Chrysler rejects feds’ recall request for 2.7 million Jeeps over fire-prone fuel tanks

In a rare move, Chrysler today rejected a request by U.S. auto safety officials to recall 2.7 million Jeep Grand Cherokees and Liberty SUVs to fix fuel tanks that federal officials linked to 51 deaths, but which Chrysler called "safe and ... not defective."

The face-off sets up a little-used process by which the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration could take Chrysler to court and order it to fix the SUVs. The agency acted after four years of pushing by auto safety advocates, who first complained that Chrysler put lives at risk when it sold the 1993-2004 Grand Cherokee and 2002-2007 Liberty SUVs with plastic gas tanks built behind the rear axle, leaving them exposed to damage in a crash.

Automakers almost always launch recalls of their own initiative or after a NHTSA investigation shows the agency believes a safety defect exists to avoid a legal and public relations hit. The few times an automaker has resisted a recall request over the past two decades — as Ford did in 2011 when the agency found air bags in 1.5 million F-150 trucks were defective — the automaker has eventually given into NHTSA.

But Chrysler said NHTSA's conclusions were incorrect, that the agency's reading of the data was flawed and that the Jeeps met all applicable safety standards.

"The company does not agree with NHTSA’s conclusions and does not intend to recall the vehicles cited in the investigation," the company said in a statement.

The debate dates to 2009, when the Center for Auto Safety first asked NHTSA to probe fires in Jeep Grand Cherokees, noting that the SUV had been built with a gas tank between the bumper and rear axle. Since the infamous Ford Pinto, most automakers had redesigned their vehicles to move the fuel tanks ahead of the rear axle to better protect it from crashes. Because the Grand Cherokee's bumper rode higher than most cars, CAS also contended the fuel tank was even more exposed.