors cat, the CAR 5 Times now puts itself into park.

Even when you open the door to hang one feet out to park to make sure your in between the lines, it will CLUNK and put itself into park.

Lets say your drive and get car sick and need to puke, or your had food poisoning or too much to drink and need to puke, if you can't stop in time so you don't puke all over yourself in the car, guess what the car will put itself into Park mode a loud CLUNK will be heard and you and all your passengers will fly through the front windshield.

 

[Jack1024]

I''m confused why a 'clunk' is an issue?

Why would you open the door on a moving car under ANY circumstance? Wouldn't you rather the car attempt to stop, even if it causes damage to the car rather than have it run over and KILL you?

Somebody in the car has to puke? Wouldn't you rather clean up puke rather than them getting killed? If your passenger is going to puke, keep them out of the car. If you are going to puke, DON'T DRIVE.

If you need to see where the wheel of a car is, stop the car, get out, and look. Then move the car. The neighbor's cat will move.

This makes no sense at all. Other cars with electronic shifters behave similarly.

 

[Kenneth Bokor]

This obviously is intentional by Nissan. Did you try shifting to N then opening the door?

I don't see a problem. It's most likely because the "tranny" is computer controlled and a safety issue. I've forgotten to put the Leaf in P when stopped a couple of time and just turned the power off by pressing the power button. It automatically puts the car in P with that too.

 

[Pushmi-Pullyu]

...if you can't stop in time so you don't puke all over yourself in the car, guess what the car will put itself into Park mode a loud CLUNK will be heard and you and all your passengers will fly through the front windshield.

Can you actually document that the car will put itself into Park while it's still moving? I find it quite noticeable that despite your complaint, you don't actually make any claim to have observed that. We can hope that Nissan didn't design the Leaf that poorly!

Looks to me like the complaint you filed is just a nuisance complaint, which the NHTSA unfortunately has to waste all too much of its time sorting through.

A stopped car putting itself into Park when you open the door seems like an excellent safety feature, and doing so with a loud CLUNK to alert you to the fact seems like another.

Why are you trying to describe this as a bad thing?

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