• Limited rear legroom
• Good storage up front
• 4xe’s boot is small

How much space is there?

Space in the front of the Jeep Avenger is good. There’s enough headroom and, because the seats slide quite a long way back, even taller drivers can get comfortable. The cabin’s also wide enough to prevent you from rubbing elbows with your front passenger.

The Avenger makes far less sense when you ask it to carry passengers. Our shortest tester, who measures just five foot four, had barely enough rear legroom when sitting behind his own driving position – and if the driver is any taller than five foot eight, rear legroom disappears to almost nothing.

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Rear headroom is good, although trying to fit three passengers across the back seat is pretty uncomfortable. There isn’t enough shoulder room. Like the electric Jeep Avenger, there are plenty of rivals that offer more space and that includes our favourite small SUV, the Skoda Kamiq.

Boot space and storage

The standard petrol Avenger and the Avenger e-Hybrid both have 321 litres of boot space, which is average for the class. The Skoda Kamiq gets 400 litres, while the Ford Puma has a best-in-class capacity of 456 litres. The Avenger 4xe has even less space as the extra electric motor eats up space under the boot floor. Capacity drops to just 262 litres.

The Avenger’s boot space isn’t that much more impressive when you fold the rear seats flat, either. It has a maximum capacity of 1,053 litres which pales in comparison to the 1,467 litres offered by the Peugeot 2008.

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Jeep compensates for this with the Avenger’s oddments storage. There’s 34 litres-worth of hidey-holes dotted around the cabin, thanks to some deep door pockets and a cavernous central cubby between the front seats. It’s covered by a rather natty magnetic flap, which works in the same way as an iPad screen cover.

Is it easy to park?

The Avenger is barely any longer than a traditional supermini, which means it’s easy to find a big enough space for it in cities. Chunky tyre sidewalls also mean you’re unlikely to kerb an alloy wheel, and the massive side windows give you good visibility at junctions. The view out of the back isn’t so good, thanks to the car’s small rear screen and thick pillars.

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Rear parking sensors are fitted as standard, but you’ll need to upgrade to mid-range Altitude trim if you want a parking camera – and even then, it’s just a 180-degree rear-view unit. Summit gets all-round parking sensors but doesn’t upgrade the camera, and no 360-degree system is offered.

Safety

• Disappointing three-star Euro NCAP score
• Largely due to poor driver assistance tech
• Top-spec model has more equipment

Euro NCAP has only crash-tested the Avenger EV so far – and it received a disappointing three-star rating, with particularly low scores for driver assistance tech and pedestrian protection. While we can’t say how a petrol-powered Avenger would fare in an accident, there are almost certainly safer options in this class.

The testers found some faults with the Avenger’s crash protection, too. For example, the child dummies received far heavier blows to their chests in lateral impact tests than they did in the Volvo EX30 and Smart #1.

Standard safety equipment includes traffic sign recognition, lane-keeping assist and automatic emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist recognition.

Mid-range Altitude cars receive adaptive cruise control, while the range-topping Summit model features lane centring assist and traffic jam assist if you’ve selected the hybrid. Buyers also get six airbags as standard and three sets of Isofix mounts (including one for the front passenger seat).

Watch the Jeep Avenger crash test video