Jeep Avenger fails to impress in latest round of Euro NCAP crash tests

Independent car safety body Euro NCAP has spent the last few months crashing some of Europe’s most popular family cars into solid objects, and while several cars have come away with maximum five stars, the Jeep Avenger hasn’t been so lucky, only achieving a three-star rating.

The Avenger compact SUV was launched in 2023 in both petrol and electric forms, though Euro NCAP tested the electric model, picking out some notable areas for improvement. Among them, the Avenger was deemed to have poor chest protection for a 10-year old child seated in the rear in Euro NCAP’s side impact test, and marked the Avenger down for not having the child presence detection system offered in many competitor vehicles.

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Side impact safety scores were better for adult occupants in the rear as well as the smaller six-year old child dummy, which received good ratings, though the Avenger got a ‘marginal’ score for what Euro NCAP calls ‘side excursion’, the propensity for a passenger to be thrown sideways into another passenger.

Another area in which the Avenger was marked down included an ineffective audio warning for frontal collisions, though this is something Jeep has already confirmed it will fix for future Avengers, and offer as an update to those who already have an Avenger.

The safety body summarised the Avenger’s results by saying “There is growing competition in the car industry, and [Jeep parent] Stellantis has had to take several steps to secure the future of its brands. But safety should not be where a car manufacturer makes its savings.”

Euro NCAP has also given Renault its equivalent of an ‘I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed’ speech to Renault, whose latest Captur and all-new Symbioz scored four-star ratings, rather than the maximum five. The safety body notes that while Renault was among the first companies ever to achieve five stars, “the four-star rating of the Symbioz and the Captur is a sign that, although these cars made a solid impression, Renault no longer seems to be striving for the top spot.”

Notably, the Symbioz was deemed to have ‘weak’ chest protection for the driver in an offset frontal impact into a deformable barrier – replicating the most common head-on accidents in the real world – and while its child safety protection was given ‘good’ ratings, like the Avenger it missed out on a child presence detection system.

Other makes and models fared better, with the Audi Q6 e-tron, BYD Seal-U, Ford Explorer, Subaru Crosstrek and Impreza, and XPeng G6 all getting a maximum five stars – the latter showing that Chinese brands especially have come a very long way from their reputation of a few decades ago. Of these, the Audi scored highest for adult occupant protection at 91%, and highest too for its safety assistance systems, at 80%.

What does it mean for car buyers?

• Audi, Ford, Subaru and XPeng achieve five stars in latest round of testing
• Renault Captur and Symbioz only score four
• Jeep, Stellantis criticised on child safety features