NHTSA And Chrysler Reach Jeep Recall Compromise

Jeep and the NHTSA have reached an agreement of sorts regarding their stand-off over a safety issue that the federal regulator has identified with certain model years of the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Jeep Liberty.  The problem had to do with the position of each vehicle's fuel tank, which is behind the rear axle and which the NHTSA blames for a statistically higher-than-average number of fire-related deaths in rear-end collisions involving these vehicles.

The NHTSA asked Chrysler, Jeep's parent corporation, to recall 2.7 million Grand Cherokees and Liberties (built between 1993 and 2004, and 2002 and 2007, respectively), in order to deal with the issue.  Jeep refused, claiming that the Agency had not pointed to any specific problem with the SUVs and was merely interpreting crash data.

The resolution to this disagreement has been two fold.  First, there is Chrysler's issuance of a voluntary service action regarding Grand Cherokee models built between 1999 and 2004, which will be inspected to see if a trailer hitch has been installed.  Aftermarket trailer hitches have been shown to increase the risk of a fire in case of a collision, and any that are found will be replaced with Jeep-branded units.  Grand Cherokees with no trailer hitches will not be serviced whatsoever.  This affects an estimated 1.2 million vehicles in total.

The remaining 1.56 million 1993-1998 Grand Cherokees and 2002-2007 Liberties will be recalled in order to install a protective shield around the gas tank that should have roughly the same mitigating effect on the fire danger posed by the SUVs.

Chrysler continues to publicly disagree with the NHTSA's assessment that either of its sport-utility vehicles are unsafe.