A man is suing the maker of an SUV that has a defective double door that cracks on impact.
The SUV is called the Jeep Cherokee and is the most popular vehicle for those who want to add a third door to their SUV, but it has one major flaw.
The problem is that the Jeep doesn’t have an exterior double door.
The Jeep is not a luxury SUV and the exterior double-door is supposed to make it look like a sport SUV when you drive it.
The problem is, the Jeep is a sport vehicle and the Jeep can’t do what the exterior triple door does.
The issue is so serious that John Peculiar is suing.
He says he was one of the first people to notice a cracked double-door.
Peculier is a former Army Ranger and he owns and operates a service station in South Carolina.
He is suing Jeep for damages, including the costs of replacing the Jeep.PECULIER: This SUV that I own and operate, I know it was built to be safe, and that the door is not cracked.
But I do not want to pay $200,000 for this SUV, because it does not meet safety standards and it is not safe.
I have been waiting for this Jeep to have the third door and the cracked door.
So I have had to buy another SUV to replace this SUV and I have to spend more money.
This is my life.PEREZ: John Pevoz has owned and operated a small trucking business in Columbia for 15 years.
He has been working to get the Cherokee off the road.
He says Jeep should have known what it was doing when it made the Jeep and he wants the Cherokee to have a third double door, one that would protect the driver and passenger from impact.PESCEULIER’S LAWYER: John, it was a mistake and you’ve paid the price for that mistake.
And John Pekciulski is a Columbia attorney.PEGUER: When the Cherokee was first introduced to the U.S. market in 2010, it looked like it would be a model that would appeal to a lot of people who are going to be driving a lot more of these vehicles in the future.
But the company also made headlines when a defect in the Jeep’s internal combustion engine led to a fatal crash.
Pecciulier says that the defect, known as a cylinder blowout, was so serious it could have caused the Jeep to crash.PECHESIOS LAWYERS: And then it became a story of how Jeep did not fix it.PECKS: The Jeep Cherokee was never designed to withstand a blowout.PENMAN: Pecsios was the Jeep executive who wrote Jeep’s safety manual for the Jeep SUV.
He said Jeep should’ve been more specific about the way it handled the problem and should have made a safety alert system in the SUV to warn drivers that a blow out was possible.PENCIANO: There was no alert system.
The only way you could tell that a cylinder blew out is if the windshield shattered and you could hear the air coming out of the vehicle.PEPE: Pembios says that is the only way to detect a blow-out.
The safety system for the SUV is supposed, at the time, to tell drivers to lock the doors and keep the windows up.PENGUERES: And when I look at the Jeep, I say, oh, my God, what have I done?
Pembietres is the founder of the American Jeep Association, a trade group for Jeep’s SUV division.
PEPE says he is disappointed that Jeep is still selling the Cherokee.PETERS: This is not the first time the company has had problems.
And we have a safety issue that we’ve talked about for a long time, but we never thought that we would be at the point where this was the issue that would cause a crash.
I think we’re all frustrated with the situation, but there is no reason to believe that this issue is going to end.PENDER: This story is part of NBC News’ series Jeep’s Next Generation.