 Weak Grand Cherokee Roof Dangerous? |
An article on USAToday.com reports that stronger SUV roofs could have saved up to 200 lives in roll-over accidents in 2006.
Unfortunately, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the Jeep Grand Cherokee has one of the weakest roofs out there when looking at strength-to-weight ratio.
The institute estimates that people in SUVs with roofs as strong as the top-rated Nissan (NSANY) Xterra face up to 57% less risk of serious injury or death in a single-vehicle rollover than those in the 1999-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee or 1996-2004 Chevrolet Blazer. The 1996-2001 Ford (F) Explorer was also among the SUVs that the institute said had the weakest roofs.
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Chrysler, which owns the Jeep brand, notes that IIHS reported last year that the Grand Cherokee actually has a lower fatality rate in rollover crashes than the Xterra. But IIHS spokesman Russ Rader says Wednesday's report controlled for factors that influence the chance of a rollover so it could isolate the link between roof strength and injury risk.
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| RUBICON | Posted: 2008/3/12 9:50 Updated: 2008/3/12 9:50 |
Home away from home   Joined: 2005/7/13 From: Chandler, AZ Posts: 357 |
 Re: Weak Grand Cherokee Roof Dangerous?I rank the IIHS right up there with Consumer Reports (in other words, right next to supermarket tabloids).
Call me crazy, but I tend to trust NHTSA results over the IIHS. And what the heck is the purpose of studying vehicles that are no longer being produced (the Grand Cherokee tested was the WJ not the current WK)? Shouldn't these fools be concentrating on new models. Oh wait they probably did but then found that the US models did better than the foreign ones so they had to scrap those test results and go back to previous models. |
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| MarkH | Posted: 2008/3/12 7:35 Updated: 2008/3/12 7:43 |
Home away from home Joined: 2005/7/20 From: The Great White North Posts: 406 |
Re: Weak Grand Cherokee Roof Dangerous? So, If I've got this right...
1) IIHS is saying that WHEN you roll over, you're safer in an Xterra... 2) Jeep is saying that there are FEWER rollover occurrences in the GC and therefore a lower fatality rate. So, number 2) seems to be the most important stat. I thought the correct "normalizing" was calculated to equate "instances-per-ten-thousand-miles-driven" (or something like that) so you could compare apples to apples. Again, that would tend to support Jeep's claim. Otherwise IIHS could show stats that convertibles are the MOST dangerous WHEN you rollover... but the actual convertible fatality rate would prove much lower, since they flip over much less frequently than most SUVs... Figures lie and liars figure... Thanx for more useless & misleading information, IIHS.  |
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