News out of Australia this morning is that the Jeep Wrangler off-roader has only been awarded a four-star crash safety rating in the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP). Manufacturers who sell cars in South Africa are beginning to quote ANCAP results more and more regularly these days, allowing the program to arguably gain an acceptance rivalling that of the Belgium based Euro NCAP ratings.
All vehicles are voluntarily tested by safety organisations such as Euro NCAP, Latin-NCAP (South America), C-NCap (China) and ANCAP in their respective markets. Safety experts deem the European tests to be the most thorough since the testing regime was updated in 2010 with ‘Euro NCAP Advanced’ ratings, which reward new and more innovative safety systems.
It is therefore a disappointing result for the Jeep Wrangler that it couldn’t score higher, under less demanding circumstances, in the ANCAP and it also means no Jeep sold in Australia features a five-star safety ANCAP rating. This includes the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Jeep Compass. The Jeep Wrangler with its body-on-frame construction achieved a score of 10.51 out of 16 in ANCAP’s offset crash test, with the passenger compartment still maintaining good shape the crash report states.
The side impact test saw the Wrangler achieve a default 16 out of 16 and protection from serious leg injury was rated as ‘marginal’. Standard safety features in the Wrangler include dual front airbags, with side airbags available only for the front occupants as an optional extra. The test was based on the two-door 3.6-litre V6 Jeep Wrangler and a rating of ‘poor’ was also handed down for the Wrangler’s level of pedestrian protection.
It is worth mentioning that the Jeep Wrangler is offered with anti-lock brakes (ABS), electronic brakeforce distribution (EBD) and electronic stability control (ESC) as standard.
