PJ Phillips, right, and his wife Carley Phillips, left, are taking Stellantis to court over a software error that halted their 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe in highway traffic.

A man in Monroe, Michigan has paid over $1,000 a month since May for a car that he cannot drive.

PJ Phillips, 34, said the 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe he bought to support his growing family — the couple recently had a baby — left his wife stranded on a highway in May when it "just turned off on her" while she was in the fast lane.

The family's vehicle has spent months in the shop, leading them to file a lawsuit against Jeep's parent company, Stellantis.

Phillips and his wife are not the only drivers of hybrid Jeep Grand Cherokees to face issues related to a sudden loss of driving power. Currently, more than 91,000 Jeep Grand Cherokees equipped with 4xe technology are under recall for the issue. Earlier, in October 2024, the same vehicles were under a separate recall because they were at risk of spontaneously catching fire.

While the power loss recall was announced just last month, Phillips said his car lost power in May. Since then, Phillips said, he has been paying more than $1,000 a month in insurance and car payments while his vehicle sits on a dealership lot. In the meantime, Phillips was in arbitration — and now a lawsuit — with Jeep-parent Stellantis, a process Phillips described as "a nightmare."

"I've been trying since Day One to do this in good faith, like outside of the public legal system, but (Stellantis) has been stonewalling me every single time," Phillips said.

Hybrid Grand Cherokees losing power

Stellantis first formally identified the issue and filed a recall on Sept. 4 with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

According to the recall paperwork, Jeep Grand Cherokee plug-in hybrids from 2022-2026 model years may experience a software error within an internal piece of technology called a hybrid control processor. The error can lead to a sudden loss of drive power, as Phillips' wife experienced, and potentially lead to a crash.

The issue prompted a stop-sale notice to dealers from Stellantis, meaning dealerships cannot sell PHEV Grand Cherokees from the last five model years without remedying the issue first.

The remedy, according to Frank Matyok, a safety and manufacturing spokesperson at Stellantis, is ready — at least for some affected models. Grand Cherokees from 2022 to 2024 model years are ready to be fixed. For 2025 and 2026 Grand Cherokees, which are also subject to the recall, a fix should be available "in the coming weeks."

Among the more than 91,000 hybrid Grand Cherokees recalled, Stellantis and NHTSA estimated about 1% are affected by the issue.

Stellantis said 2022-2026 Plug-in Jeep Grand Cherokees are the only Stellantis cars affected by the sudden loss of power. Although the Wrangler 4xe has common hardware, it is a software communication error unique to the Grand Cherokees that is the root of the issue.

Still paying

According to Phillips, his family's Grand Cherokee went kaput as his wife was driving in May.

Between May and July, Phillips and Stellantis went through arbitration — a standard, private process under Michigan lemon law that occurs outside the usual court system. Phillips and the automaker went back and forth over the vehicle, with the arbitrator settling on a repurchase agreement that Phillips thought was unfair.

At the end of July, Phillips took the case to court, filing suit. A circuit court judge later vacated the arbitrator's ruling, saying the arbitrator overstepped her authority and ruled unfairly.

Meanwhile, Phillips' car has remained in the shop, and he has been forking over more than $1,000 a month on his car payment and insurance for a vehicle he cannot use. Missing a lease payment would hurt his credit score, and insurance is required, he said, in case the vehicle sustains damage while it's sitting at the dealership.

"We're paying $1,000 a month for a car that's out of our possession now," Phillips said, adding that he is currently driving the car he used in college, a 2012 Scion XB with 146,000 miles on it, and his wife is driving a 2010 Ford Edge with 200,000 miles.

"It's kind of a gut punch to a middle-class family, you know?" Phillips said.

“I just want fairness and safety for my family and others in the same situation,” said Phillips. In September, Phillips began communicating directly with a Jeep customer service representative. The representative told Phillips he could expect to hear from him, but text records reviewed by the Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, show the representative read Phillips' texts and stopped responding.

"He promised to get back to me and that they were gonna make this right," Phillips said. "But now they are ignoring me."

Stellantis told the Free Press that Phillips stopped getting texts back because he has an "open legal matter" against the company, in reference to the lawsuit he recently filed to settle arbitration and litigate claims of fraud.

Further communication, the company said, has to be done through lawyers, according to protocol.

Regarding Phillips' experience, Matyok said, "Stellantis is committed to providing a positive customer experience. ... We remain engaged and committed to working toward a resolution that is acceptable to all parties."

Stellantis technicians officially began a remedy on Phillips' car on Sept. 29, about five months after it first lost power on the highway and less than a month after the recall was initiated with NHTSA.

Despite a near-accident, a lawsuit and "frustrating" arbitration, Phillips said he would consider driving a Jeep again.

But as the days without the car add up and the car invoices keep coming in, Phillips said his faith in the brand is wavering.

"I’m from Toledo and I’ve always loved the Jeep brand," Phillips said. "But the way I’ve been treated in this situation has been really unfair, and it’ll be a while before I can give them another shot."

Liam Rappleye covers Stellantis and the UAW for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him: LRappleye@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Stellantis sued by family over Jeep Grand Cherokee hybrid failure

Reporting by Liam Rappleye, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press

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