Jeep Wrangler Safety (was Re: Jeep Wrangler Owner)

This is a great conversation. I am in the market for a new car and was thinking of the 2009 Wrangler (2 door). My only concern is the child safety issue. I have a 3.5 year old son who is in a booster seat and a newborn on the way. For the most part, the other car will be the primary car but there are going to be cases where I will have an infant and a toddler in the jeep. Just how safe is that?

With the kids in the car the hard top would be on, but does that really matter?

Bernard

Re: Jeep Wrangler Owner

This post was originally part of this thread here: http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=6451

It's been moved so that it will get some fresh sets of eyes since the other thread is a few years old.

I had a 1997 Jeep Wrangler, and I felt very safe taking my son in it. We had the Jeep until the high gas prices last year, and sold it for a "family car". My son was rear facing in 3 seats, and forward facing in one. We used a Graco infant seat, a Scenera and a Boulevard. All three had nice, tight installs, and I never had a minute of doubt of my sons safety.
They are great vehicles, and my son still misses the Jeep, and asks all the time when we are going to buy another one. We had a hard top for awhile, then went to a Soft Top, and a Bikini top in summer.

We have two Jeeps, my 4 dr 07 Wrangler daily driver and our 97 TJ Wrangler- so I may be biased.

I don't think there is a significant difference between the safety of the "new" Jeeps and any other newer SUV in general. No doubt some score better and some score worse as far as safety. The two door isn't going to be as convenient for car seats just because of the access, but as long as you use correctly installed seats the right way every time you are fine. There are two seats in the back with LATCH and TAs in the two door. The roll bar protects the back seat (unlike the pre-96 wranglers) and it has ESP and lots of other safety features. As far as the top: IMO it's slightly safer with the top (soft or hard) since in a collision there could be lots of projectiles flying around that could injure kids- or adults. You would have the same issue, possibly slightly less- with a car with all the windows open and the sunroof open. That said, we do drive with the top down with our kids. It's a really fun vehicle to drive. My DS beggs to drive the 97 Wrangler every time we leave the house, but will settle for "mommy's Jeep" since we don't all fit in the 97 anymore.

I'd rather have my kids ride in their correcly installed seats in our old 97 Wrangler (rear-facing and harnessed past the minimums) than in the safest new minivan in seats that aren't installed tight enough and in seats that they barely meet the minimums for. I also found it funny that a friend didn't want her daughter to ride in our Wrangler in her booster seat- even though she's been in one for 2 years, and wanted me to use one of my harnessed seats for her daughter. I mean, really, if a booster seat isn't safe enough in my Jeep, is it safe enough in your van? Made me laugh anyway. I think the reality of ejection is just more obvious in a Jeep, not more likely if kids are properly restrained.