Eek! The Dacia Jogger has been given a one-star Euro NCAP rating

The Dacia Jogger is yet another example from the budget brand of how you can buy a lot of car for not very much money. However the Euro NCAP crash test team has now got its hands on one and it turns out that approach has consequences.

In the latest Euro NCAP crash tests, the Jogger's average was brought down by lacking safety assistance systems like pedestrian-recognition braking. Though the overall crash tests results for adult and child passengers were better, NCAP's scoring system means the Jogger gets only one star overall.

Its score is largely based on that of the old Sandero Stepway as the cars share a platform, with Euro NCAP performing a number of tests to verify that the results could be carried over.

The Stepway actually scored two stars last year, but the Jogger ‘uses up the tiny margin that the Sandero had’ to achieve that rating, on account of there being no seatbelt reminder in the seven-seater version’s rearmost row. Oops.

Dacia is on a run of not very good scores, with the Spring and Logan MCV earning one- and two-star ratings respectively in 2021. The Duster achieved three stars when it was tested back in 2017, but Euro NCAP’s tests have become more stringent in the five years since.

“Safety has moved on,” said Michiel van Ratingen, Secretary General of Euro NCAP, when the Stepway’s rating was confirmed last year, “and the biggest strides forward are now being made by using high-tech to prevent accidents from happening.

“Clearly, Dacia have found their market and they’re sticking to it, but a two-star rating shows little ambition, even for a low-cost product.” Ouch.

Could be worse though. At the tail end of 2021 the Renault Zoe was handed a zero-star rating after being retested for the harsher new regulations.