The battle of press releases and statements that erupted between the Chrysler Group and Swedish car magazine Teknikens Värld after the latter published a video showing the Jeep Grand Cherokee almost tipping over in the infamous “moose test” continues to rage on.
In its first response, the Detroit carmaker said its engineers tried to “reproduce the wheel-lift in a properly loaded vehicle” without success.
Chrysler pointed out that neither Teknikens Värld was able to recreate the original event in a subsequent evaluation of three vehicles performing 11 runs, which were conducted by the magazine on July 8 in Sweden and witnessed by the automaker’s engineers.
According to Chrysler, “The uncharacteristic result was obtained using a vehicle loaded beyond its weight specifications.”
Today, Teknikens Värld notified us about its latest posting that rebukes Chrysler’s claims saying that the aforementioned moose test with the Jeep Grand Cherokee was conducted according to strict parameters that were followed “to the smallest detail”.
The magazine added that in the subsequent tests, the Grand Cherokee either went on two wheels or the tires pried off the rims.
“In every performed moose test with Jeep Grand Cherokee, the car either went up on two wheels and was close to overturning or the tires were pried off the rims due to the heavy forces,” wrote Mattia Rabe, Edito-in-Chief of Teknikens Värld.
“When we performed the moose test with Chrysler/Fiat present the car manufacturer’s representatives on site provided the loading of the car. Then the tires were pried off the rims instead of going up on two wheels like before. A total of seven times, the tires were pried off the wheels, a very serious error that we have only seen once before – with Skoda Superb in 2010,” he said.
We should note that the Swedish magazine has not yet published (at least not online) any photos of the Jeep Grand Cherokee’s tires sliding off the rims.
The Chrysler Group’s response came via Gualberto Ranieri, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, in a posting titled “The Sting of Truth” on the automaker’s official blog.
Ranieri more or less accuses the Swedes of cheating. “The magazine’s mark was the 2012 Grand Cherokee. And the vehicle was definitely “set up,” which is nothing short of criminal,” says the Chrysler exec.
He continues: “No vehicle should be operated in an overloaded condition, especially by a publication that purports to promote driving safety.”
Ranieri also claims that the automaker was advised of the magazine’s findings “only after its pages were printed”.
The last snippet from Ranieri’s post is even more aggressive:
“Chrysler Group sent engineers to Sweden to witness the magazine again perform the aggressive maneuver, even though it is not used by any regulatory agency to establish safety ratings.
This time the Grand Cherokee was loaded properly. (Because we were watching, perhaps?) And the atypical outcome observed previously could not be repeated. Despite numerous attempts.
Expect the magazine to maintain its innocence, even though its editors have been caught red-handed. Because the truth doesn’t just hurt. It stings.”
Something tells us that we haven’t heard the last of this argument…
Photo & Video Credits: Teknikens Värld
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