It's an automatic and the shift lever moves, but when I shift to neutral it stays in park. The starter had been dragging for about a month. Saturday night my girlfriend was going to take it to work. It wouldn't start. It wouldn't do anything. Turn the key and the lights in the dash come on like normal, turn the key to start the engine and nothing. No sounds, no drains, just silence. I was asleep. When I woke up the next morning she told me it didn't start the night before. I assumed the starter had died. I put in a new starter in it. It didn't help. Still nothing when you turn the key. The suv was in the way of the garage door closing so I pushed further into the garage and closed the door. About an hour later I wanted to see if the dash lights dimmed when I tried to start it, so I went out to turn the key. It fired up. It ran perfect.
The next day we took it grocery shopping. When we got home and shut it off, the button that opens the back hatch didn't work. I told Val to start it up. Nothing happened. I have another vehicle for her to drive to work. I wanted to get it in the garage, so I decide to push this one out of the way. I put it in neutral and pushed it. It's still in park. Val came outside and jerked on the shift lever while trying to start it no luck but the rear hatch button started working then stopped after I opened the glass and closed it. At first I was thinking ignition switch, but now I'm thinking maybe computer. I'm a below average shade tree mechanic. I need help. Please.

 

Maybe shift cable is stretched? First thing that came to mind when you said it was still showing park when it was on neutral

 

Would that cause it not to start. I'ts in park

 

So after I read the reply about the shift cable I went out to it and got under it while Val shifted it. The shift lever or cable or what ever wasn't putting it into park. I put the transmission into park by hand under the suv. It started right up and everything worked. I had Val go through the gears then go back to park. It didn't quite reach park. So how do I fix it?

 

Order a shift cable from rock auto, think it was about $80 when I did mine.

It's kinda a pain to change it, just cause you're crawling around under the dash. Think it might have taken me a couple hours.

It goes from the side of the transmission, up through a grommet in the driver side floor board, under the carpet, up the firewall, and attaches to some linkage in the steering column. Think there's some write ups here, and some YouTube videos I watched
Failry easy repair


Edit: I waited several months before I finally stopped being lazy and changed mine. I just started it in neutral, and my ignition cylinder is so wore out, I can slide the key out regardless of position. So I did that awhile, until neutral started to not always be neutral.

 

I was looking at my Chiltons manual and it talked about adjusting the shift cable. Do you think I might be able to adjust it instead of replacing it? Mine doesn't shift into neutral. It is going into drive I think. When I move it from drive to park, it comes up about 3/4 of an inch short. Every shift after that is off by about an inch or more or less.

 

You can try, don't think it'll hurt anything