SsangYong Korando: Automatic gearbox jerky shifts and sticking in one gear

The automatic in the Korando starts causing trouble unusually early — owners report problems from 60,000 to 80,000 km, particularly on cars from 2012 onward. It shows as jerky gear changes and, in the worse cases, the gearbox getting stuck in one gear and refusing to change. That is early enough that a car with reasonable mileage can already be affected, so the kilometres on the clock are not much reassurance here. The test that finds it is an ordinary one — drive the car through its whole gear range, cold and warm, in traffic and on a straight — but it has to actually be done, because a gearbox that jerks once in five minutes of gentle driving will feel fine on a short test drive.

• Jerky or harsh gear changes, particularly when cold
• Gearbox sticking in one gear and refusing to change
• Long pause before Drive or Reverse engages
• Slipping — revs rising without matching speed
• Transmission warning light, or the car dropping into a reduced mode

Drive it from cold and then again warm, because this gearbox behaves differently at each. From a standing start, pull away gently and count the changes as they come, feeling whether each is a clean push or a jolt hard enough to rock you in the seat. Then accelerate firmly to make it change late, and lift off to make it change down, noting anything harsh. Drive through some stop-start traffic and note whether it selects sensibly or hunts and snatches. From a standstill, move the selector from Park to Reverse and then to Drive, waiting for the car to take up drive each time — beyond about a second is worth noting. Accelerate once and watch the revs rise with the speed rather than flaring on their own. Watch for a transmission warning light throughout. Ask whether the transmission fluid has ever been changed and whether the gearbox has ever stuck or been repaired. If a workshop inspection is possible: have the transmission fault memory read before you agree a price.

$600 to $5,500 at New Zealand independent workshop rates. That is for this job on its own, not for the car.

An estimate, in NZD, for the repair as normally carried out. What a specific car costs depends on which part has failed and what it damaged on the way — treat this as the floor for a negotiation, not a quote.

• “Has the transmission fluid ever been changed, and at what mileage?”
• “Has the gearbox ever stuck in one gear or jerked badly?”
• “Has any transmission work ever been done?”

The failure described above is documented in published sources — owner forums, technical service bulletins, recall notices and workshop write-ups — held in our fault database. The inspection instructions and the cost estimate are KickTyres’ own interpretation of them, and it is a starting point for an inspection rather than a manufacturer statement.