Wheels Blog: Consumer Advocacy Group Calls for a Recall of 5 Million Jeep Grand Cherokees

Chrysler The Center for Auto Safety wants Chrysler to recall five million Jeep Grand Cherokees made from 1993 to 2004 for a potential fire hazard from their gas tanks.

The Center for Auto Safety is asking top officials at the Chrysler Group and its parent company, Fiat, to recall about five million vehicles. The nonprofit consumer advocacy group said, “Children are dying in Jeeps in rear-impact fires.”

In a letter to John Elkann on Wednesday, Fiat’s chairman, the center cited the deaths of three children since 2006 in fires that occurred when the Jeeps in which they were riding were struck from the rear.

The Center for Auto Safety has also been urging, since 2009, a recall of 1993-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokees, saying the vehicles have two problems. The first is a gas tank behind the rear axle and somewhat below the bumper, in an area that safety engineers call a crush zone. Chrysler moved the tank in front of the rear axle when it redesigned the vehicle for the 2005 model year, but a company spokesman said the move was not related to concern about fires.

The second problem is a fuel filler pipe positioned so that it can rip away from the tank in a rear impact, allowing gasoline to escape from the tank, the center said. Chrysler has repeatedly denied that the Grand Cherokee posed a fire risk, noting that the vehicles met federal safety standards.

On Wednesday, the automaker issued a statement reconfirming its own analysis of the Grand Cherokee models called into question by the center, saying the S.U.V.’s “are neither defective, nor do their fuel systems pose an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety in rear impact collisions.” However, almost a year ago, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said its investigation of the center’s allegations were reason enough for the agency to upgrade its investigation to an engineering analysis.

In what appeared to be a direct rebuttal of Chrysler’s continuing claims, the traffic safety administration said its study found that “rear-impact-related tank failures and vehicle fires are more prevalent in the J.G.C. (Jeep Grand Cherokee) than in non-Jeep peer vehicles.” At that time the safety agency said it was expanding the investigation to include 1993-2001 Jeep Cherokees, as well as 2002-7 Jeep Libertys.

In 2011 the center released the results of crash tests it commissioned, showing that other S.U.V.’s of the same vintage fared far better in rear-impact crashes than did the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

The center says it has reports of 157 deaths in which Grand Cherokee crashes resulted in a fire. That tally includes rear impacts as well as rollovers in which the filler hose might have ripped loose, Clarence Ditlow, the center’s executive director, said in an interview. The safety agency listed 15 fire deaths, but Mr. Ditlow said it was strictly looking at rear-impact crashes.

One of the child deaths mentioned in the center’s letter was that of Cassidy Jarmon, a 4-year-old who was riding in her family’s 1993 Grand Cherokee in February 2006 in Cleburne, Tex. Her mother was stopped on a two-lane highway, trying to make a left turn, when her Jeep was hit from behind by a 2001 Chevrolet Lumina, according to the police report. Cassidy, who was in a child restraint, survived the impact but couldn’t be easily freed from the seat because the fire happened so quickly, said Detective Kelly Summey, who arrived at the crash while the rescue was under way. She died two days later from burns and smoke inhalation.

Detective Summey said her investigation concluded that the gas tank had been punctured by the Jeep’s trailer hitch. The deaths of the two other children occurred in 2011 and 2012. The safety agency’s investigation is still under way.

Wheels: Lexus Ranked No. 1 on Consumer Reports Annual Report Card

Toyota Motor Sales 2013 Lexus GS 350.

10:46 a.m. | Updated Lexus earned the top overall score of 79 in the Consumer Reports 2013 Annual Report Card, the magazine announced on Tuesday.

Subaru and Mazda tied for second with scores of 76. The magazine said both brands build solid cars that have good handling and fuel economy, are versatile and relatively affordable.

Rounding out the top five were Toyota and Acura with scores of 74.

Honda scored a 72, hurt by the Insight and CR-Z, which had low scores.

Audi and Mercedes-Benz were the only non-Japanese brands to break into the top 10. Audi’s score of 70 put it into 8th place and Mercedes was in 10th with a 69. Audi was the only European brand to have very good reliability over all along with an excellent road-test score.

Eight of the top 10 brands in the report were Japanese. Most Detroit brands were toward the bottom, with European brands generally in the middle.

The magazine used a new grading system this year. In the past, the magazine calculated one overall score for each automaker, but this year there are separate scores for each brand and for individual brands. In the case of Toyota, its three brands, Lexus, Scion and Toyota, get separate scores. Ford also gets separate scores for the Ford and Lincoln brands instead of just one overall score for Ford.

It is more in line with the way consumers shop, the magazine said. Grouping Scion with Lexus doesn’t make a lot of sense from a consumer’s point of view “since they are rarely cross-shopped,” Jake Fisher, director of automotive testing for Consumer Reports, said in a telephone interview.

The 2013 Annual Brand Report Card rankings, Top Picks and more were released by the magazine at a news conference before the Washington Automotive Press Association in Washington.

A brand’s score is calculated using road test and reliability scores, equally weighted, for each of the models tested. The reliability scores come from information provided by the magazine’s subscribers during its Annual Auto Survey.

The bottom five on the Report Card were Chrysler with a score of 52, Ford with 51, Lincoln with 50, Jeep with 47 and Dodge at the very bottom with 46.

Although the new Dodge Dart is an improvement over other small cars from Dodge, “it is not nearly up to the levels of the best competitors,” Mr. Fisher said.

Ford and Lincoln are still suffering from problems with the MyFord and MyLincoln Touch infotainment systems, as well as with the dual-clutch automatic gearbox. Those two issues hurt Ford (including Lincoln) in last year’s Report Card as well.

Ford has made some improvements, but not nearly enough; and problems are spreading as more vehicles have the MyFord and MyLincoln Touch system, Mr. Fisher said.

Those issues have been joined by performance issues related to Ford’s new 1.6-liter and 2-liter EcoBoost turbocharged engines.

“They both have less performance and drink more fuel than the competitors; it hurts their road test scores,” Mr. Fisher said.

To be included, the magazine must have data for at least three models, which meant Fiat, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Ram and Smart were not rated.

The April issue will be on newsstands March 5 and online for subscribers to the magazine’s Web site on Tuesday.