Welcome to Best Car Guy. In this blog, we have listed Top 10
Most Dangerous Cars. So, today we’re going to be diving into a list containing the top 10
cars on the current auto market, that would statistically speaking, be more
likely to kill you rather than get you to point B. The list was compiled based on
data analysis done by Iseecars.com, looking at all models from 2013 - 2017, and
calculating the average amount of fatalities reported for every billion vehicle
miles. Some of the results may surprise you, others will probably be completely
expected, but at any rate, you may want to give this article a close watch if safety is a concern for you.
Chevy Camaro & Dodge Challenger
So right off the bat
I’m going to be starting this list off with a lie, since I’m lumping in 2 cars
for the number 10 slot, and the title clearly said 10 cars, not 11. The Chevy
Camaro and the Dodge Challenger. The Camaro has a 5.5 cars per billion vehicle
miles fatality rate and the Challenger is at 5.8. The reason I’ve lumped them
together like this is because they’re so close in fatality rates, and have
almost identical reasons for achieving them, so I wanted to avoid some
redundancies. It should come as no surprise that 2 of the top 3 American muscle
cars would make this list. Over the decades-long battle being waged by Ford,
Chevy and Dodge to make the faster sports car offered at a better price, we now
have an overabundance of cheap horsepower, which is alluring to us all but is
downright dangerous for someone who isn’t exactly prepared for it. It gets a
bit dicier too when you realize that both of these cars have had their
fair share of blind spot complaints as well. Both companies have done quite a bit
to add safety features to combat these fatality rates, but it’s not really the car’s
fault, to begin with, and has everything to do with an inexperienced driver in a
powerful sports car driving recklessly without the skill level necessary to do
so.
Kia Rio
I’m
not sure about you guys, but when I think of Kia I think, economical, practical, and most of all SAFE! WELL NOT REALLY, But apparently there are a few ripples in
the safety blanket at the Kia factory resulting in a 5.9 cars per billion
vehicle miles fatality rate. The Rio is quite possibly one of the least
expensive cars on the market today (good job Kia!), but I suppose to get that
price tag down, a few corners had to be cut with the safety features. The crash
tests for the model years we’re talking about revealed a few weak points
earning itself only a 4star rating from NHTSA and only 3 stars from EuroNCAP.
It was also discovered that injury to the rear passengers in the event of a
sideswipe was more probable than in most other cars. I suppose there’s also
something to be said about it’s smaller size, but all these factors combined,
have accumulated into a 5.9 fatality rate. The good news, however, is that the
Kia Rio has now rectified some of these flaws and has become a top safety pick
in more recent years.
Nissan Versa
Next up we have the Nissan Versa
making an appearance on our list. For a lot of you, this probably didn’t come
off as a huge surprise considering the Versa is currently one of the top 10
least expensive cars in the US as of right now. Just like what we talked about with
the Rio, obviously, some corners had to be cut to get this vehicle at that price
point, and unfortunately, some of those corners created a higher fatality rate
when an accident occurs, making the Versa hit at a 6.1 cars per billion vehicle
miles fatality rate. Interesting enough though, the Versa was awarded by the
IHS as a top safety pick in 2013, which is the first year of the model years
chosen for the study, but due to a change in testing procedures the Versa was
stripped of this title. Obviously, a car with such a low price point is going
to be average at best in almost every aspect imaginable, and it’s safety test
results were no exception to that. v The new procedures exposed a huge flaw,
and now it receives a “poor” rating in the small front overlap test. This is
what the suspected Achilles heel is for the versa’s safety might be and why it’s
so deadly in an accident.
Nissan 370Z
Somebody go into the kitchen and
check the stove, I can smell rice burning! Oh wait no, it’s just the Nissan
370Z burning it’s passengers alive! Before you guys go nuts, that was purely satirical. Anyways, we work
up 1 notch on the list with the Nissan 370Z by exactly .01. This guy has earned
6.2 cars per billion vehicle miles, leaving us with more questions than
answers. Interestingly enough, the NHTSA and IIHS have never actually performed
a crash test rating on this car before, leaving us with nothing more than theories
and speculations as to why this car is causing so many deaths. It certainly
could be a safety flaw left unrevealed because of the lack of crash testing, or
it could be more along the lines of the challenger and Camaro, and it’s just
too much horsepower and too low of a price attracting owners who shouldn’t even
be driving smart cars. All we do know is that this is currently the 7th deadliest car in the US today.
Subaru BRZ
So number 6 is where things start to
get a little odd because it’s a Subaru, The BRZ to be exact. The Subaru BRZ is
at 6.9 cars per billion vehicle miles and is an oddity in my book for a few
reasons. First of all, it’s a Subaru! Subarus have a great reputation for
being safe cars that score well in crash tests, the BRZ being no exception to
that since it was a top safety pick from the IIHS. This is why I’d never
expect to see it on a list of cars with high fatality rates, much less to be
ranked so high on that list too! Another interesting thing about this list ranking is that so far out of all the cars on this list, this is the largest jump in fatalities
as well. Most of the cars on this list have moved up .1 or .2 deaths per
billion vehicle miles from one car to the next, but the BRZ spiked up by .7
fatalities! Like all the other sports cars on this list so far, the BRZ is an
example of what AN AFFORDABESPORTS CAR can result in. But again why is the BRZ
ranked so much higher than the others? Could it be that the Subaru brand
attracts drivers who are looking for more reliability and safety rather than a
fun ride, and the drivers of the BRZ are MUCH less prepared for this car and
don’t really know what they’re getting themselves into? It’s the only
conclusion I could draw because it is hands down a safe vehicle safety test wise.
Let me know what you guys think in the comments below.
Chevrolet Spark
Number five on our list of most dangerous cars is the Chevrolet Spark, which has us diving right back into the world of
cars that are really, almost too small for American roads, because of their
high fatality rates. The spark scores 7.2 cars per billion vehicle miles, and
frankly, this one does not come off as too big of a surprise at all. We all know
exactly what the literal fatal flaw is here, the size. Now to the sparks
credit, it actually has performed well for the IIHS, earning itself an
“acceptable” rating in the small overlap test, and is actually only 1 of 11
subcompacts to do so. That is really about as good as it gets for these
subcompacts though, and seeing an “acceptable” rating for safety is not really
what I would call a vote of confidence. If I asked the pilot of a plane I was
about to travel on, how safe the aircraft was and he said “Ehhh, it’s
acceptable,'' I'd immediately get off and find another way there. That is just
the issue with these subcompacts though, and despite the lack of safety, these types
of cars keep gaining popularity.
Kia Forte
Number 4 has us looking at another Kia,
and this time the culprit is the Forte. This is another one of those sort of
surprised but not really, all at the same time kinds of deals for our list. The
Forte is at 7.4 cars per billion vehicle miles death rate, and its results are
pointing more towards lackluster safety features. The Forte is an obvious pick
when shopping for a good value on a reliable sedan to make sure you can get to
point A to point B, but unfortunately, according to the statistics compiled
from this study, point B in a Forte is likely to be the Morgue. But hey! At
least you’re getting damn good gas mileage on your way there! The Forte has
been an on-again / off-again top safety pick, which means that not all 2013 to
2017 Fortes are dangerous, but rather just a few bad apple years that resulted in
a huge fatality spike, and it finding its way on to our list in the top 5’s. So
please, if you're shopping for one of these, do the research and pick a safe
year.
Honda Fit
Now making our way into the top 3’s,
we’ve got the Honda Fit scoring third place in our top death machines list with 7.7 cars per billion vehicle miles. If you haven’t gotten the point yet, subcompacts
are more likely to kill you in an accident than larger cars, huge shocker,
right?! So interestingly enough, the NHTSA has consistently given the Fit a 5
star crash test rating, but again, and I realize I sound like a broken record
here, these high crash test ratings aren’t enough when these tiny things get
sandwiched between a semi-truck and a Hummer on the highway at80 mph. Another
factor that probably gets the Fit so high up on the list is the fact that it’s
actually, a pretty fun car to drive, and not just for a subcompact. This
probably leads more people to drive recklessly in one of these. You’re more
likely to see somebody behind the wheel of one of these guys to be weaving in
and out of traffic at high speeds having a grand ole time until he hits the
breaks suddenly and gets demolished by a FordF-150, who doesn’t even stop because they couldn’t tell the difference between hitting a Fit or a bump in the
road.
Chevrolet Corvette
Smashing through a guardrail,
over a cliff and right into the number 2 spot on our list, the Chevrolet
Corvette! This is one of the cars on the list where you go, “yeah that makes
perfect sense,” and it does! I mean where else are going to find this much
performance at that price point? Corvettes aren’t cheap by any means, but for
what you get in them, they are certainly a steal! There are actually no crash
test ratings for the Corvette because safety is not even a factor that comes
into play when deciding to buy one of these. I mean really, who has ever gone
“yeah I want a car that can go from 0 to 60 in 3.6 seconds, easily maintain
cruising speeds over 110 mph, but I also want it to be safe.” yeah that’s
right, nobody. . . ever! What gets really crazy, however, is by how much the
Corvette jumps in the numbers. We go from a 7.7 to 9.8 cars per billion
miles! Holy hell that’s a huge spike! But to Chevrolet's credit they have made
huge strides in recent years to make the corvette a safer, yet still badass and
fun to drive car.
Mitsubishi Mirage
So what do you get when a car
company who has a spotty record of cranking out cheap, less than reliable cars,
makes one of the cheapest new cars available in a subcompact format? The
Mitsubishi Mirage! This little Grim Reaper scored a shocking 10.2 cars per
billion vehicle miles fatality rate and is the epitome of compromise, suited
for drivers with a strong “good enough” approach to life in general. I can
understand drivers needing an economical vehicle, for a more budget-conscious
consumer, but there are better, more reliable, and most importantly, SAFER options
in the same price range. You have yet another subcompact car, that is
inherently dangerous already, thrown together so cheaply, it doesn’t stand a
chance in an accident involving any sort of substantial speeds.
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