THE Dacia Jogger seven-seat crossover estate car has fared badly in the latest round of Euro NCAP safety tests which also evaluated the Honda HR-V and the new DS 4.

The Jogger - which shares its underpinnings with the Dacia Sandero hatchback - was rated at only one star by the crash test organisation.

Euro NCAP said that the Jogger, which is on sale in the UK priced from £14,995, does not have a seatbelt reminder available in its rearmost seats which compounded the two star rating for the Sandero, criticised by the organisation for a lack of safety systems.

However, Euro NCAP said that the DS 4 comes equipped with solid crash protection equipment that is common across the segment, including an active bonnet for pedestrian protection and a new centre airbag located between driver and front passenger.

But the car's standard camera-only autonomous emergency braking system underwhelmed in the track tests simulating accidents with other vehicles, such as rear-end crashes, resulting in a four star rating overall.

To get a performance that is more comparable to its rivals in the segment Euro NCAP said that consumers must purchase the optional ‘Safety Pack Plus' that adds a radar sensor. The increased performance of this fusion system is enough to lift the car into five-star territory.

The latest generation, hybrid-only Honda HR-V was described as an all-round performer but the restraint performance in crash tests, in particular for children seated in the rear, was not as robust as expected.

This dropped its score in this part of the assessment into the four-star band.