Alternative to a Jimny

wrote:

The chance of jeep producing a vehicle smaller than the renegade are slim to none existent simply because they are not going to sacrifice occupants crash protection just to try to steal a few sales from the Jimny. Whereas Suzuki come from a culture that prizes space saving and compactness very highly.

Jeep don't seem to care about occupant protection. The wrangler scored 1 NCAP star.

wrote:

wrote:

The chance of jeep producing a vehicle smaller than the renegade are slim to none existent simply because they are not going to sacrifice occupants crash protection just to try to steal a few sales from the Jimny. Whereas Suzuki come from a culture that prizes space saving and compactness very highly.

Jeep don't seem to care about occupant protection. The wrangler scored 1 NCAP star.

That is probably an unfair statement.

First and foremost the Wrangler was designed and built for the US market. Not the European one. So EURO NCAP has no play what soever in designs for US cars.

Also NCAP is very very misleading and most of the low score is probably down to lack of passive pedestrian safety, not internal occupants.

One star?
l was looking to change my Defender for a LWB Wrangler! Although l doubt it's any worse in a crash than my Defender.

That's the problem these days with NCAP ratings, the 5 star system is too simplistic to give any meaningful feedback in the way it's generally perceived, exactly as 300BHP points out.
The original "how well a vehicle will protect me in a crash"  has been replaced with "How well it will protect me, others road users, pedestrians, and generally avoid a crash in the first place with electronic witch craft".
Yes a high score is good for everyone in the world, but you can't assume a low score means it's bad for occupants in a crash. It also makes it impossible to compare vehicle produced in different eras since it's introduction.
I Would suggest these days that most modern vehicles would all score the same in the original context of the rating, that would be a 5!

 

wrote:

One star?
l was looking to change my Defender for a LWB Wrangler! Although l doubt it's any worse in a crash than my Defender.

In terms of crash protection, the Wrangler is far superior to a traditional Defender. Remember the only way LR could even sell the old Defender in the USA was by fitting an external roll cage to the NAS models. But even then, they were still pulled from the N. American market after a few years as they couldn't meet the safety requirements.

Jeep on the other hand sells in the region of 200,000 - 250,000 Wranglers ever year in the USA and has done so for nearly 2 decades.

If you are interested in a vehicle, I'd probably say completely ignore the NCAP rating. But if you can't, then do go and read the full report. As well as look at how the same vehicle is rated in the USA on safety grounds.

That's good advice, thank you.

The issue is finding one, like the Jimny they are in short supply and dealers don't return my calls.