2002 Jeep Liberty Limited Sport Utility 4-door 3.7l on 2040-cars

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Chrysler resolves recall issue with NHTSA, will inspect, upgrade affected Jeeps

Chrysler made big news earlier in the month by refusing a recall request from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the 1993-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee and 2002-2007 Jeep Liberty. Last week, NHTSA boss David Strickland countered by defending his agency's request for the recall of 2.7 million Jeep SUVs. Today marked the deadline for Chrysler to formally respond to NHTSA, and it seems that both parties have met in the middle with Chrysler inspecting and upgrading some of the affected vehicles without using the word "recall," which would constitute the admission of a defect; instead, Chrysler said that it is conducting a "voluntary campaign."
At issue on these vehicles is the positioning of the fuel tank behind the rear axle that could get damaged during a rear-end collision. NHTSA has stated that at least 51 people have been killed in rear-end collisions involving these Jeeps after the vehicles caught fire, to which Chrysler countered by pointing out that both models "met and exceeded" the requirements for fuel-system integrity.
As a compromise on the situation, Chrysler says that it will inspect all pre-2004 Grand Cherokees and pre-2007 Liberty models and, "if necessary, provide an upgrade to the rear structure of the vehicle." According to Automotive News, this upgrade will consist of adding a trailer hitch that will presumably better protect the rear-mounted gas tank. Vehicles already equipped with a factory or Mopar hitch will not be modified. Chrysler's official statement on the matter is posted below, but no additional information has been released, such as when the campaign will begin and how many vehicles could be affected.

Woman and child die after Jeep gets stuck in mud

A Florida woman and her baby died over the weekend when their Jeep sank into deep mud during an off-roading trip. Taylor Brown took his girlfriend Hallie Lewis and their infant son Bryson off-roading in his Jeep Cherokee on Saturday night. The Jeep became stuck in thick mud, according to WESH. Brown got out of the vehicle while Lewis and Bryson remained inside. Using a winch, Brown tried – unsuccessfully – to free the Jeep. The Cherokee was left running as he struggled to pull it out of the mud. When he returned to the Jeep to check on his son and girlfriend, he found them unresponsive. Taylor pulled the two out of the back window, but it was too late. Lewis was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. The baby died shortly thereafter. Police are still investigating, but their deaths appear to be a tragic accident due to carbon monoxide poisoning. The tailpipe of the Jeep was either submerged or caked with mud, allowing the deadly gas to build up inside the vehicle. News Source: WESH Weird Car News Jeep tailpipe carbon monoxide

Vile Gossip: Ladies who launch

Jean Jennings has been writing about cars for more than 30 years, after stints as a taxicab driver and as a mechanic in the Chrysler Proving Grounds Impact Lab. She was a staff writer at Car and Driver magazine, the first executive editor and former president and editor-in-chief of Automobile Magazine, the founder of the blog Jean Knows Cars and former automotive correspondent for Good Morning America. She has lifetime awards from both the Motor Press Guild and the New England Motor Press Association. Look for more Vile Gossip columns in the future. The year was 2006. We were driving a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 across the Florida Panhandle from Jacksonville to Panama City, only because I couldn't convince Bugatti to let me be the first to drive its exotic powerhouse, the world's fastest car at that time, all the way across America. One gleaming example had arrived in time for the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, where the journos massed for their quick test drives out the front drive of the Ritz Carlton, down a short stretch of the A1A, and back to the Ritz. Not far enough for me. I wanted to take the Veyron in all of its 16-cylinder, 1,001-horsepower, $1.3-million-dollar glory on a coast-to-coast extravaganza of a road trip. Never hurts to ask. I asked. Once the Bugatti guys stopped hyperventilating, I explained that the coastal adventure would be contained wholly within the state of Florida, from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Mexico. My secret destination, however, was to be Vernon, Florida, home of the great Errol Morris' classic documentary about a town in the Panhandle with the highest per-capita population of citizens who'd blown off or whacked off a limb for insurance money. (Google "Nub City.") The Swiss head of Bugatti public relations thought it hilarious. He showed up in a van with a couple of German mechanics to follow us and a failed French Formula 1 driver to serve as my chaperone. I came with a photographer from Germany and one of the most infamous of bad-boy auto magazine tech editors, the irrepressible Don Sherman. Sherman had his own reason for going, and it had nothing to do with a Veyron to Vernon. Once we gave up looking for nubbies, he ordered me to veer south to the handgrip of the Panhandle, familiarly known as the Redneck Riviera. The Don was aiming to secretly execute the Veyron's first Launch Control blastoff in captivity.