A few years back, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that the Jeep Wrangler had a flipping problem. Repeated runs of the driver-side small overlap crash test forced the 4×4 on its side repeatedly, even when using different methods. We reported on this extensively in 2022, when Jeep told us the results were “anomalous” despite the SUV being unable to land on all four wheels during multiple attempts. Fortunately for the automaker—and Wrangler owners—it seems to have finally cracked the code.
The IIHS announced Friday in a press release that the 2026 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited now remains upright during the test. Apparently, a new frame rail design is what did the trick. You can see how the old model performed here:
2019 Jeep Wrangler 4-door driver-side small overlap IIHS crash test
At the time, an IIHS spokesperson told The Drive, “The 2019 Jeep Wrangler 4-door actually performed quite well in the driver-side small overlap crash test by the normal metrics that we use to issue a rating. This includes structural intrusion, dummy injury measures, and restraint performance. However, ratings can be downgraded for certain post-crash events. These include things like fuel leaks, a door opening, or, in this case, the Wrangler tipping onto its passenger side.”
A Jeep representative responded to our request for comment by saying, “These results were anomalous. We have produced more than 873,000 of these vehicles. By conservative estimate, they have accounted for more than 13.1 billion miles of driving. From this population, we are unaware of any incidents that correlate with the vehicle dynamic portion of the IIHS small-overlap crash simulation. Notwithstanding, the vehicle provided ‘good’ protection—the highest-possible IIHS rating—in each of the injury metrics associated with small-overlap …”
Still, Jeep went back to the drawing board later that year but couldn’t find success—until now.
2026 Jeep Wrangler 4-door driver-side small overlap IIHS crash test
This result was enough for the IIHS to bump the Wrangler’s small overlap rating from “marginal” to “acceptable.” The highest possible label is “good,” although the Wrangler’s passenger-side small overlap test kept it from achieving that. According to the independent safety agency, its testing found that the revised JL Wrangler poses “a high risk of injury to the front passenger’s right foot and leg.”
Jeep began assembling Wranglers with the new frame rail design after October 2025, so any built after that should handle crashes like this similarly. New 2026 Gladiator pickups get the same modification, with the manufacture of those trucks starting around the same time.
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