2004 Jeep Liberty

midsize SUV / 4-door SUV

2004 Jeep Liberty 4-door SUV
2002 Jeep Liberty shown

Crashworthiness

Rating overview
Moderate overlap front: original test
Head restraints & seats

Key

  • G
    Good
  • A
    Acceptable
  • M
    Marginal
  • P
    Poor
  • Superior
  • Advanced
  • Basic

Some ratings use a scale of Poor to Good. Others range from Basic to Superior.

Moderate overlap front: original test

Rating applies to 2002-07 models

Tested vehicle: 2002 Jeep Liberty Sport 4-door 4wd

The Jeep Liberty was introduced in the 2002 model year as a replacement for the Jeep Cherokee.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has evaluated the crashworthiness of the Liberty in two 40 mph moderate overlap frontal crash tests into deformable barriers. In the first test, the airbag deployed late because an airbag sensor wire shorted out early in the crash. This led Chrysler to develop a fix for this problem by shielding the wiring, and the manufacturer recalled the affected vehicles. The Institute tested a second Liberty with the fix and the airbag inflated much earlier. Ratings of the Liberty are based on the results of the second test, except structural performance is based on both tests.

Overall evaluation
Structure and safety cage
Driver injury measures
Head/neck
Chest
Leg/foot, left
Leg/foot, right
Driver restraints and dummy kinematics
Dummy movement was reasonably well controlled in the second test. The dummy's head leaned out the open side window during rebound, then it hit the window frame.

Action shot taken during the second of two frontal offset crash tests.

The driver's survival space was maintained well, as indicated by the dummy's position in relation to the steering wheel and instrument panel after the second crash test.

Forces on the head when the dummy moved into the airbag were moderately high in the second test, indicating the possibility of head injuries.

In both tests, the dummy's head moved outside the open side window after rebounding from the airbag (second test pictured).

Technical measurements for this test

Measures of occupant compartment intrusion on driver side

Test ID CEF0122 CEF0127
Footwell intrusion
Footrest (cm) 9 10
Left (cm) 7 8
Center (cm) 10 10
Right (cm) 3 3
Brake pedal (cm) 1 1
Instrument panel rearward movement
Left (cm) 0 -1
Right (cm) 0 0
Steering column movement
Upward (cm) 1 3
Rearward (cm) 0 -2
A-pillar rearward movement (cm) 1 1

Driver injury measures

Test ID CEF0127
Head
HIC-15 772
Peak gs at hard contact negligible
Neck
Tension (kN) 2.7
Extension bending moment (Nm) 29
Maximum Nij 0.51
Chest maximum compression (mm) 36
Legs
Femur force - left (kN) 3.2
Femur force - right (kN) 2.8
Knee displacement - left (mm) 11
Knee displacement - right (mm) 8
Maximum tibia index - left 0.91
Maximum tibia index - right 0.66
Tibia axial force - left (kN) 2.3
Tibia axial force - right (kN) 2.2
Foot acceleration (g)
Left 108
Right 57

About the original moderate overlap front test

Head restraints & seats

Seat type: Seats with fixed head restraints

Overall evaluation
Dynamic rating
Seat/head restraint geometry
Technical measurements for this test
Seat type Seats with fixed head restraints
Geometry
Backset (mm) 70
Distance below top of head (mm) 65
Seat design parameters
Pass/fail Fail
Max T1 acceleration (g) 12.5
Head contact time (ms) 96
Force rating 3
Neck forces
Max neck shear force (N) 313
Max neck tension (N) 967

Seat type: Seats with adjustable head restraints

Overall evaluation
Dynamic rating
Seat/head restraint geometry
Technical measurements for this test
Seat type Seats with adjustable head restraints
Geometry
Backset (mm) 62
Distance below top of head (mm) 65
Seat design parameters
Pass/fail Fail
Max T1 acceleration (g) 12.1
Head contact time (ms) 94
Force rating 3
Neck forces
Max neck shear force (N) 308
Max neck tension (N) 1,110

About the head restraint & seat test
Currently, IIHS tests apply only to front seats.