At the latest crash tests results from EuroNCAP for the 2018 Jeep Wrangler, the famous off-road model got hardly one of total five stars, a quite low rating for a normal today car. But is the Wrangler a "car"? In the general idea of a four wheel vehicle, yes, it is, but because of the fact that is
a genuine off-road model (not by close a SUV), maybe it would be better not to treat it like a normal car which is destined to be driven exclusively on asphalt paved roads. So the crash tests that off-road vehicles are submitted should be different than the ones for all the other cars. For example, when one drives on tough terrain, obviously with low speeds, the worse safety situation that he can face is to flip over his vehicle at a steep slope. That is why the cabin needs more overall strength than the cabin of a car and there should be a test that will measure the safety that the cabin of an off-road model offers at a roll over situation. So the test for hitting on rigid barrier with 50 km/h, or hitting a pedestrian, is not so important to these "cars", that are build to transfer persons mainly to regions with poor road network, or even no roads at all.
But unfortunately, we see people buying such off road vehicles for daily use in cities, mainly due to the... SUV trend, not knowing that these models offer less passive and energetic safety, because of the technical characteristics that need for coping with driving on tough terrains, such as the increased height from the ground.
No comments:
Post a Comment