Jamie L. LaReau - Detroit Free Press - Published 12:01 p.m. ET June 6, 2024 I Updated 9:28 a..m. ET June 6. 2024

Only one of the Detroit Three automakers can claim it has a 2024 Top Safety Pick award for its full-size SUV from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety: Stellantis, which makes Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Fiat brands.

On Thursday, IIHS released the results of testing it did on the three most popular large SUVs on the market: the Jeep Wagoneer, the Chevrolet Tahoe and the Ford Expedition. The results apply to 2023 and 2024 models. Of those, the Wagoneer is the only model to qualify for a 2024 Top Safety Pick award.

To qualify as a Top Safety Pick, a vehicle must earn the following: A "good" rating — the highest-possible result — in three different crash tests; “good” or “acceptable” headlights must be standard equipment on all trim levels, and vehicles must deliver “good” or “acceptable” scores for pedestrian front-crash prevention, said Raul Arbelaez, vice president of the Institute’s Vehicle Research Center in Ruckersville, Virginia.

General Motors' Chevrolet Tahoe and Ford's Expedition fell short in many areas, Arbelaez told the Detroit Free Press, including subpar performance in the small overlap test — a test that measures what happens when one of the front vehicle corners crashes into another vehicle or object.

But when it comes to protecting passengers in the back seat, all three showed heightened risk for chest injuries — a fact that prevented the Wagoneer from winning the Top Safety Pick+ award. Additionally, the Tahoe showed an elevated risk to back seat passengers for abdominal injuries.

“It’s great to see the Wagoneer performing so well. There is room for improvement,” Arbelaez said. “Looking at the structure for the Expedition and the Tahoe, I am very disappointed that they couldn’t do better in the small overlap test. That test has been around for over 10 years. They could have and should have designed these vehicles to do well."

GM and Ford reactions

IIHS had previously tested large SUVs made by other automakers. These four got 2024 Top Safety Picks: Audi Q7, Rivian R1S, Audi Q8 e-tron and Audi Q8 Sportback e-tron.

Arbelaez said with today's technology and engineering know-how, GM and Ford should be earning a top safety pick.

"Both of those are vehicles where the safety design teams need to go back and put in some additional effort and improve these designs," Arbelaez said. "These large SUVs are built on truck platforms … we know they know how to design some of these structures to hold up in these tests. So it just takes the effort and the will to put those designs into practice.”

Spokespeople for GM and Ford said they are confident in the safety of the Tahoe and Expedition, noting the vehicles meet or exceed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's regulatory requirements. They also noted that the Tahoe achieved a four-star safety overall rating from NHTSA’s comprehensive New Car Assessment Program and the Expedition achieved a five-star overall vehicle score in NHTSA’s New Car Assessment Program from 2015-24.  

She noted too that the IIHS recently changed its other front crash test, called the moderate front overlap test. That's a broader front crash test than the small overlap test. The new procedure at IIHS includes measuring the impact on a dummy in the second row.

Jeep Wagoneer outperforms

IIHS's Arbelaez said one of the biggest takeaways is that "bigger isn't always better."

"Size usually does help you when you collide with a vehicle that is smaller," Arbelaez said. "But half of all vehicle accidents are single-vehicle crashes, where a vehicle runs off the road and hits some other structure. So you want to make sure you have good vehicle structure."

When the IIHS crash-tested both the driver and passenger sides of the Wagoneer, the vehicle did a good job maintaining "survival space" for the driver and front passenger. It performed slightly worse in the driver-side test allowing for some intrusion in the footwell area which could result in an injury to the driver’s left foot and ankle, IIHS reported. But in both tests, the front and side curtain air bags worked correctly to protect the dummies’ heads.

The Wagoneer’s pedestrian front-crash prevention feature called Full-Speed Collision Warning with Active Braking, is standard. It achieved a “good” rating in the test scenario of an adult crossing a street at night, and a child emerging from behind an obstruction in daylight. The system warns of a possible frontal collision, but if the driver has not responded, the system deploys the brakes.

Stellantis spokesman Eric Mayne declined to comment on the problems with rear seat protection other than to say, "We routinely monitor third-party evaluations and consider them — along with customer feedback — as our product plans evolve."

'Need to be able to see down the road'

The best crash is one that doesn’t happen, Arbelaez said. That’s where crash avoidance comes in.

“Nowadays, that is just unacceptable to have a brand new vehicle, a $70,000 vehicle, that has poor illumination," Arbelaez said. "You need to be able to see down the road to avoid a crash. Also, a lot of the crash avoidance systems are camera-based and they need good illumination."

He said the Expedition and Wagoneer got "good" ratings for the pedestrian crash prevention systems. But the Tahoe earned a "marginal" rating in the pedestrian test. Its standard system avoided hitting the pedestrian dummy or slowed substantially to mitigate the force of impact in all the daylight tests, but it faltered in the dark.

In the driver's side crash test, the Chevrolet Tahoe earned an "acceptable" rating because it maintained adequate survival space for the driver, and the air bags and restraints worked well, the IIHS said. But there was enough intrusion into the footwell to create a substantial risk of lower leg injuries. Performance was worse in the passenger-side test.

"In the poor-rated Tahoe, measurements taken from the rear dummy showed a high risk of head or neck injuries, along with the chest injury risks," IIHS reported. "The second-row lap belt in the Tahoe also slid onto the rear dummy’s abdomen from the ideal position on the pelvis, increasing the risk of abdominal injuries."

GM spokesman Bill Grotz told the Detroit Free Press in an email, "We are confident in the safety of the Chevrolet Tahoe that achieved a 4-star safety overall rating from NHTSA’s comprehensive New Car Assessment Program. We value consumer metric ratings from IIHS and will look to incorporate these latest findings into our new vehicle designs.”  

Grotz said GM continues to invest in advanced safety technologies and offers many standard active safety features in new vehicles such as automatic emergency braking, forward collision alert, following distance indicator, front pedestrian braking, lane keep assist with lane departure warning, IntelliBeam auto high beam and Teen Driver technology, which is a built-in system that lets parents set speed and other safety measures for teen drivers. 

'Light a fire ... for change'

.As for the Expedition, Arbelaez said the biggest concern was that the body structure did not hold up well in the moderate overlap front crash test with the rear occupant having a heightened risk of chest injury and the headlights were marginal.

"For a modern vehicle, that is unacceptable," Arbelaez said.

As to Ford's statement that designing SUVs in Expedition’s weight category to perform better in the small overlap test could increase injury to occupants in lighter-weight vehicles during a crash, Arbelaez doesn't buy it.

“The Jeep Wagoneer is performing really well on this test. They raised the bar," Arbelaez said. "I understand why they made that statement, but I guarantee they are at work right now making changes to their designs."

He said in 2010, Ford’s F-150 pickup had a poor safety performance and a few years later, the updated design all performed well.

"Sometimes, it takes a group like ours to light a fire to make a change," Arbelaez said. "If history tells us anything, they are at work improving their designs."