Updated 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee ace same controversial moose test it failed in 2012 [w/video]

Thu, 02 Jan 2014

Some background: one of the more scandalous international incidents of he-said/he-said from 2012 was when Swedish magazine Teknikens Varld put the Jeep Grand Cherokee through its "moose (or elk) test" and reported that the SUV nearly rolled over. That lead to a whole lot of accusations and rebuttals: more than one website and Chrysler's own blog reported that the Jeep was overloaded; Chrysler said Teknikens printed the magazine then let Chrysler respond, Teknikens answered all of the charges in a lengthy post and said Chrysler was given a chance to comment before it went to print; when Chrysler sent investigators to oversee the test and the Jeep didn't go up on two wheels as it did in the first test, furthermore all four wheels stayed on the ground when Auto Motor und Sport tested a Grand Cherokee in the same way.

Teknikens then re-ran the test with a new vehicle and said it's been doing this test since the 1970s, uses the loading information that Chrysler provides to the Swedish motor authority and the previous Grand Cherokee passed with no problem. In the second test, the Jeep failed again, then it gave Chrysler engineers access to the car's electronics and ran the test again. In that second round the Grand Cherokee didn't repeat the lurid two-wheel action, but in eleven runs it blew out front left tire seven times. Chrysler still objects to the results of all of those tests and maintains that vehicle was safe.

The 2014 Grand Cherokee was given its shot at the gauntlet in the latest round of moose tests, and Teknikens Varld reports that it passed without any problem at all, its stability control working perfectly, controlling motion at low speeds and all the way up to 44.1 miles per hour. You can watch the video of the new test and read the press release from the magazine on the updated Grand Cherokee below.

This is how the new Jeep Grand Cherokee 2014 handles the moose test

Perhaps you remember Jeep Grand Cherokee in Teknikens Värld's moose test summer 2012? The car went up on two wheels and was about to roll over. The dangerous behavior in the avoidance maneuver quickly became world news. Now we take the new Grand Cherokee, model year 2014, to the moose test track to see if it is better than its predecessor.

In summer 2012 the previous generation of the Jeep Grand Cherokee went up on two wheels in Teknikens Värld's famous moose test. Already at low speed, 61 km/h (37.9 mph), the wheels on the inside left the ground and at 63.5 km/h (39.5 mph), the car was about to roll over. Neither did the electronic stability system or the anti-rollover system respond – very strange.

We repeated the tests, with different drivers and different Jeep Grand Cherokees, but the result was always the same. Except when Jeep's American engineerers had been given access to the cars and the tests were run on their premises – then the result instead became seven front wheel punctures.

You can read all about the moose test behaviour of the Grand Cherokee in 2012 at teknikensvarld.se, where you also find the film that has been seen by over 2.5 million people worldwide.

In Teknikens Värld issue 2/2014 we test the newly updated Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.0 CRD model year 2014, where it is compared against the new BMW X5 and Range Rover Sport. With summer tires mounted and the cars loaded according to their Swedish certificate of registration, in the case of Jeep Grand Cherokee a total weight of 2 949 kg (6 501 lbs), passengers and luggage included, we go for the test track.

We are delighted to point out that our test results from 2012 have led to a comprehensive development work by the Jeep engineerers, the old behavior is completely gone. The main difference is that the traction control system begins to work really early and it slows down the speed of the car dramatically, even at such low entry speed as 61 km/h (37.9 mph). When we increase the speed the system actually works even more, making the behavior of the car just as safely as it would have been that early summer day in 2012.

At 71 km/h (44.1 mph) the car reaches its limit, the car cannot master more than that. But it is a good result for a SUV vehicle, no doubt about that. It is also a clear sign that Jeep understood the seriousness of the previous generation's severe flaws and did something to it.

Read the full story and watch the film at: http://www.teknikensvarld.se/jeepmoosetest-2014/

By Jonathon Ramsey