Defective shift assembly, locks the car into park and cannot shift at all. Can't drive the car. Has to be towed to dealer and pay to fix a defective part that apparently, many 2008 Dodge Avenger owners have had problems with. The dealer is saying that since our warranty "just" ran out it will be at least $350 to fix. I understand that the part cost.75 cents. What our are rights!!!!!

- Newport News, VA, USA

2008 Dodge Avenger will not shift out of park. After investigation, the spring that connects the shift lock and the brake has broken off. This has caused me not to be able to drive my car. It has been stuck in the driveway for about six weeks.

- Virginia Beach, VA, USA

A spring on the shifter assembly broke/melted and now the whole shifter assembly has to be replaced.

- Tulsa, OK, USA

Defective shift assembly, locks the car into park and cannot shift at all. Can't drive the car. Has to be towed to dealer and pay to fix a defective part that apparently, many 2008 Dodge Avenger owners have had problems with.

- Denton , TX, USA

My car is stuck in park and will not move gears. I have researched on this and came to find out there are numerous of other customers with the same complaint.

- San Antonio, TX, USA

Drove my car to work without any problems. It sat in the parking lot all day (10am - 5pm) then when I went to leave the car wouldn't shift out of park.

- Arnold, MO, USA

2008 Dodge Avenger - car working perfectly before. Parked and left at 5pm went out to do errands at 7pm and car would not disengage from park. Dodge dealership called and will be fixed.

- Bozeman, MT, USA

I have a 2008 Dodge Avenger R/T and yesterday I went out to my car to leave work and it would not come out of park. I googled the issue and found out that others, just like I, have had a piece in the shifter assembly break. Unfortunately my warranty ended 3 months ago and I had to pay for this part out of pocket. The part I am replacing the broken part with is going to be exactly the same. I am certain I will have to replace this part again within a few years, if not sooner. This is a manufacturing defect and should not have to be fixed at the owners expense. Nor should my family or the many others have to settle with sub par parts because daimler Chrysler wants to save a couple of bucks by assembling cheap parts. My car is currently sitting in my driveway waiting to be repaired. Thankfully I have a second vehicle and am able to get to work, however my wife and daughter must sit at home until I am home for work due to this issue. I really hope a recall happens soon.

- Hinesville, GA, USA

2008 Dodge Avenger is stuck in park, will not shift out of park.

- Lakeland, FL, USA

Bought my car in March of 2009 it's a Dodge Avenger 2008, I have never had any problems with this car. As of 7/21/10 I get in the car with my children to go to the store and find that the shifter will not go out of park reason is there is a pink plastic piece under the gear shift plate that the spring flew off somewhere and the cable is not catching anything to let the car go in reverse. There has been three other people that I know plus I found a website that unfortunately alot of people that have the same car are having the same issue. This is ridiculous that there has not been a recall on this problem when the piece cost $40 but the dealership wants to charge $400 I am a single mother of two children and can't afford to pay for this. I have no other car.

- Columbus , OH, USA

It happened after the car was parked for 2 days. I went to start it up, and it wouldn't come out of park. After running a diagnostic test there were no errors found. I google searched the problem and found this link: www.carcomplaints.com/Dodge/Avenger/2008/transmission/transmission_stuck_in_park.shtml in there were similar issues people expressed anguish over. I read one post talking about a pink plastic part that had been the whole issue. Sure enough, I went to my car and located the piece and did as others said, and my car was able to move out of park. I have not contacted a dealership about this yet, but knowing Chrysler they probably won't offer this as a recall/warranty part.

- Irving, TX, USA

2008 Dodge Avenger's gear shift will stop working for no known reason. No warning is given when this happens. In order to get the car to shift into gear, on must completely disassemble the console to find the 'magical pink switch'. one you pull the pink switch the gear shift will move to reverse. The dealership is charging approximately $300 for the repair.

- Decatur, GA, USA

Drove the 2008 Avenger last night (Thursday 7/15/2010), parked in the driveway. Started the car today (7/16/2010) and car will not come out of park. Stuck here till Monday and have to have car towed to Dodge dealer. Goggled problem, and found 155 exact complaints.

- Lexington Park, MD, USA

I have 2008 Dodge Avenger and the automatic gear shift stick lock up in the park position. The override button under the cup holder failed to work also. I read on the internet that this has happened frequently with this vehicle model. My car was still under warranty but I still had to pay a $50 contract charge. The company said that they had theseparts in stock because they have received several complaints about the same problem with the 2008 Dodge Avengers. This is an awful feeling when you get somewhere and your vehicle locks in the park position and no one has an answer.

- Chatham, VA, USA

On Saturday 07/10/10 I had driven my car and did some shopping that I needed to do. On Sunday 07/11/10 I was planning to go grocery shopping. I got in my car started the engine and tried to put the car in reverse to get out of my garage. The car would not go into reverse it was stuck in park. After several minutes of trying to get the gear shift to move out of park I gave up and went into the house. On Monday 07/12/10 I had to call a tow truck to come and pick up my car and tow it to the dealership because the car was still stuck in park. When the tow truck driver got to my house he informed me that I was the 3rd Dodge Avenger in the last week that he had to tow to a garage because the gear shift was stuck in park. When I went to pick up my car at the dealership I was talking to the mechanic and he informed me that he had two other Dodge cars in the shop that he was working on that had the same problem as mine. One was a Dodge Avenger and the other was a Dodge magnum. He said that in the last couple of months his shop has been repairing more and more Dodge vehicles with the same problem, gear shift stuck in park. He stated that there were at least 12 - 15 cars in the last month that they had to fix. I feel that someone needs to look into this of why so many Dodge cars gear shifts are getting stuck in park and that Dodge needs to possibly do a recall of this product. I have only had my car 6 months and I feel that this should not have happened.

- Redding, CA, USA

On my wife's 2008 Dodge Avenger, the gear shift module is stuck in park. Doing research online, this appears to be a very common problem for 2008 Dodge Avengers (and other Chrysler models), and a recall to fix this issue is definitely needed.

- Milton, FL, USA

I left work today, get in my car, and try to leave, I can't!! why"!?! because the car will not go out of park, no warnings to lead up to this happening. It was such an inconvenience. I had to leave my car in an area overnight that I was not comfortable with. What a pain!! no recalls and a lot of money out of a single hard working man's income. I have not even had the car two years. Due to my miles the warranty will not cover the repair. I'm going to have to get my car towed back to the dealership and am stranded and inconvenienced. I have a 2008 Dodge Avenger 4cyl. What the [xxx], Dodge?" the entire shift assembly has to be replaced! information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

- Eight Mile , AL, USA

The contact owns a 2008 Dodge Avenger. When the contact attempted to drive the vehicle, he was unable to shift out of the park gear. The vehicle was towed to an authorized dealer. The failure and current mileages were 61,927.

- Lennox, MI, USA

I own a 2008 Dodge Avenger and everything has been sooo great until two weeks ago I started my car and when I tried to shift into reverse it would not budge. After searching the problem on the internet I found a temporary solution, the use of a butter knife to move the hot pink lever under shifter which inturn releases gear from park. So in order to drive my vehicle I must use the butter knife to release from park...........everytime!! I contacted my local Dodge dealer and they stated they had not seen any problems like I explained. I ordered(from the dealership) a shift assembly which is $50 + tax. (I knew what part I needed from a post from this site) and now my car is at the dealership getting "fixed" and labor is due to run me $114 +.!!! I ask that Dodge be required to recall this particular part and reimburse those who have had to have it fixed.

- Morganton, NC, USA

My wife, my mother-in-law, and I all drove my car on Friday with no issues. The next time I tried to drive my car on Saturday, I could not shift my car out of park. My car is a 2008 Dodge Avenger. We tried several times, making sure the steering wheel wasn't locked, the brakes were pressed when attempting to move out of park, checked the transmission fluid and checked anything else we thought might cause the issue. After all that failed, I researched a little online and found a forum on customercomplaint.com where several owners of the same vehicle type had the same issue. Apparently there is a very small, pink plastic hook in the shifting assembly that allows the shifter to move out of park. Not surprisingly considering how small it is, this hook breaks, preventing the car from shifting. On the forum, multiple people complained that the dealerships were telling them this wasn't covered on warranty. My warranty was up, so I used a suggestion from the forum to use a compression spring to hold the pink assembly in place once the hook breaks. Not an ideal fix, but it works and only cost me a couple of dollars for the spring instead of the 100-300 dollars involved in towing and having the dealership look at it that others on that forum went through.

- Mckinney, TX, USA