Jeep Renegade boot space, practicality and safety

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• Slightly cramped cabin
• Door bins, cupholders for four
• 4xe PHEV’s boot is quite small

How much space is there?

The Renegade’s chunky, thick styling and broad pillars means it falls short of matching similarly-sized hatchbacks for space. It’s a short car, and that’s reflected in the seating, which encourages an upright posture to make the most use of the headroom. You can get four adults in, but those thick pillars make it feel a bit claustrophobic without the optional glass sunroof. Three kids can sit across the rear bench, though, and for middle-seat occupants the central tunnel is quite low, wide and flat.

The door bins and centre cubby are also smaller than some rivals – on the rear doors the speakers take up room and leave just a bottle-shaped holder. There’s a feeling of being hemmed-in by the rather bulky dashboard too – an attempt to mimic the upright feel of a classic Jeep (right down to a passenger grab handle) despite the far-away windscreen. The packaging is certainly unusual, but it adds to the car’s character.

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And it’s not all bad. The Renegade’s wide-opening and tall rear doors make getting to the back seats rather easier than in recent, trendy coupe-SUVs – which is a big benefit when helping infants into child seats.

Boot space and storage

What do you expect from a car less that measures than 4.3 metres long? Probably more than 351 litres of boot space – or just 330 litres for the 4xe plug-in hybrid. It’s a flat, wide shape and you’ll find it easy to fill efficiently. Loading height, at 760mm, is lower than you might expect for a car that looks this tall – the 4xe’s is higher.

A big plus point of the self-charging e-Hybrid model is that the electrical equipment doesn’t impact the amount of space you get inside. Jeep stashed the battery pack in the central tunnel, and the electric motor is mounted in the gearbox, so boot and passenger space is identical to the pure petrol model.

Fold the seats flat and the tall roof becomes a further benefit, with maximum space swelling to 1,297 litres for the petrol and full hybrid variants.

There’s a small net or pocket for loose items in the side of the boot, but on higher-spec models the opposite side holds a subwoofer. Overall, the Jeep Renegade doesn’t offer any particularly innovative solutions to carrying your lifestyle gear.

Despite the ample torque and grip of the 4xe, it has relatively low towing capability – just 1,150kg braked. The 1.0-litre petrol can handle 1,250kg or the 1.3-litre automatic can tow 1,450kg. Jeep hasn’t yet confirmed how much the new e-Hybrid variant can haul.

Is it easy to park?

With its large mirrors and squared-off body, the Jeep Renegade is easy to park – particularly as it’s not very long and the reversing lights cast a good pattern to judge distance. However, you do need to go up the range to get front parking sensors and many rivals now offer 360-degree cameras when you’re spending that much. An optional parking pack adds automatic parking and rear cross path detection for models lower down the SUV’s pecking order – although it comes as standard on the 4xe Trailhawk.

Safety

• Reasonable Euro NCAP performance
• Plenty of kit included as standard
• 4xe adds security of all-wheel drive

When launched and tested by Euro NCAP in 2014, the Jeep Renegade achieved five stars. It was retested in 2019, achieving three stars. Isofix points are present on the outer rear seats, and it performed well in the child seat compatibility tests.

It has seven airbags, adding driver’s knee protection to the front, side and full-length curtain arrangement, and as a result the percentages for occupant (including child) and pedestrian protection did not change much, despite tougher benchmarks. The change in score reflects a lack of safety assistants such as autonomous emergency braking or active lane keeping on the base model.

These safety assistants are now standard on all Jeep Renegades, and while we can’t say that this makes it a five-star car, it addresses the main reason the 2019 test score was so low. On lower specification models the primary omission now is adaptive cruise control. Blind-spot monitoring is also an option, which is included in Jeep’s parking pack.

Safety is more than just crash protection, and the Jeep Renegade 4xe’s all-weather all-wheel drive offers a measure of additional security in wet or loose gravel conditions. On the whole, though, you may want to look to more recent alternatives if having the safest small SUV is your priority.

WATCH: Jeep Renegade Euro NCAP crash test (2019)