On July 4th, 2018, I was out showing homes to prospective clients in my 2017 Lincoln MKC. We had made several stops and starts during the day. Prior to the accident (ROLL OFF OF A PARKED VEHICLE) described below, I had turned on the vehicle after it had been parked with the motor off for approximately 15 minutes. When I started the vehicle, the SYNC system went through a restart, killing the engine and turning off the dashboard panels. We were on a completely level surface.
Thinking nothing of it, we went to our next stop. We got out, walked in to the home and returned about 15 minutes later. We were on a slight hill, with the elevation lower in front of the vehicle. The grade was about 10%-15% over 100 feet. My clients wanted water out of the back and I opened the hatch to let them get drinks out. Their 14 year old daughter climbed in the rear seat. I started the vehicle and opened the door to help them find a soda at the bottom of the cooler. The hatch was still open and everyone saw that I did not touch the panel to take the transmission out of Park.
I stepped outside the vehicle, which had been running for 10-15 seconds. The driver's door was fully open and I was completely planted on the ground beside the vehicle with both feet on the ground. The vehicle was in park. The hatch was open and my clients could clearly see through the vehicle, both to know that I was not inside and to know that I did not touch the push button transmission. The vehicle started rolling down the hill. I jumped in, but nothing worked. I couldn't activate the emergency brake nor use the brakes to stop the rolling vehicle. It stopped rolling only when it collided against a parked truck approximately 50 feet in front of where I had been parked.
When my MKC came to a stop, the engine was off. We fully believe that the recycle of the SYNC system caused an intermittent malfunction of the electrical system, causing the brakes, steering and pushbutton transmission to become non-operable. This resulted in damage of $8568.30 to my MKS and of $1512.53 to the parked truck. My clients, terrified that they could have been run over if the incline had been in the other direction and that their daughter was in a vehicle which hit hard enough to cause $9,000 in damage, were in shock.
I immediately took it to the Lincoln Dealer in Murray, KY (Parker Ford Lincoln Mercury) to have the safety of the vehicle assessed. I also contacted Lincoln Concierge. They opened an investigation and told me the results would depend on the Lemon Law for Tennessee. After review, I was told that I did not qualify for assistance since the Lemon Law requirement was 2 incidents or dealer replication of the incident. Essentially, I have to wait until I kill or seriously injure someone to get relief.
Since this is an intermittent incident, which I feel sure is related to an intermittent electrical system recycle, this cannot be replicated in a dealer garage. Even if it happened, it would be on a level surface and would not roll.
I have driven the vehicle for an additional 7 months and 8,819 miles. The current mileage is 27,474. During that time, the vehicle has started and then gone through an electrical recycle which caused the engine to turn off at least 5 times. Two of those times were in my work parking lot on a flat surface. Two of those times were on a slight incline. One was in a parking lot, where the vehicle ran over a concrete curb. Tonight, it happened in my driveway and ran up onto my front porch, which has a step up of about 6 inches. The incline is not steep and that was enough to stop it. Thankfully, that is the case, since my son was in the bedroom that is right behind the window, about 7 feet away from where the vehicle stopped.
I called Lincoln Concierge about 5 weeks ago to report the 2nd incident involving the concrete curb. They told me that they could do nothing until the problem was recreated in a garage. It won't be recreated. It has been driven for 7 months and an additional 8,819 miles since the first incident and has been started at least 500 times.
I understand that Lincoln, like all automobile manufacturers, is mostly concerned with their bottom line. They do not want to acknowledge this problem, just as they didn't want to acknowledge other roll offs until injury events have brought notice to this.
I want this to be on record that if this happens again, and I or someone else is injured or killed, Lincoln has been made well aware of this problem on repeated occasions.
I wish this were as simple as me trading the vehicle, but because of the nearly $9,000 claim, as well as the introduction of a new body style in 2019, I would lose over $22,000 by trading in a low mileage vehicle.
I hope that someone can bring this to the attention of Lincoln before someone else loses their life because of a vehicle roll-off. It will happen to me or someone else.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
On July 4th, 2018, I was out showing homes to prospective clients in my 2017 Lincoln MKC. We had made several stops and starts during the day. Prior to the accident (ROLL OFF OF A PARKED VEHICLE) described below, I had turned on the vehicle after it had been parked with the motor off for approximately 15 minutes. When I started the vehicle, the SYNC system went through a restart, killing the engine and turning off the dashboard panels. We were on a completely level surface.
Thinking nothing of it, we went to our next stop. We got out, walked in to the home and returned about 15 minutes later. We were on a slight hill, with the elevation lower in front of the vehicle. The grade was about 10%-15% over 100 feet. My clients wanted water out of the back and I opened the hatch to let them get drinks out. Their 14 year old daughter climbed in the rear seat. I started the vehicle and opened the door to help them find a soda at the bottom of the cooler. The hatch was still open and everyone saw that I did not touch the panel to take the transmission out of Park.
I stepped outside the vehicle, which had been running for 10-15 seconds. The driver's door was fully open and I was completely planted on the ground beside the vehicle with both feet on the ground. The vehicle was in park. The hatch was open and my clients could clearly see through the vehicle, both to know that I was not inside and to know that I did not touch the push button transmission. The vehicle started rolling down the hill. I jumped in, but nothing worked. I couldn't activate the emergency brake nor use the brakes to stop the rolling vehicle. It stopped rolling only when it collided against a parked truck approximately 50 feet in front of where I had been parked.
When my MKC came to a stop, the engine was off. We fully believe that the recycle of the SYNC system caused an intermittent malfunction of the electrical system, causing the brakes, steering and pushbutton transmission to become non-operable. This resulted in damage of $8568.30 to my MKS and of $1512.53 to the parked truck. My clients, terrified that they could have been run over if the incline had been in the other direction and that their daughter was in a vehicle which hit hard enough to cause $9,000 in damage, were in shock.
I immediately took it to the Lincoln Dealer in Murray, KY (Parker Ford Lincoln Mercury) to have the safety of the vehicle assessed. I also contacted Lincoln Concierge. They opened an investigation and told me the results would depend on the Lemon Law for Tennessee. After review, I was told that I did not qualify for assistance since the Lemon Law requirement was 2 incidents or dealer replication of the incident. Essentially, I have to wait until I kill or seriously injure someone to get relief.
Since this is an intermittent incident, which I feel sure is related to an intermittent electrical system recycle, this cannot be replicated in a dealer garage. Even if it happened, it would be on a level surface and would not roll.
I have driven the vehicle for an additional 7 months and 8,819 miles. The current mileage is 27,474. During that time, the vehicle has started and then gone through an electrical recycle which caused the engine to turn off at least 5 times. Two of those times were in my work parking lot on a flat surface. Two of those times were on a slight incline. One was in a parking lot, where the vehicle ran over a concrete curb. Tonight, it happened in my driveway and ran up onto my front porch, which has a step up of about 6 inches. The incline is not steep and that was enough to stop it. Thankfully, that is the case, since my son was in the bedroom that is right behind the window, about 7 feet away from where the vehicle stopped.
I called Lincoln Concierge about 5 weeks ago to report the 2nd incident involving the concrete curb. They told me that they could do nothing until the problem was recreated in a garage. It won't be recreated. It has been driven for 7 months and an additional 8,819 miles since the first incident and has been started at least 500 times.
I understand that Lincoln, like all automobile manufacturers, is mostly concerned with their bottom line. They do not want to acknowledge this problem, just as they didn't want to acknowledge other roll offs until injury events have brought notice to this.
I want this to be on record that if this happens again, and I or someone else is injured or killed, Lincoln has been made well aware of this problem on repeated occasions.
I wish this were as simple as me trading the vehicle, but because of the nearly $9,000 claim, as well as the introduction of a new body style in 2019, I would lose over $22,000 by trading in a low mileage vehicle.
I hope that someone can bring this to the attention of Lincoln before someone else loses their life because of a vehicle roll-off. It will happen to me or someone else.
- Brenda H., Nolensville, US