European crash testers gave the 2018 Jeep Wrangler a scathing one-star rating. Europe’s New Car Assessment Program said the off-roader earned the poor rating due in part to its lack of modern active safety equipment.
The latest Wrangler is one of few new cars not available with automatic emergency braking, a feature that can prevent wrecks entirely by stopping the vehicle if it senses an impending collision.
The rating comes even after 2018 Wrangler aced the side-impact crash tests, however. A Fiat Chrysler Automobiles spokesperson told The Drive that the NCAP rating has no effect on regulatory compliance, and to underscore its engineering, said the “JL got a perfect score on one of the side-impact tests—how many vehicles with removable doors can claim that?”
Michiel van Ratingen, Secretary General of Euro NCAP, said it’s “disappointing” to see a brand-new car on sale without active safety features such as automatic emergency braking and active lane control.
DON’T MISS: Read our 2018 Jeep Wrangler review
“It is high time we saw a product from the Fiat Chrysler group offering safety to rival its competitors,” he added.
The 2019 model year will usher in a technology the NCAP believes the Wrangler desperately needs, however. The FCA spokesperson said automatic emergency braking will come to the off-road SUV in “early 2019” and the system “combines the benefits of camera and radar technologies.”
If the Wrangler tested did feature automatic emergency braking, it’s likely the SUV would have received a much higher rating instead of its measly one-star performance. Overall, the SUV captured 50 percent of the maximum points available in the crash test
Neither the NHTSA nor the IIHS has tested the new Wrangler in the U.S..
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