New Jeep Wrangler Gets 1 Star Crash Test Rating, Fiat Panda Scores 0

Remember how the Fiat Punto scored a dismal zero stars in a Euro NCAP test? It had the dubious honour of being the only car in the safety organisation’s history to end up with such a result.

Now though, it has another car to keep it company. Yep, another car has come away with no stars at all. And rather awkwardly, it’s another Fiat.

Like the Punto, the Panda is an older car in Fiat’s line-up which, and when tested under NCAP’s now more stringent parameters, it too came up short. It wasn’t able to score more than 50 per cent in any of the test categories, and most concerning of all, it managed just 16 per cent when it came to Child Occupant Protection.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles also had a new car in the same round of Euro NCAP testing, in the form of the Jeep Wrangler. It fared better than the Punto, but barely, managing just one star out of five. In managed 50 per cent in the Adult Occupant category, and was marked down for a lack of autonomous emergency braking system.

There were issues with a deforming footwell, while “the make-up of the dashboard was seen to present a risk to occupants,” Thatcham Research director Matthew Avery said. The two results now mean that the three worst-scoring cars ever tested by Euro NCAP are all from FCA.

Responding to the results, an FCA UK spokesperson told Car Throttle: “Safety is of the utmost importance at FCA, and as such, our latest Jeep Wrangler and Fiat Panda comply with all safety legislation in every market in which they are sold.”