I want a Gladiator but I’m concerned it’s not safe enough for a family vehicle

[dcmdon]

I wish that was all there was to it.......... Modern unibody construction is fantastic. In fact some of the safest vehicles on the road as far as protecting occupants are unibody.
I worked in a shop that did towing for the IHP and local police - frame is no guarantee, too many "it depends".........

This is especially true in side impacts. Where a unit body can be designed with multiple cross members that would be impractical with a frame.

The biggest thing a Gladiator has going for it in a side impact is that its higher than whatever is most likely going to hit it.

In a front or rear impact, its weight is a big factor in its favor. If a 5000 lb vehicle hits a 2500 lb vehicle, all else being equal its occupants will experience 1/2 the accelerative forces.

If you look at this video. The Benz continues moving forward after the impact. The Smart has reversed directions. Subjecting the occupants in the heavier car to lower G loads.

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[Gvsukids]

So we need to drive taller tanks. Where will that story end? Whoever has the tallest and heaviest tank

 

[Delhux]

I know it isn’t “safety” related per se, but one of the first things my kids said they liked about my truck was that the lighter doors made it easier for them to avoid dinging neighboring cars in parking lots. And when they pointed that out, I whole-heartedly agreed with them.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

So we need to drive taller tanks. Where will that story end? Whoever has the tallest and heaviest tank

Cars today aren't all that light thanks to the safety equipment and other requirements.
A modern Mustang weighs hundreds of pounds more than a 4 wheel drive Eagle of the 80s.
A Grand Cherokee weighs as much as a Gladiator.
A Camaro can weigh as much as 4,000 pounds.

 

[brianinca]

I got t-boned in my 97 Ranger by a 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis (think Crown Vic). The very aged driver had to dodge stopped traffic to run the red light to hit me. My head hit the driver side glass hard enough to ring my bell such that I don't remember counter steering through the 400 degree spin to wind up only one lane over. One of the witnesses said he was sure the truck was going to roll, it didn't. I recovered quickly enough to push it across two lanes to get it out of the way of traffic - the rear driveshaft was a casualty.

The truck was NOT totaled, it was worth more than enough the insurance paid to repair it. Rear axle included.

Good shocks, good tires, a truck high enough that the impact right behind the driver's door was BELOW the belt line - if I'd been in a sedan, it would have been WAY WORSE, full stop.

The mechanics of a traffic collision are highly fluid, and putting a finger in the dam for one area is great, but ignores the other cracks in the dike.

18 airbags is fine, but irrelevant if a semi with a load of milk rolls on top of you at the stop sign - saw that happen a month ago half-mile from work. It was awful and the intersection smelled like rotten milk for two weeks.

I was travelling to Stuttgart from Bremen in '86, at a high rate of speed in a W124 E-class. We passed an off-highway accident for a W126, over the guardrail. The grill was mashed, the trunk was mashed, the doors were flattened - the passenger cell was clearly intact. Any passenger properly belted would be shaken but not dead.

Passenger safety NOW is better than it has ever been, regardless the platform.

I agree with your sentiment. And wish people would wear seatbelts.

But my current car has side curtain airbags. If I am hit in a side impact, the airbags will keep my HEAD from hitting the side glass, roof, or door frames.

This is real safety that exceeds what you get from seatbelts only.

Wranglers and Gladiators don't have these.

I'm not saying that a Jeep isn't safe.

I"m saying that there ARE safer vehicles out there. Don't delude yourself into thinking that the reality is any different.

But we make our choices in life and live with them. Frankly, HOW you drive has a greater impact on overall safety than WHAT you drive.

I say this as someone who currently drives a Volvo with 8 airbags and received the highest rating the IIHS could give for a vehicle. The seatbelts have explosive charges that deploy when the car is hit removing any slack from the belts. The front seat headrests actually move forward in a rear end collision to reduce the chance of whiplash.

I've seen wrecks of this car that have rolled multiple times and all 4 doors still open. Its a tank.

And I'm probably going to buy a Gladiator. With full knowledge and acceptance that the Gladiator will be inferior to my current car when it comes to safety. Oh well. Priorities change.

 

[trailless]

I can relate as I'm currently driving a 2012 CRV... its an appliance that gets you to A and B. That's all.

This year I've had a number of vehicles, a 2014 JKU rubicon with 37s and, a 2003 Jaguar XJ Super v8, and a 2021 Honda Civic Type R. I sold all of them and I can't wait to be back in a Jeep. Just do it. My gladiator is still being built... but I already have beadlocks and 37s waiting. Probably going to get an EVO 4" lift. I honestly can't wait to be back in a Jeep.

 

[maligator]

I wish mate but nope, current gen. It was 2 Star but got upgraded to 3 Star with the addition of Auto Emergency Braking.

https://www.ancap.com.au/safety-ratings/ford/mustang/be8eed

Safety standards in Australia tend to follow Euro NCAP so big on pedestrian safety and advanced driver tech.

Oddly, safety ratings have little to no impact on insurance rates here. More important is car cost, likelihood of theft, drivers record and engine displacement.

I think that it got a low score in au because the steering wheel is on the wrong side.

It's hard to tell which parts of which score are most impotant to that overall score.

It looks like the score is being hit hard for child occupent Protection. It also looks like it's heavily based on the automated emergency braking features.

These automated features help, but are likely ones that people wouldn't want in a Mustang or would turn off. If the features are that great people that care more should be fine because their car will allegedly protect them from me anyhow according to how important automated braking is to this score.

The insurance likely assumed that the children I don't have would be fine in the back seat. And based on my driving record assume I don't need to have automated emergency braking systems to keep me from yeeting myself into people/cars.

The full width test was the only crash test that wasnt' that great from the actual crash tests.

On the other hand a tesla gets a near perfect score because of all of the same automated systems that cannot even prevent someone from slapping a parked firetruck going 70mph.

Obviously the main difference between these ratings is that one is focused on the safety in a car both in what it can do to avoid the crash and what happens during one where as the NHTSA really is focused on what happens to the passengers when the car is crashed.

I am a huge fan of technology, and a programmer as a day job. I understand the push to be first for self driving and driver assistance features but because of what I have seen through my career I am also extremely cynical about trusting these features. Just the other day in my Jeep my blind spot monitoring system missed two cars randomly when checking and then started working again. When bad code meets iffy sensors stupid things can happen.

Not anti-AEB. Just don't think a cars safety can be that much better based on it yet but that is subjective. All of the data I have seen about this is compiled to impress shareholders not people who don't want to die in their car. I'm sure that there are many people that have been saved by their automated features and thats great. I'm also sure there are many times someones tesla (or other car) did some wild crazy shit for no reason and that was logged and counted as an avoided accident for tesla to brag about.

 

[maligator]

I was curious how my insurance would change with a 3rd driver and 3rd car. I was surprised that WRX was so much given it cost $28K spec'd for the insurance quote whereas the Wrangler 4xe Rubicon was ~$54K and the Gladiator $47K. I get the risk doesn't equate to car price, but still.

new WRX: $3257/yr
new Gladiator: $3315
new Wrangler: $3087

To the OP, would you let your kids ride their bikes in the street where you live? I can pretty much guarantee you that is significantly riskier than buying a modern car and driving around with them in it.


I think the biggest risk to your kids is dropping $50K+ on a vehicle. Jeez these things are expensive and college tuition sneaks up fast. If you can afford it, I wouldn't sweat the other stuff as much given the tight NHTSA safety standards. Today's vehicles are significantly safer than vehicles of old and definitely safer than bikes. If you're going to drop that much cash, though, just make sure you will enjoy it for it to be worth it. If you're not off-roading or driving with at least the top off if not also the doors, I am not sure why one would get a Wrangler/Gladiator.

Holy crap. Either I'm really boring and safe or you live somewhere that is a shit show lol. I pay 1900 dollars a year for the 2021 veloster N and my new Gladiator combined. The Veloster, which is a fire breathing little hot hatch almost as fast as my Mustang GT was. I haven't gotten in an accident ever.

I used to work for an insurance company and until probably 5-6 years ago they refused to insure two cars - Teslas or a Subaru WRX. This sounds more like a insurance actuary there saw a Tesla and wrx fly by them going fast once and put them on her blacklist or something lol.

My parent's solution to college tuition was to tell me my entire childhood that If I wanted to go to college I could pay for it lol. I graduated high school 10 years ago and started as an electrician apprentice and after traveling almost every week I started to go to tech school for programming. Probably paid 8k and got taught nothing but between my interest in learning and having any kind of degree finished it has helped me be successful beyond anyone else I know that went to an expensive school unless they were engineering and other obvious fields of study.

To the OP. There are car safety ratings but they are specific to the most common types of accidents. You can get cars that are safer in these conditions but every accident can be extremely different. I just got my Gladiator and have had a it a few weeks now. I have had a few new F150s between 2011 and now. I don't remember if you mentioned what trucks you may have had in the past or what your experience was with them.

The gladiator especially if you are getting one with mud terrains or something is going to be a wild ride for you at first. At highway speeds it may feel like it wanders a bit and I have found that people that complain about this must over correct constantly and don't learn to tame that (with exception to the people that dealt with actual steering box issues in the 2020?)

 

[Chestnut]

I was curious how my insurance would change with a 3rd driver and 3rd car. I was surprised that WRX was so much given it cost $28K spec'd for the insurance quote whereas the Wrangler 4xe Rubicon was ~$54K and the Gladiator $47K. I get the risk doesn't equate to car price, but still.

new WRX: $3257/yr
new Gladiator: $3315
new Wrangler: $3087

Holy crap the new WRX's are stupid to insure. My 2013 hatch is $600 a year. Comparatively the gladiator is $1400. Our forester XT is $800 a year. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining that my "sports" car is the cheapest to insure....

 

[dcmdon]

I got t-boned in my 97 Ranger by a 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis (think Crown Vic). The very aged driver had to dodge stopped traffic to run the red light to hit me. My head hit the driver side glass hard enough to ring my bell such that I don't remember counter steering through the 400 degree spin to wind up only one lane over. One of the witnesses said he was sure the truck was going to roll, it didn't. I recovered quickly enough to push it across two lanes to get it out of the way of traffic - the rear driveshaft was a casualty.

The truck was NOT totaled, it was worth more than enough the insurance paid to repair it. Rear axle included.

Good shocks, good tires, a truck high enough that the impact right behind the driver's door was BELOW the belt line - if I'd been in a sedan, it would have been WAY WORSE, full stop.

The mechanics of a traffic collision are highly fluid, and putting a finger in the dam for one area is great, but ignores the other cracks in the dike.

18 airbags is fine, but irrelevant if a semi with a load of milk rolls on top of you at the stop sign - saw that happen a month ago half-mile from work. It was awful and the intersection smelled like rotten milk for two weeks.

I was travelling to Stuttgart from Bremen in '86, at a high rate of speed in a W124 E-class. We passed an off-highway accident for a W126, over the guardrail. The grill was mashed, the trunk was mashed, the doors were flattened - the passenger cell was clearly intact. Any passenger properly belted would be shaken but not dead.

Passenger safety NOW is better than it has ever been, regardless the platform.

The W124 E class and W126 S Class are perhaps the toughest cars ever built. Absolute tanks. They are so massively over-engineered, its hard to compare them to modern Benzes.

Plus, they had all the safety tech. By circa 1989, they had front and side curtain side airbags, stability control, ABS and seatbelt pretensioners.

 

[dcmdon]

JT also changed my driving habits. I had a genesis 5.0 prior. Left lane. 95-100 cruising. Aggressive florida driver. Now JT. Right/center lane. 73 mph adaptive cruise on. Window open and happy. Round town. Slow. Roof off. In zero rush the attitude the JT brings is just too mellow to be an aggressive driver.

This is what I'm hoping happens to me. But its a worry.

My natural instinct is to think "gee I wonder how fast I can make this go" whether its a car or a bike.

I've got to do an extended Gladiator test drive to see some more. Though I'm encouraged.

I rode on a friend's Harley recently. It was the first bike I've ever been able to ride slow on and not go nuts. Its happiest just cruising.

 

[dcmdon]

Holy crap the new WRX's are stupid to insure. My 2013 hatch is $600 a year. Comparatively the gladiator is $1400. Our forester XT is $800 a year. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining that my "sports" car is the cheapest to insure....

Maybe the ins co knows what a sleeper hot rod that Forester XT is. ha.

 

[Chestnut]

Maybe the ins co knows what a sleeper hot rod that Forester XT is. ha.

Either that or the "Wagon" classification for the WRX dupes their system into thinking it's a station wagon .

 

[Len]

If you want it, buy it!!! You only live once. Seriously tho, I know all the horror stories about how bad Jeep is with safety, honestly, any of those types of crashes you will lucky to walk away. In addition, if you plan on taking doors and top off it is kind of a mute topic at that point. Drive safe control what you can and enjoy being a Jeep owner.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I was curious how my insurance would change with a 3rd driver and 3rd car. I was surprised that WRX was so much given it cost $28K spec'd for the insurance quote whereas the Wrangler 4xe Rubicon was ~$54K and the Gladiator $47K. I get the risk doesn't equate to car price, but still.

new WRX: $3257/yr
new Gladiator: $3315
new Wrangler: $3087

To the OP, would you let your kids ride their bikes in the street where you live? I can pretty much guarantee you that is significantly riskier than buying a modern car and driving around with them in it.

You guys must have ZERO deductible or something.
We pay about 1900/year for 2021 WK2, 2020 JT, 82 SX4, 73 Javelin
The latter two are assumed to be driven less due to being classic cars, etc. and don't have the same sort of coverage the other Jeeps have.
For the first 3 or 4 years the Jeeps are replacement coverage - at least I know the WK2 is, I have to check our papers on the JT. My Silverado was replacement cost for 4 years then that dropped off as it aged.

Insurance isn't based only on price or safety - LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION, risk of theft, cost of repairs and more enter into it.

Even though the drivers of central Iowa are idiots on the road, Iowa still is one of the cheaper places to insure vehicles, so I'm told by insurance people.

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