Ralph Nader: Unsafe at Any Age

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

The author of the most famous — and controversial — book ever penned about the automotive industry turns 82 today.

Automobile safety crusader Ralph Nader probably wouldn’t have made it to this ripe old age if the industry hadn’t made design changes and undergone cultural reforms in the wake of his scathing 1965 publication “Unsafe at Any Speed.”

That book, which laid bare design flaws and the general lack of regard for safety during the then-Big Three’s heyday, ultimately sunk the innovative ‘swing axle’ Chevrolet Corvair — or as Nader called it, “The One-Car Accident.”

His book critiqued both interior and exterior design, industry cost cutting, and a myriad of other issues, but his pointed words turned the rear-engine Corvair, which bowed in 1960 as a car that did everything differently, into a rolling pariah. Sales plummeted after the release of the book, despite design changes that eliminated the cause of those early rollover crashes.

The Corvair was cancelled in 1969, but the car-buying public now knew the value of anti-roll bars thanks to Nader.

The notoriety that “Unsafe at Any Speed” heaped on Nader was intense. He was forced to sue General Motors after the company sent investigators to spy on him in a bid to gather reputation-destroying dirt.

Stubborn and dogged as he was — and remains to this day — Nader took his case before Congress. His concerns were integrated into the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, which passed in 1966.

Today, many younger people only remember Nader as the guy whose third-party candidacy tipped the balance in the 2000 U.S. election, though many of them wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for the safety reforms he championed.

[Image: Sage Ross/Flickr]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Mor2bz Mor2bz on Feb 28, 2016

    Love Nader. First book I bought with my own money. Gore? The one who preaches global warming whilst having a 1300 electric bill? The lawyer who could not muster the nerve or energy to have the vote recalled in a stolen election from a crooked Jeb Bush? Not so much.

  • TomLU86 TomLU86 on Feb 29, 2016

    The death rate has fallen-from a variety of factors, including safety features, improved tires/brakes and crashworthiness. Also, roads have improved dramatically--MANY more divided highways have reduced head-on collisions. The interstates took a lot of traffic off more dangerous roads. This is huge, but hard to quantify. The war on drunk driving has helped too (though the zealous persecution of social drinkers has a minimal impact).

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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