For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Jeep Wrangler are height-adjustable to accommodate a wide variety of driver and passenger heights. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages passengers to buckle up. The Ford Bronco doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
Both the Wrangler and the Bronco have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, four-wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, rearview cameras, available crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, blind spot warning systems, rear parking sensors and rear cross-path warning.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety rates the general design of front seat head restraints for their ability to protect front seat occupants from whiplash injuries. The IIHS also performs a dynamic test on those seats with “good” or “acceptable” geometry. In these ratings, the Wrangler is safer than the Bronco:
|
Wrangler |
Bronco |
Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Head Restraint Design |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Dynamic Test Rating |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Seat Design |
Pass |
Pass |
Torso Acceleration |
11.6 g’s |
13.8 g’s |
Neck Force Rating |
Low |
Medium |
Max Neck Shearing Force |
3 |
132 |
Max Neck Tension |
286 |
770 |
(Lower numerical results are better in all tests.)