In its letter to Chrysler, NHTSA said it had found 44 deaths in 32 rear-end crashes with fires related to the Grand Cherokee's fuel tank, and 7 deaths from 5 crashes in Jeep Liberty SUVs - both of which were far more common than other models of SUVs. NHTSA didn't officially open a probe of the vehicles until 2010, and gathered accident data and test results from Chrysler along with several other automakers. The few times an automaker has resisted a recall request over the past two decades - as Ford did in 2011 when the agency found air bags in 1.5 million F-150 trucks were defective - the automaker has eventually given into NHTSA. The agency acted after four years of pushing by auto safety advocates, who first complained that Chrysler put lives at risk when it sold the 1993-2004 Grand Cherokee and 2002-2007 Liberty SUVs with plastic gas tanks built behind the rear axle, leaving them exposed to damage in a crash.Īutomakers almost always launch recalls of their own initiative or after a NHTSA investigation shows the agency believes a safety defect exists to avoid a legal and public relations hit. The face-off sets up a little-used process by which the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration could take Chrysler to court and order it to fix the SUVs. auto safety officials to recall 2.7 million Jeep Grand Cherokees and Liberty SUVs to fix fuel tanks that federal officials linked to 51 deaths, but which Chrysler called "safe and. In a rare move, Chrysler today rejected a request by U.S.
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