New crash tests expose more structural dangers among two popular family SUVs, the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ford Explorer. In tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, both earned the lowest rating, poor (out of good, acceptable, marginal or poor), in passenger-side small overlap protection for the 2018 model year — and, for used-car shoppers, those risks extend back to early this decade.
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The agency noted significant problems in both models that put front-seat passengers at risk for hip, head and leg injuries. IIHS says the Explorer exhibited major structural intrusion, including a portion of the lower door structure that collapsed more than a foot inward. The Grand Cherokee allowed a crash-test dummy’s head to hit the dashboard and then move outside the vehicle because the door opened and the curtain airbag didn’t deploy — important because the “frontal airbag and the side [curtain] airbag work together to protect the head in this kind of crash,” IIHS spokesman Russ Rader told Cars.com.