[Allpar News System]

News analysis Last October, Jenelle Embrey’s old Jeep Grand Cherokee, stopped in traffic, was rammed by a tractor-trailer truck moving at an estimated 65 mph. She, her father, and a friend escaped; but they were unable to save the other occupants, her friend’s mother and another friend.  They died in the resulting blaze. Embrey was quoted as saying, “Something has to be done.” Quite a bit actually has been done since her Grand Cherokee was built. The Federal government doubled the impact standards for gas tank ruptures. The tanks were moved when the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee and 2008 Jeep Liberty were launched. The tanks have been improved as technology advanced. (The proposed recall would affect 1993-2004 Grand Cherokees and 2002-2007 Jeep Libertys.)

Some have proposed that former Republican Congressman Ray LaHood, the DOT chief, acted out of partisanship, since President Obama is identified with the rescue of Chrysler, but this seems..

View the original, full post

 

[dana44]

Well, according to the graph, the request does not justify the cost. Chrysler is making the right call on this one.

 

[freshforged]

fairly thorough take down of the NHTSA request. Every time a news outlet talks about this issue it should include the fact that the NHTSA cannot point to a single defect in the design or construction, let alone the statistical evidence which might support their request.

 

[dana44]

fairly thorough take down of the NHTSA request. Every time a news outlet talks about this issue it should include the fact that the NHTSA cannot point to a single defect in the design or construction, let alone the statistical evidence which might support their request.

Makes for a very good conspiracy or agenda not indicative of free enterprise, targeting a specific company and all.

 

[plymouth1]

http://www.autoextremist.com/on-the-table1/

Even the AE agrees with Chrysler this time

 

[Dave Z]

Yeah, but compliments from AE don't mean much. He's been riding Sergio all year and deriding Chrysler's success, and predicting dire failure for Chrysler since 2009. He gave three thumbs down to Whole Foods for a speech where they said their supermarket would be good for Detroit (which it will be) (and AE said the same, before slamming them for saying it). I think even if Chrysler had left the fuel tank on the outside of the bumper and included a flint to make it easier to ignite the fuel, he would still have been happy about turning down a recall request.

AE, for those who are not paying attention, is auto extremist, URL not given here.

 

[dana44]

Sometimes the truth hurts (with the HF comments) and some just can't take or don't like hearing the truth.

 

[dana44]

Yeah, whole foods (WF/HF), it's a sound thing.

No, I don't think they will hurt the little shop owners out there, they are needed and have their purpose. There are times one goes out and does a big buy of groceries and there are the quick run down to the corner store to get something. If everything was Super and Mega killing the little guys, fact is, there wouldn't be any of the small guys in the first place and they are always still around. Did a little searching and the indication is people will just travel less to the large suburb stores they go to for this major gorcery shopping, so it should cut down on your CO2 emissions, which is a positive, right?!

 

[pjfsu331]

I'm not buying this nor will it make me want to stop driving my ZJ one bit. $4 a gallon will but that's a different gripe.

If you get hit by a big rig doing 65mph, there's going to be increased risk of a ruptured fuel tank no matter what vehicle you're in; unless its also a big rig, armored truck or tank.

I'd much rather get hit in my ZJ than in my Dart.

 

[Dave Z]

I have no doubt the Liberty and Grand Cherokee could have been designed to be safer. So can just about any car if the customer's willing to pay more and make more tradeoffs. Unfortunately, the news media know the best way to play this story. They don't have time for real information, so they go with the emotional, time-tested story. In the past, y'know, with Ford and GM, they'd have been right, too.

What would clobber Chrysler is the discovery of a memo saying, “For $2 more per car we could prevent gas tank ruptures.” But that only happens to Ford and GM, right?

 

[dana44]

Wouldn't this just push that extra button necessary to help relieve the market of one of the best selling SUVs? There are so many underlying issues that can be made given the level of facts not present in this issue to make it a media event just aren't present. It happens time and time again, part of the fundamental transformation of America, which has been started and stopped several times over the last century.What better way to try to get rid of an SUV than to turn it into the next Pinto, right? Pinto was around for 10 years before it had its problems, why not try to repeat the same response to make people drive smaller, non-SUV vehicles.

 

[Roy Thigpen]

Interestingly enough, it seems that outside 1-2 trolls, most of the people on Autoblog are taking Chrysler's side on this.

 

[Dave Z]

dana44, if they were trying to push us into smaller cars, they'd go after Suburban, not Grand Cherokee. or F-150. Grand Cherokee is midsized.

No, I think if this IS political, it's a Ford conspiracy but I think the human emotional response angle is the right one.

PS> If you want to convince people, use that second article! “I don’t need Chrysler’s arguments to say this is nonsense.”

 

[SheltonBreeden]

Wouldn't this just push that extra button necessary to help relieve the market of one of the best selling SUVs? There are so many underlying issues that can be made given the level of facts not present in this issue to make it a media event just aren't present. It happens time and time again, part of the fundamental transformation of America, which has been started and stopped several times over the last century.What better way to try to get rid of an SUV than to turn it into the next Pinto, right? Pinto was around for 10 years before it had its problems, why not try to repeat the same response to make people drive smaller, non-SUV vehicles.

That is some logic right there. More twists and turns than a James Bond movie. What an amazing narrative. Obummer is going to stop people from driving SUVs by making old ones from one specific brand appear to blow up. How does he find time calling all of these government agencies from his secret BlackBerry? How does he keep his orders straight when he's constructing these elaborate plots? Maybe they are all false flag operations? Maybe Obama is a clone and has versions of himself working in every alphabet soup division of government. I for one am glad we are getting down to the truth here. Call Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. This is going to make one heck of a popcorn flick.

 

[jayt]

There are a number of individually targeted fire recall demands similar to this (one current one is targetting some GM compacts). When a tragic incident happens, there is a tendency to see everything through that lens.

I wonder what they think of the recent fatal limo fire in San Francisco (no crash involved)

 

[crouchta]

So since all things that will catch fire given the proper opportunity need to be "recalled and re-engineered", where am I supposed to live while they replace all the wood in my all wood house? Ok, so that is off a bit, but same logic, no? Tragic things happen and they're not always someone's fault.

 

[dak4x4]

My son's SUV is very safe:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oshkosh_M-ATV

With a price tag to match, $470,000. If it saves one of our troops, it's worth every penny