Yesterday, a video spread throughout the web of a Jeep Grand Cherokee failing Teknikens' "Moose Test," which simulates swerving to avoid hitting an object like a moose, cow, or child. (Note: we've been seeing a lot of people talking about how it's never worth it to swerve to avoid killing an animal in light of this story. These people obviously don't know that a male moose can weigh 1,500lbs and often kill semi drivers)
Chrysler responded today, saying that "Chrysler Group engineers made numerous attempts to reproduce the wheel-lift in a properly loaded vehicle. Extensive testing produced no such result." After failing to reproduce the results of the test, the company joined Tekinikens to observe a re-run of the original test; 11 runs were performed and the Jeep passed every time.
The company concluded that the Grand Cherokee's lifting onto two wheels was due to the vehicle being overloaded when the test run was made.
Of course, Chrysler threw in a reminder that the Grand Cherokee is an IIHS Top Safety Pick and is equipped with ESC and Electronic Roll Mitigation as standard equipment.
[via Chrysler]
