This Is America's Most Dangerous Car. Wait, There Are More

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: May 30th, 2012

this is america s most dangerous car wait there are more

Most dangerous: Dodge Ram 1500

By now, you probably have heard (enough) of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) top safety picks. The IIHS provides an Academy Award worthy number of different categories, which assure that anybody can be a winner. But what are America’s most unsafe cars? This remained a secret until 24/7 Wall Street started digging.

Second most dangerous: Chevrolet Colorado Crew Cab

They took the seven current-generation models that received a “marginal” or “poor” rating in two of the four categories. Then, 24/7 Wall St. combined the data with records from Consumer Reports, NHTSA crash safety ratings, and JD Power’s Initial Quality Study, to arrive on a list of “The Most Dangerous Cars in America.”

Third most dangerous: Mazda CX 7

In analyzing the data, it appears that the thumbs downs are pretty much consistent. Models that rated badly in the IIHS rankings usually received similarly poor reviews elsewhere.

Rank Nameplate Make Bad ratings 2011 sales Price JDP IQS1Ram 1500 Dodgeside-marginal; rollover-marginal156,983$22,120 2/52Colorado Crew CabChevroletside-poor; rollover-marginal; rear-marginal31,026$17,475 3/53CX-7Mazdarollover-marginal; rear-marginal35,641$22,190 4/54CX-9Mazdarollover-marginal; rear-marginal34,421$29,725 4/55PathfinderNissanrollover-marginal; rear-marginal25,935$29,290 3/56WranglerJeepside-marginal (2-door); side-poor (4-door); rear-marginal (both)122,460$22,970 3/57SX4Suzukirollover-marginal; rear-marginal12,520$13,849 2/5

Customers appear blasé about the shoddy safety of these cars. Says 24/7 Wall Street:

“The poor ratings of these models do not appear to have affected their sales. In fact, sales of all models are up from last year. In all but one case, according to data provided by Edmunds.com, sales grew at least 19% last year. And while most of these models’ sales are still below 2007 levels, sales the Jeep Wrangler not only increased the most but also jumped 50% since then.”

Now wait: Aren’t these big trucks supposed to be the epitomes of safety, whereas compacts get “I won’t put my kids in those” comments?

#America'sMostDangerousCars #BertelSchmitt #IIHS #Safety

Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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Grumpydok on Jun 01, 2012

Does anyone have an opinion on INFORMEDFORLIFE.ORG? It purports to aggregate vehicle WEIGHTS with crash statistics and test results from IIHS and NHTSA. It leaves some holes when there are missing test results, but I wonder if any of you give any credence to the rankings.

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Marcus128 on Oct 10, 2012

I can attest how unsafe the colorado is! It doesn't fare too well in accidents and has electrical problems that affect brake lights and other exterior lights that prevent accidents. after two recalls on my'04 for tail lights they would still stop working. It also had cheap parking brakes, problem shifting out of park, stalling at highway speeds, and even brake failure. I didn't feel safe driving this truck and seeing one Colorado suffer severe damage and both the driver and passenger were severly injured but the compact car who rear-ended them was able to walk away I decided even more that my truck was undafe. surprisingly the only recall was the tail lights which was only the tip of the iceburg of safety issurs with the Chevy Colorado!

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- Parkwood60 on Oct 12, 2012
  
  I have had a Colorado since 2005, and I have no idea what you are talking about. Mine has never had any issues. The parking brake weak? Well, having a manual transmission, I have occasionally tried to drive off with it applied and its it impossible. I have never noticed, or heard of a brake light issue. I have nearly 100,000 mile on it and have never had a stalling issue. Mine is a manual, so no problem shifting out of park, though I would guess your issue may have to do with you bad brake light switch (you need to have your foot on the brake to shift). Brake failure? Never heard anything about that either.
  
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- Marcus128 on Oct 19, 2012
  
  @parkwood60 I actually had it fail inspection twice for the parking brakes and at less than 50k miles replaced my parking brakes twice which is the first time I've ever had to replace a parking brake on a car. I'm surprised how fast the parking brakes would wear out! One day I had it in Park with the parking brake engaged on a steep driveway and suddenly my truck made a loud noise and started going in reverse. Other times (when my parking brakes weren't wearing out, I would shift it into park and the shifter would slip into reverse but the parking brakes would be able to prevent it from going anywhere. I always make sure I am in park before letting off on the brakes and make sure my parking brakes are set just in case whenever I park my vehicle. There were two recalls on the brake lights for my truck where a switch would malfunction resulting in the taillights not functioning and after the recalls my tail lights would occasionally fail along with a problem (that happened more often in winter) where my power door locks, mirrors, and other electrical components would stop working. I don't understand what you mean by the brake light switch being the cause of it slipping out of park and I always apply my brakes before shifting out of park. What kind of moron would not have their brakes applied when shifting out of park? As for the brake failure on some occasions I would apply my brakes and the only thing that would happen is the brakes would pulsate as if the Anti-Lock Brakes were acting on slippery conditions but the conditions were fine and my truck would never stop unless I turn off the engine. My Brake light problems often got me tickets and often other drivers who nearly rear-ended me would tell me to fix my tail lights then I would take it to a dealer or mechanic and they would be working fine. Sometimes they would work fine right after I turn the truck back on as one cop observed when he pulled me over for my brake lights not working and after he gave me a ticket he noticed as I was leaving that my tail lights started working again when I turned my truck back on. The tail lights would work fine then out of the blue stop working and the connections and wiring were fine. The stalling problem seemed to happen more often in hot weather but basically my transmission would feel sluggish and in some cases (including a highway entrance ramp) my engine would stall.
  
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