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Jumpin' Jeeps Ruin Lives, Destroy Property

Years of accidents, reports, complaints yield no action

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

October 23, 2007      Spanish

ConsumerAffairs.com has received reports of unintended acceleration in the Grand Cherokee since at least 2000 and continues to receive similar complaints from consumers driving Jeep vehicles.

NHTSA, the federal agency in charge of vehicle safety, reports one petition from Elaine Ziegler in Coatsville, Pennsylvania to recall a 2006 Jeep Commander for sudden acceleration but the petition was denied on January 3, 2007.

The complaint involved unintended acceleration with Ziegler's Jeep Commander causing an accident that killed a person in Delaware in December 2005, according to NHTSA documents.

'No defect'

NHTSA told Ms. Ziegler that the federal safety analysis “identified no indication of a safety defect trend that could cause unintended acceleration in these vehicles.”

“As a result, in view of the need to allocate and prioritize NHTSA's limited resources to best accomplish the agency's safety mission, your petition is denied,” the brief letter concluded.

In the months since NHTSA closed the unintended acceleration investigation, runaway Jeeps have continued to injure people and destroy property causing an unending trail of trouble for Jeep owners.

Most recently, in La Junta, Colorado, James told us he put his 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Loredo into drive and “it suddenly accelerated," as witnesses said, "like a rocket.”

James could not stop the Jeep. He hit several fences, a gas meter, another car and his Jeep ended up "resting in someone's living room."

“Lucky no one was killed. I just bought the car about 2 weeks ago,” James said at the time.

His troubles are not over however. “I was given a ticket but not arrested yet. The accident is still under investigation. The car has been impounded. The state police removed the black box and my insurance agent was refused access to the Jeep,” James told us.

James' wife Carol added that the airbags did not deploy.

Not far away, Anna in Denver reported that she took her 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee to a carwash.

“As the employee turned the car on to bring it out of the wash and put it in drive, the car accelerated by itself. He dodged people, cars and cleaning materials for 10 seconds before the brakes would work again.”

Anna filed a police incident report and took her car to the Jeep dealership, where it remains.

“I will not be driving it again as it is a danger and obviously a lemon,” Anna told ConsumerAffairs.com.

Isolated incidents? Perhaps, but they are far from the only incidents reported to us. Here are a few more:

Georgina of Park City UT (09/12/07)
On May 26, 2007 my husband was about to borrow our son's 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland, which incidentally, we had purchased earlier in the year expecting it to be a safe and reliable car for college.

He had just hitched the trailer to the vehicle's tow hook as it as faced down our rather steep driveway situated on the side of a mountain. He got behind the driver's wheel, and I climbed into the front passenger's seat. He placed his foot on the brake, intending to put the vehicle in gear, and once the vehicle was placed in drive, it suddenly accelerated violently forward.

He attempted to steer the car to the right where a dirt berm would slow the motion. The vehicle impacted the hillside and rolled onto the top and over onto it's wheels. We were bruised and badly shaken up, but thankfully not seriously hurt.

However, had my husband not taken this evasive action, I'm sure our four children would have been orphans by now. Fortunately after the first roll, the trailer got caught in some trees which prevented the car from further rolling further down the driveway and then possibly continuing down the mountain side!

Even though the police supported our case with the evidence found, Daimler Chrysler concluded that it was driver error. My husband is a meticulously careful driver with an excellent driving record. We are immensely aware of the caution required on such a steep slope, especially when in the process of towing a trailer, so why on earth would he suddenly accelerate with full force down such a steep driveway and then decide to turn right into an embankment to stop?

Thankfully it happened to us, and not to our two sons who were later going to drive almost 2,000 miles across country to go back to college together. Imagine how easily driver error would have been labeled at this age group. I have written to the Daimler Chrysler Customer Claims Resolution Group and to the five Directors of the Board of Daimler Chrysler, explaining what had happened.

The only response I received was a brief and rather flippant letter from the Customer Claims Department denying that there was anything wrong with the vehicle but thanked me for raising my concern! I think it is outrageous that such a large organization should be allowed to get away with this at the customer's expense. I wonder how many more people this could have happened to, only they were never able to tell their story?

Gail of Hockley TX (06/26/07)
Twice since March my 2007 Jeep Liberty has experienced unintended acceleration. This Jeep is only 3 months old.

The first time the Jeep accelerated on its own I was pulling into my own garage and it accelerated into the wall, pushing the filing cabinet in the garage through the wall. We had to have the sheet rock replaced, but have not bought the hardiplank to replace and repair the outside of the house. Today the Jeep accelerated over a hill on a windy wet back road, but there was no one else on the road at the time and no damage done. Is this a common problem with these new vehicles?

Kim of Olean NY (04/08/07)
I have had two incidents while driving my 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee, the first time I was coming over a hill approaching a stop sign as I applied the brake the rpms reached 6,000 I was able to stop the Jeep with no problem with the brakes I put it in neutral and the rpm's continued to race so I shut it off.

I restarted and drove away fine.

Just last night I was driving to work while going up a very steep hill that has many twists and turns not to mention only small guard rails to keep me from plunging to my death the Jeep started to accelerate on its own and the brakes became hard I kept stomping on them until they finally grabbed and I could slow down enough to pull over put it in neutral and turn it off.

Jayne of Englewood CO (03/08/07)
On Tuesday, 3/6/07 my son was driving our 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee LTD when he was pulling into his parking spot at work and the Jeep suddenly accelerated at full throttle. He applied the brakes as hard as he could but flew right into a concrete wall.

We heard from our insurance company yesterday and they did total the vehicle.

We have no GAP insurance on the vehicle. The difference between the insurance payoff, less our deductible, leaves us having to come up with about $2,800 to pay it off. And now we have no family size vehicle. ted complaints.

Many more reports of runaway Jeeps can be found in our reader complaint section.

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