Are TJs safe?

Well, now I'm glad I didn't buy it to replace my TJ. ;)My Samurai was a death trap that was only equaled by my CJ with FRONT drum brakes.

…no power brakes, no power steering, and a 24” diameter steering wheel…

Yeah, I remember those days.
 
Ah yes, Lucas electronics.

Joseph Lucas, The Prince Of Darkness 😁

At one point I really wanted a Triumph TR8.

I mentioned it to my dad and he said, "I didn't raise you that stupid, did I?. You get that from your mom?"
A coworker back in the '90s had British motorcycles (Triumph and Norton). He referred to it as "Lucifer Electronics".
 
what a bunch of wimps. My '53 IH R-120 3/4T pickup had no power steering, drum brakes, no A/C, AM only radio (when it worked), and could (eventually) do 65 MPH down the interstate with 2T of grain in the bed. Try stopping that sombitch quickly.

BTW, it was great fun to kill the ignition going down the hill towards the farm, then turning it back on and watching the blue flames come out from under the truck from the backfire--quite a nice explosion too. It blew the muffler off the third time. I quit after that as I got tired of my Dad whooping my arse ... slow learner I guess.
 
what a bunch of wimps. My '53 IH R-120 3/4T pickup had no power steering, drum brakes, no A/C, AM only radio (when it worked), and could (eventually) do 65 MPH down the interstate with 2T of grain in the bed. Try stopping that sombitch quickly.

BTW, it was great fun to kill the ignition going down the hill towards the farm, then turning it back on and watching the blue flames come out from under the truck from the backfire--quite a nice explosion too. It blew the muffler off the third time. I quit after that as I got tired of my Dad whooping my arse ... slow learner I guess.

Pretty much the same with our '63 GMC 1 ton. We didn't need no stiiiinkin' power steering or power brakes!
 
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Asking a TJ enthusiast forum whether a TJ is safe is like asking a cherry pie enthusiast forum whether cherry pie is good so as a parent Ill be a dissenting voice.

As a teenager I drove high horsepower 1960s rear wheel drive cars in a rural area where we got real snow. I had an absolute megasahitton of fun and developed great skills but in the process wrecked several cars, was a passenger in several other wrecks, and was in a high risk insurance pool before I was nineteen. All of us kids drove 1960s and 1970s garbage cars except most of them didn't make that much horsepower. Most of us survived. Most being the key word there. I had a kid late in life and as a teen she had to get a fairly modern all wheel drive car, good tires, airbags, etc for her first car. Been there, done that, and saw things go horribly wrong.
 
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It's all relative. Is a TJ safer than a modern brand new car in a head-on crash? Probably not. Is it much easier to be distracted in a modern car with screens? You bet. I've taken my eyes off the road more than I'd care to admit in my 2019 Grand Cherokee messing with the Carplay or HVAC that is integrated in the screen, where in my TJ I'm much more focused on what is going on around me. Newer cars are very isolated from the road, which can be both good and bad.

Personally, if I was a parent and my child had proven in other ways they were responsible, I wouldn't have a problem with them being in a vehicle they wanted if it was something like a Jeep. They are likely going to take better care of a vehicle they enjoy. Almost all modern cars have more HP than a TJ anyway.

If I was you and I really wanted to convince my parents to allow me to get a Jeep, I'd meet them halfway and enroll in some defensive driving courses or driver's ed to meet them halfway and prove that you take driving seriously.
 
Buy an XJ. They're much safer in rear end collisions and look cool when you drive them home after the wreck "TJ like".
XJ SHORT.jpg