The lowest crash test score in a decade

Thursday, 30 May 2019

Jeep's national distributor has called on the American maker to directly explain why it's toughest off-roader has achieved a weak crash test result.

The one-star outcome is the lowest crash score of any new vehicle currently on sale here and the lowest delivered by the testing experts for 10 years.

Ateco Group's reaction to a smashing indictment of the latest Wrangler's crash worthiness has been to circle the wagons. Lawrie Malatios, group sales manager for the Australasian operation's Auckland national office, has declined to directly discuss the hard nut's puny Australasian New Car Assessment Programme (ANCAP) crash test outcome.

Jeep's local distributor has declined to comment directly on the Wrangler's poor crash test performance.

He also steered clear of exploring any potential impact the outcome might have with New Zealand consumers awaiting the JL line's release.

**READ MORE:

ANCAP's score applies to all models of Wrangler, including the two-door models.

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* No V8, but a two door Jeep ute is a possibility**

Every other vehicle in Jeep's line up achieved five star NCAP scores.

Instead, Ateco has offered a two-paragraph comment from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in the Australia which talks of the effort it puts into creating safe vehicles.

'Safety is something we take incredibly seriously and every other member of the Jeep family of vehicles wears a five-star safety rating with pride, whether tested by ANCAP in Australia or by Euro NCAP.

'The new Jeep Wrangler is a specialist off-road performance vehicle that has more than 70 advanced standard and available safety equipment. This includes front and side airbags, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-path detection, parking sensors, a rear-view camera and autonomous emergency braking, all of which are paired with the use of high-strength steel in the Wrangler's construction designed to protect the cabin in the case of an accident.'

The Wrangler only scored relatively well in child occupant protection.

With Kiwis showing increasing awareness of the importance of ANCAP scores, the fallout from the rough time the JL generation has meeting protocols applicable to New Zealand-new models will be interesting to measure.

The line is expected to come on sale toward the end of June.

Jeep's hope the vehicle would return a significantly better rating from the ANCAP than an earlier judgement from its European counterpart, NCAP, was dashed on Tuesday.

The Wrangler's crash test score doesn't bode well for the Gladiator pick up that shares all of its frontal structure.

Hopes that differences in key powertrain and safety specification details would alter the overall results for the better were undone when ANCAP determined the Wrangler was deserving of the same score it achieved in last December's NCAP metric.

The score also jars when every other Jeep model sold in NZ achieves the highest outcome from the crash test regime, a five-star score, and conceivably undermines the above-average frontal crash test scores from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) regime that is a primary barometer for buyers in North America.

ANCAP has specifically cited body structure failures.

Stella Stocks, who comments for ANCAP in New Zealand, says Wrangler's cabin did not stand up to impact in crash testing, with the structural integrity considered so poor the front compartment collapsed and the footwell ruptured.

It also received middling scores for adult occupant and pedestrian protection and was lambasted for lacking critical safety features such as Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) and Lane Keep Assist as standard. It only scored reasonably well on one count, for child occupant protection.

ANCAP is supported by the New Zealand Automobile Association, which employs Stocks, and New Zealand government and by all Australian motoring clubs, the Australian government, Australian state and territory governments, the Victorian Transport Accident Commission, NRMA Insurance and the FIA Foundation.

FCA Australia said several weeks ago that it had been working with ANCAP to ensure the Wrangler would be scrutinised as fairly as possible with all the different variables accounted for.

This effort seemed to hit a brick wall when it became clear ANCAP was unwilling to conduct its own crash test. It felt data from NCAP, its sister organisation, could be extrapolated for the model coming here.

The NCAP test involved a Sahara four-door Unlimited with a four-cylinder engine that we are not getting in NZ, where a 3.6-litre V6 petrol is to underpin the range.

However, ANCAP reasoned that didn't matter. It suggested 'the safety performance of two door and petrol engine variants is not expected to be significantly different… this ANCAP safety rating therefore applies to all Wrangler variants'.

What potentially adds insult is that the outgoing Wrangler, the JK, was a four-star vehicle – though that score was compiled when ANCAP crash testing parameters were less rigorous.

Even so, Jeep has pointed out that the JL has all the same safety features as its predecessor with 26 additional safety features as well.

AEB, which ANCAP and NCAP say must be present in order to achieve an optimal five stars, arrives with the MY20 update.

FCA has been in the news this week in respect to its proposal to undertake a 50:50 merger with Renault, which also has tie-ups with Nissan and Mitsubishi.