Transmission Failure problems of the 2006 GMC Envoy

Tl the contact owns a 2006 GMC Envoy. While accelerating from an intersection, the vehicle failed to accelerate. The contact managed to veer to the shoulder of the road. When the vehicle was turned off and restarted, it failed to resume normal operation. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic who diagnosed that the transmission failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer and manufacturer were not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 131,000.

Driver had just exited a parking lot onto a main road in the evening. The car was cold, had not been used since the morning. The car failed to take power after slowing down for a light that was red than changed to green. The car was on and in drive, but failed to go further. There was no warning whatsoever. The driver braked and stopped, nearly causing the car behind to rear end the GMC. GMC driver had put flashers on immediately. The car was put in park, turned off, than restarted. The GMC was put into drive, but again would only roll. The driver put the car into gear 3 on the auto trans, than 2. In gear 2, the car moved. The GMC was immediately moved back to its parking spot. A diagnostic shows the transmission has failed. Only 94,500 miles, and the gm transmission is dead. In looking on line at certain consumer data and speaking to local mechanics, all point to transmission failures on the gm SUV products, including Chevrolet trailblazer & GMC Envoy.

This morning, my wife was parking at one of our kid's schools when the transmission system failed to respond. She attempted to put the vehicle in park, but it would not initially. Once the shifter would move forward, the vehicle died, and continued to roll forward even though the shifter was positioned as if in park. She had the presence of mind to let it roll until striking the parking spot cement bumper. She removed the key from the ignition, then attempted to restart the vehicle with no success and the shifter button would not depress. She panicked because of loosing control of the vehicle with so many small kids around and called me. I left work, and upon arrival attempted to troubleshoot what caused the incident. I started at the shifter, so I loosened all the covers around it, in case there was something binding the shifter. I actually did find several small items that had fallen in the compartment through the front edge of the center console cover assembly. Removing these items still did not allow restarting of the vehicle. I then looked underneath the vehicle, and discovered that the linkage from the shifter to the transmission had separated. I manipulated the input lever at the transmission with my hand and noticed that it had movement in both directions, which meant the transmission was actually not in park. After positioning the input lever at the transmission to park, the vehicle did start. I shut the vehicle off and reconnected the separated linkage. I was shocked to see that the piece that maintains such an important linkage connected appears to be made from a plastic. To me this is a major issue that can cause someone to potentially have a vehicle stuck in a movement causing gear, and due to a linkage separtation have no way to properly turn the vehicle off (until it runs out of gas), to made from plastic. Please look into this.