US probes 5 million Jeeps over fire risk

The Jeep Grand Cherokee, Cherokee and Liberty have been targeted by the country's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in an investigation into their fuel tank locations.

An engineering analysis could lead to a recall, although the exact implications in the USA - and a potential knock-on effect in Australia - are not clear.

"The Fiat Chrysler group is currently awaiting confirmation from the head office in Detroit regarding whether or not any Australian-owned vehicles are affected and, if so, how many," says Australian spokesperson, Lenore Fletcher. She stresses that there is no recall in the USA yet and a full update is unlikely before the end of this week.

In America, safety advocates are pressing the NHTSA over the location of the fuel tank, behind the rear axle, and the potential for fire in a rear-end impact. Initially, the NHTSA only studied the fuel tank on the Grand Cherokee in response to 26 complaints, before deciding to expand the list of vehicles.

The investigation covers Jeep Grand Cherokees built between 1993 and 2004, Jeep Cherokees built between 1993 and 2001, and Jeep Liberty SUVs built between 2002 and 2007. The total number of vehicles involved is around 5.1 million.

Chrysler says it is co-operating with the investigation and says available information shows no greater fire risk in its vehicles than other similar SUVs.

The NHTSA investigation compares the Grand Cherokee's fuel system with that of three similar vehicles: the Chevrolet Blazer, Ford Explorer and Toyota 4Runner and its preliminary findings indicate that fuel-tank failures and fires in rear-end collisions are more prevalent in the Grand Cherokee than in the comparison vehicles.