NH-JK

Of course it's awful, the doors are protection from the "elements" not speeding hunks of steel!

Safety was never a concern with the wranglers till the soccer moms started buying them and a whole new demographic of people started to show interest. I'm sure when people were shopping for CJ YJ and TJs side impact crash ratings were never brought up! It's a jeep, an open body vehicle, it's not a Volvo. Damn soccer moms!

rickyj

I hope that you don't really think it is anywhere near a full 1/8" on those doors, or at least that you weren't relying on that idea to keep you comfy in there . They are close to paper thin, well ok paperboard thin. The only reason they feel solid at all is that there is a heavier piece of metal in there going diagonally. And those two parts are it. There is the window carriage that is plastic, then a plastic panel held in by clips and a few bolts - but you are pretty much exposed.

That said, I don't think that is much different than any other car. Every vehicle I have replaced a window on (mostly jeeps haha) is paper thin, only my Grandmas 80's era Buick was built up - but it was a poorer performing steel without a doubt.

The real issue with the Wrangler, and they say this on the site, is where your head goes - into the beam and/or seat belt bracket if you are sitting back - possibly out of the window if you are sitting forward. The rear passengers head would hit the soft top bar, or again out of the vehicle. Also the door opened. And THAT is what got it a poor rating. It doesn't have anything to do with the damage that the dummies actually received (they were fine) - it has to do with the fact that your head COULD end up outside of the vehicle and crushed up by the other car. Or, if unbelted that you could end up being ejected.

rickyj

Eh.

Wouldn't call myself a soccer mom, and I love this vehicle - but if it had the crash performance of a CJ then I would not have bought it. I don't fret every day about sharp corners, unpadded surfaces or the less than stellar side crash rating - but like every thing else in the Wrangler, advancement is good. Given the choice of a vehicle that is going to let you walk away and the one that is going to leave you rolling in a wheelchair for the rest of your life you would have to be a fool to take the latter.

The JK is the best performing Wrangler yet, on road, off road, sound dampening, etc, etc. Safety should go hand in hand with that.

Safety isn't the main selling point for a Wrangler, as easily seen. No commercial anywhere that I have ever seen, read, or heard has even mentioned that aspect. It has the dubious title of being 1 of 3 vehicles rated poor. That is a bad thing.

Midgear

My question is how in the blistering hell did it take them this long to figure out that the wrangler has poor side impact tests..

rickyj

Sarcasm is very hard to pick up in text, so sorry if I didn't pick up on it. But They have known about this since the vehicle was sold. The article was about backchecking the actual fatality ratings with the crash test data. It is worth noting that they didn't mention the Wrangler in the actual data. In fact the Wrangler was actually excluded from this analysis. Kind of makes you wonder why the second reporters chose to use a Wrangler as the picture, but oh well.

"To gauge how well the test does that, the Institute looked at federal data on side crashes from 2000 to 2009. Only crashes involving Institute-rated vehicles with standard side airbags to protect both the head and torso were included in the analysis."

So, don't be super worried just yet.

www .iihs.org/news/rss/pr011911.html

NH-JK

The JK does rate poor... But we just went outside and tested my ten speed......

Huffy should really hang there head in shame.... I'll post pics when I get back from the funeral!!!!

Yankee

Who would of thunk that a Wrangler would have poor side impact protection.

lol....duh.

Them guys is so smart to discover this.

LynDi

I've watched two videos with Wranglers taking a hard hit from the side. The result was the same. The light weight Wrangler would spin away from the impact, often more spins than one. One involved a high speed chase and crash and another involved a train. I have faith in the seatbelt and airbag, and the rock rails, lift height, large tires, steel bumper. Everytime I see a Wrangler fatality, the lost soul wasn't wearing seatbelts and often was ejected.

I'm sure if I pin the Wrangler and slam a 2000 pound crash car into it, there will be serious damage, but I still have faith in it.

cbcwrangler

Tested WITHOUT optional side airbags. Received a "marginal" overall for side impact and a "poor" rating specifically for drivers torso impact. Head impact for front and back was both "marginal".

http://www.iihs.org/ratings/ratingsbyseries.aspx?id=633

Unfortunately, the optional side bags are front-only. Will be interesting to see how Jeep handles this in the next full redesign - bet we will see some form of curtain bags all around off of the roll bar.....

fray

I'd love to know what the crash ratings are with the side airbags. It was certainly and option that was required when I bought my JK.