1998 Jeep Cherokee

small SUV / 4-door SUV

1998 Jeep Cherokee 4-door SUV

Crashworthiness

Rating overview
Moderate overlap front: original test

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 1997-2001 models

Tested vehicle: 1998 Jeep Cherokee Sport 4-door 4wd

The Jeep Cherokee was introduced in the 1984 model year. Frontal airbags for both the driver and passenger became standard beginning with the 1997 model year.

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. There was far too much upward movement of the steering wheel, which contributed to the dummy's head bottoming out the airbag and hitting the steering wheel.

Action shot taken during the frontal offset crash test.

The dummy's position in relation to the steering wheel and instrument panel after the crash test, together with the footwell intrusion, indicate that the driver space wasn't maintained well.

Upward movement of the steering wheel contributed to the dummy's head bottoming out the airbag and hitting the wheel.

Intrusion into the footwell area caused separation of the floor, which trapped the dummy's left foot under the brake pedal and contributed to high crash forces near the ankle.

Technical measurements for this test

Measures of occupant compartment intrusion on driver side

Test ID CF98012
Footwell intrusion
Footrest (cm) 28
Left (cm) 26
Center (cm) 18
Right (cm) 21
Brake pedal (cm) 20
Instrument panel rearward movement
Left (cm) 4
Right (cm) 4
Steering column movement
Upward (cm) 19
Rearward (cm) -2
A-pillar rearward movement (cm) 5

Driver injury measures

Test ID CF98012
Head
HIC-15 273
Peak gs at hard contact 60
Neck
Tension (kN) 2.3
Extension bending moment (Nm) 32
Maximum Nij 0.52
Chest maximum compression (mm) 24
Legs
Femur force - left (kN) 5.0
Femur force - right (kN) 4.0
Knee displacement - left (mm) 1
Knee displacement - right (mm) 5
Maximum tibia index - left 1.52
Maximum tibia index - right 0.87
Tibia axial force - left (kN) 2.7
Tibia axial force - right (kN) 4.3
Foot acceleration (g)
Left 111
Right 138

How the moderate overlap front test is conducted