IIHS Tests Raise Jeep Safety Concerns

The Jeep Wrangler is a different kind of vehicle. It’s not a grocery-getter crossover like the Honda Pilot or Chevy Equinox. However, it’s not entirely like the Ram 1500, Toyota Tacoma, or any trucks on the market. Looking at it as an oddball, it’s not entirely surprising to learn IIHS found it has a higher risk of tipping over than other vehicles.

According to the non-profit vehicle safety organization, when it did the driver-side small overlap front crash test the Wrangler simply tipped onto the passenger side. IIHS was able to replicate this result twice, meanwhile Fiat Chrysler in its own tests couldn’t.

Thanks to this unusual result, IIHS gave the Wrangler a marginal rating for the test. As the organization explained in a press release, rollovers can have serious consequences. It then went on to mention the removable doors and roof, major draws to the Jeep. That should be enough to cause anyone to stop and realize the throwback off-roader might put safety-focused people on edge.

Adding to the confusion of this outcome is the fact the previous generation of the Jeep Wrangler earned a good rating in the same test. Fiat Chrysler has questioned IIHS engineers’ methods of attaching the vehicle to the crash propulsion system. That’s when the organization did a second test using a different method with the same outcome.