® 

We received a thank you message that generated a lot of smiles here at Chrysler. Cathy Collison, a former editor and now freelance writer for the Detroit Free Press, wrote a story (which you can read by clicking here) for the paper about how her Jeep® Grand Cherokee saved the lives of her and her son and daughter recently. 

Collison and son were heading home from Chicago after picking up her daughter, a University of Wisconsin student. The family was traveling on I-94 in western Michigan, when the Grand Cherokee and 30 other vehicles hit a slick patch of highway. A minivan rear-ended her Grand Cherokee, sending it skidding into a ditch. Minutes later, a skidding semi-truck slammed into the Jeep.

"Thanks to the engineers, designers and every single worker on the line at the Jefferson assembly plant who had a hand in the building of our Jeep Grand Cherokee, more than 12 years old but reliable and sturdy enough to save our three lives," Collison wrote for the Free Press. "Our Jeep saved our lives. For that, we are so grateful."

The Grand Cherokee was totaled, but protected Collison and her family from injury.

Collison usually drives a station wagon, but decided to take her husband's Grand Cherokee for the trip.

"When it comes to taking a longer road trip in the winter, the clear choice was our four-wheel drive Jeep. It handles snow and ice so well. In fact, we were actually doing pretty well on this trip -- sloppy snow in Chicago, but nothing the Jeep couldn't handle, and we breezed back home over the Chicago Skyway.

"In truth, I think if other drivers had Jeeps -- as well as slowing for conditions, we would have gotten home with Jeep intact and safely. However, we had slowed on seeing flares and police on a black-ice stretch on I-94, also very snowy low visibility, when we were hit once into the ditch...and then, yes the harrowing experience of looking up and seeing a semi sliding toward us. Still, that sturdy Jeep let everyone scramble out without major injury -- as I wrote, we are so grateful for that."

Collison said she and her husband Bill refer to the Grand Cherokee like it was a third child. I'm sure many people at Chrysler feel the same, as do some Jeep owners.

"We were glad we took the Jeep on its "last big trip" to Iowa in November to visit my father-in-law," she told us.