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FCA's Fiat Panda, Jeep Wrangler JL Get Completely Thrashed by Euro NCAP

The European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) has been setting the crash test standards in Europe since its inception in 1997, and in the two decades of existence, only a handful of cars have been awarded the minimal zero or one star out of five.
Jeep Wrangler JL at Euro NCAP 12 photos
Photo: Euro NCAP
Fiat Panda at Euro NCAPFiat Panda at Euro NCAPFiat Panda at Euro NCAPFiat Panda at Euro NCAPJeep Wrangler JL at Euro NCAPJeep Wrangler JL at Euro NCAPJeep Wrangler JL at Euro NCAPJeep Wrangler JL at Euro NCAPJeep Wrangler JL at Euro NCAPJeep Wrangler JL at Euro NCAPFiat Panda at Euro NCAP
Sadly, the aging Fiat Panda and the all-new Jeep Wrangler JL are the latest vehicles to wear the cone of shame when it comes to crash test safety, and coincidence makes it that both come from the FCA stable.

When it was last tested in 2011, the Fiat Panda had achieved a moderately good result of four stars out of five, but Euro NCAP's standards have massively improved since then, so the latest crash tests only awarded zero stars for the sub-compact Italian. The only other Fiat to not get a single star was the equally aging Punto back in 2017.

In fact, the Panda only scored seatbelt reminder points in the latest tests, with EuroNCAP saying that the model has been “comprehensively overtaken by rival superminis in the race for safety.”

While the Fiat's poor performance could be attributed to its old age, the Jeep Wrangler JL is all-new from the ground up and has entered the market in 2018. Since its only assistance systems are a seatbelt reminder and driver-set speed limiter, Euro NCAP only awarded a single star out of five to the Jeep, which is obviously lagging behind all its competitors.

It is truly disappointing to see a brand-new car being put on sale in 2018 with no autonomous braking system and no lane assistance. It is high time we saw a product from the FIAT-Chrysler group offering safety to rival its competitors,” said Michiel van Ratingen, the Secretary General of Euro NCAP.

The other seven cars tested all achieved five stars, with the Audi Q3, BMW X5, Hyundai Santa Fe, Jaguar I-Pace, Peugeot 508 and the Volvo S60 and V60 getting the maximum rating despite some small issues with two of them.

The X5's driver knee airbag didn't deploy correctly in the frontal offset crash test, a problem also encountered by the 5 Series G30 in 2017. Hyundai Santa Fe's curtain airbags on models equipped with a panoramic roof can apparently get torn during deployment, but Hyundai has already changed the airbag fixings in production and cars that have been sold are subject to an official recall for this matter.

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About the author: Alex Oagana
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Alex handled his first real steering wheel at the age of five (on a field) and started practicing "Scandinavian Flicks" at 14 (on non-public gravel roads). Following his time at the University of Journalism, he landed his first real job at the local franchise of Top Gear magazine a few years before Mircea (Panait). Not long after, Alex entered the New Media realm with the autoevolution.com project.
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