This is not good news for Jeep. The 2019 Wrangler JL was recently tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and it tipped onto its side, not once, but twice. This led to the model receiving a “Marginal” rating for the driver-side small overlap front crash test. However, the SUV did well in taking care of the driver’s space to protect the legs and feet, and the dummy’s movements were well-controlled. Will this news affect the sales of the popular Wrangler JL?

Not Once, But Twice

The IIHS tested the 2019 Jeep Wrangler JL four-door version for the small overlap front crash test. This is designed to see how a vehicle responds when it crashes another vehicle in a small area or hits a pole. Surprisingly, the Wrangler tipped over and rolled on its side. FCA, however, refuted saying that the internal crash testing didn’t report the SUV tipping over and questioned the IIHS’ testing methodology.

The institute tested the Wrangler again using a different method which was approved by FCA, but the result was the same. This led to the company giving the Wrangler a “Marginal” rating, which is the second-worst of the four ratings.


Overall evaluation

G

Structure and safety cage

G

Driver injury measures

Head/neck

G

Torso

A

Pelvis/leg

G

Driver head protection

G

Rear passenger injury measures

Head/neck

G

Torso

G

Pelvis/leg

G

Rear passenger head protection

M


What They Had To Say

This is what IIHS had to say about the test: In both the Institute's tests, the vehicle tipped onto its passenger side after striking the barrier. The partial rollover presents an additional injury risk beyond what the standard criteria are intended to measure in small overlap frontal crash tests. A vehicle tipping onto its side is not an acceptable outcome for a frontal crash and, as a result, the Wrangler's overall rating was downgraded to marginal.

The automaker told Autoblog that “FCA has produced more than 500,000 of these vehicles. By a conservative estimate, they have accounted for 6.7 billion miles of on-road driving. From this population, we are unaware of any incidents that correlate with the vehicle dynamic portion of the IIHS test result.”

The SUV Did Well Other Than The Rollover

On the bright side, the Wrangler performed much better in all the other crash tests and received the highest “Good” rating from the IIHS. After the crash where the Jeep tipped over, the dummy didn’t seem to do too bad. This clearly shows that the driver’s survival space was maintained and the instrument cluster of the steering wheel didn’t cause any injuries to the dummy here.

The other rating where it didn’t get a good score was the headlights. The headlights scored a “Poor” rating in all the avatars on all the trims. This includes the halogen bulbs, the LEDs, and even the Jeep equipped with the optional LED Lighting Package.

Final Thoughts

This doesn’t sound or look good in theory, but FCA has justified saying that in the billions of miles of real-world testing, the Wrangler is yet to be reported for any incident that correlates with its dynamics. Other than the tip over, the SUV did well, including the side crash and the front crash at speeds of 12 mph and 25 mph.

If you were looking to purchase this particular model, will this test result change your decision in any way? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.