Chrysler and NHTSA at odds over Jeep Grand Cherokee and Liberty recall request

Earlier this week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requested that Chrysler initiate a safety recall of the 1993-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee and 2002-2007 Jeep Liberty to address a performance and design defect. NHTSA is calling for Chrysler to improve the rear-crash protection in approximately 2.7 million vehicles. In a widely distributed press release, Chrysler gave a rare response and effectively said, "No."

Chrysler's position is that these vehicles are safe and not defective. NHTSA and safety advocates disagree.

Both Chrysler and NHTSA agree that the Jeeps in question met federal safety standards in place at the time. But that doesn't mean NHTSA, in its own words, can ignore deadly problems. (Search for recalls on your car.)

The NHTSA safety investigation into the Grand Cherokee was launched in 2010 in response to a petition by the Center for Auto Safety (CAS), one of the nation's oldest safety lobbying groups, after CAS shared analysis that found a higher rate of fatal fires in Grand Cherokees in the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) database than other comparable vehicles. In fact, CAS Executive Director Clarence Ditlow said there had been 10 times as many fire deaths in Grand Cherokees as in Ford Pintos, which were infamously recalled after 27 people died in fires following rear-end collisions.

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In its official correspondence with Chrysler released this week, NHTSA states that its Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) found that the Grand Cherokee and Liberty are "poor performers" relative to competing SUVs on the market at the same time, although its death rates per millions of registered vehicle years (MRVY) are not as dramatic as the CAS figures. The numbers get complicated, because they include both deaths attributable to rear-impact crashes and those that are caused by post-crash fires due to fuel leaks. In total, CAS estimates that there have been 246 fatal fire crashes with 350 deaths and at least 112 deaths due to fire. In covering this developing story in the past, we pointed out that Jeep Grand Cherokee fire investigation shows how accident statistics are open to interpretation. (That said, Safety Research & Strategies brings the numbers and tragic accounts to life.)

Chrysler disputes the higher number, maintaining that that their vehicles are as safe as comparable vehicles. The company states, "For the vast majority of the incidents cited by NHTSA, the crash force was far in excess of the rear crash fuel leak requirements in place at that time." Further, Chrysler claims that the NHTSA analysis does not consider all available data.