ANCAP has today awarded the Jeep Cherokee, Skoda Rapid, Honda Odyssey and Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid with five-star crash safety ratings. It’s Jeep’s first ever five-star ANCAP rating.
Launching here in June, the new Jeep Cherokee is the first Jeep rated by ANCAP ever to achieve all five safety stars. Commenting on the Cherokee’s five-star rating, ANCAP Chairman, Lauchlan McIntosh said: “Jeep is a mainstream brand that has been around for many years but has lagged its competitors in terms of safety.”
Mr McIntosh said the fact the new Cherokee is fitted with a full suite of airbags and a number of safety assist technologies (SAT) including roll stability, trailer stability, tyre pressure monitoring and daytime running lights as standard on all variants helped it to achieve its five-star rating. However, he was disappointed that items including, autonomous emergency braking (AEB), adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, reversing collision avoidance and lane support systems are available only as cost-options on more expensive variants.
The Skoda Rapid, Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid and Honda Odyssey also fell into this category, he said.
“While each of the cars for which we’ve released ratings today have achieved excellent results and provide a very high level of safety for occupants – and, in the case of the Cherokee, Odyssey and Pathfinder, have increased their ratings from previous models – there now needs to be a shift in focus.”
“The future of vehicle safety lies with active safety features – safety assist technologies which can prevent a crash from occurring. Many of these technologies are now widely available in Europe and are working to reduce the number and severity of crashes. Their availability in Australasia is however being restricted by manufacturers, many of which are still only offering them to those who are prepared to pay for them as an extra.”
Mr McIntosh said, ANCAP is encouraging consumers to ask for these technologies when they are making their new car purchases at the dealership.
“The more consumer demand there is, the more likely manufacturers will be to introduce these technologies as standard much sooner.”
