There’s an adage which says any vehicle is only as safe as the driver sitting behind the wheel. While that may be true, it omits one vital fact. Yes, you guessed right. It doesn’t account for who’s driving the vehicle coming the other way.
If you consider for a moment the definition of the word accident, which is an unexpected, unintentional, an unfortunate incident, it kind of sums it all up quite neatly. No-one plans to have an accident. Accidents just happen. What you do need to know, if you’re involved in an accident, is how your Jeep Wrangler will hold up if the worse happens.
So here are the answers to some of your questions.
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Are Jeep Wranglers Safe In Accidents?
A Jeep Wrangler is a relatively solidly built vehicle and has quite a few safety features incorporated on even the basic models. Count on frontal airbags, anti-lock air brakes and of course, seatbelts unless the model you drive is one you salvaged from the arc. The IIHS, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, after they drove a few models into a solid concrete wall under controlled test conditions, discovered that, yes, the Jeep Wrangler is, in fact, safe in accidents.
That’s not to say the jeep didn’t suffer any damage, it did and in some of the tests that damage was quite extensive. What they rated the jeep safe in accidents for was the level of injuries which occurred to the driver or in the case of the tests, the dummy. A hefty, full on frontal collision, while it may have crumpled the hood and disfigured the jeep’s overall appearance, only minimally encroached on the driver’s space which is good news all around.
Are Jeep Wranglers Safe For Families
The road of life is a long one and can sometimes be as bumpy as an off-road trail. Little things like kids pop up and although you might not want to trade in your jeep wrangler for a family saloon, as any protective parent would, you may well find yourself asking if jeep wranglers are safe for families.
Yes, it looks great when you roll up outside the school in an open top jeep wrangler and the kids leap out the back. They’ll probably love it too, but at the end of the day, jeep wrangler’s are not family cars they were designed to be off-road vehicles. A jeep’s passenger seats were not designed to accommodate child car seats so before you even hit the highway, you’ll be staring a significant safety issue in the face. Driving with the top off gives them no overhead protection, and neither does a soft top. So if you’re in the process of planning a family outing, you may well want to begin considering an alternative vehicle.
Are Jeeps Safe For Teenage Drivers
Getting a driving license is an achievement in anyone’s life, and to a teenager it means independence. To a parent, it’s the start of a nightmare. Teenagers being out on the highway always involves some level of risk. Not because they’re going to be irresponsible and drive like crazy cats, but just because of traffic accident statistics. It’s a sad fact, but teenagers under nineteen years of age push those statistics through the roof and are four times more likely to have a road traffic accident than any other driver.
Though we’d love to keep them encased in cotton wool and safe from harm, they’ve got to get from A to B for school, dance classes or football practice. Are jeep’s safe for teenage drivers? According to the IIHS test result, a teenage driver will be less likely to suffer serious injury if they have the misfortune of being involved in an accident. That protection doesn’t extend so successfully to passengers carried in the rear of a two-door. So if your teenager is set on having a jeep wrangler, try a bit of parental persuasion and convince them a four-door will be much safer for transporting their friends.
Are Jeep Wranglers Easy To Flip
While jeeps may have a higher rollover rate compared to other vehicles, that’s hardly a surprising fact when you consider they’re one of the most popular OHV’s there are. Where do most rollovers occur? Yep, you guessed right. Off-road. Knowing you run the risk of flipping your jeep over is one of the most concerning aspects of off-road driving is. So are jeep wranglers easy to flip?
A jeep’s short wheelbase might make it more prone to rolling over on the highway if you speed around a corner at sixty miles an hour. But let’s face it, jeeps were not made to be driven like a formula one racing car. Jeep wranglers were designed for dealing with rough terrain and going where no car has gone before – preferably slowly. All those facts were taken into consideration in the jeep’s design and so they’re fully prepared with either roll bars or cages should that particular calamity occur. So if you’re planning on driving the Rubicon Trail, rest assured you’ll have some decent protection should a rollover catastrophe occur.
Jeep Wrangler Safety Concerns
A jeep wrangler while it performs solidly and probably even excels expectations on rough terrain, doesn’t perform well on normal roads. It can be sluggish to respond and something of a lumbering heavyweight when it comes to cornering. Around town, well, when the traffic is heavy, think about joining your local gym because you’re going to need some well-developed biceps to keep your baby under tight control. Those facts alone don’t make it the safest vehicle for either long distance runs or for being a city runabout.
While the driver space is well protected in a frontal collision, the same can’t be said if the jeep is involved in a side impact incident. Increase that by tenfold if you’ve done moderations and have removed the doors. Passengers in a jeep are more likely to suffer from head injuries in this type of accident, than in many other vehicles, just because of the positioning of the window frame structure. So if you’re really concerned about your friend’s safety when they’re riding in the back, you can either get them to take their own car or supply them with a crash helmet.
Jeep Wrangler Safety Rating 2017 / 2018
Both the IIHS and the NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, have conducted extensive tests to gauge the relative safety of jeep wranglers on the road. Not surprisingly the wrangler ranks pretty low compared to other vehicles. Average at best, but it just was not created for normal road conditions, so why use it for that? Put a Honda Civic or Ford Fusion in the environment a jeep wrangler is meant to deal with and you’ll soon discover safety ratings only have so much relevance. If you’re going to attempt to drive your jeep wrangler up a practically vertical cliff face, then you may just as well throw all the safety ratings ever published in the trash.
What’s The Safest Jeep Wrangler?
Expect to find a few more additional safety features included in the latest models of jeep wranglers. They can range from hill start assist to blind spot monitoring to SOS call buttons which are particularly handy if you run into a problem out in the wilds. Newer models also incorporate extra airbags which provide advanced front and side protection plus side panels strengthened with steel and trailer sway control if you’re towing. Though arguably, the safest jeep wrangler could be the one you don’t take off-roading, but leave at home parked in the garage. Then again, that’s not what you bought it for so happy, and relatively safe, driving!
