Driving Dangers: The Most Unsafe Cars On The Road At Any Speed

Cameron Eittreim February 6, 2023

Dodge Stratus

The lowly Stratus was sold for over a decade and you used to see them everywhere. But it was also one of the worst-scoring cars in terms of safety ratings during the 2000s. This model didn’t have any side impact protection and the dated design didn’t help things out. The Stratus was competing against the likes of the Honda Civic and the Toyota Corolla (via Cars.com).

Although Chrysler boasted about a strong front-impact crash test rating, the side-impact crash tests were lackluster at best. The Stratus was eventually discontinued and replaced with the Avenger, which itself was discontinued shortly thereafter. The Stratus just shows that domestic automakers weren’t too worried about safety ratings back then.

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Suzuki Samurai

The rollover fiasco of the 1990s wasn’t just focused on the Isuzu Trooper. Other small SUV models were also wrapped up in the debate, and the Samurai was at the forefront. Although the basic design of the Samurai dates back to the early 1980s, it wasn’t fair to compare the SUV to more modern models, such as the RAV4 (via Motor Trend).

The Samurai had a very short wheelbase and it was high off the ground, which meant it tipped over fairly easily. There were other SUV models with a similar design, but the Samurai was so archaic that there were no safety features. The Samurai was finally discontinued in the late 1990s after being wrapped up in the rollover debates.

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Mitsubishi Mirage

Where do we start with the lowly Mirage? It’s the cheapest car on the new car market for a reason. Safety is about nonexistent when it comes to this car, but on the positive side, you get a brand-new ride for a fraction of the price of a normal new car. But the Mirage is the most basic car you’ll ever get in the modern era (via Edmunds).

From the cheap interior plastics to the lack of modern radio, you might mistake yourself for being back in 2004 again. The Mirage has gone without a significant redesign for quite a few years, and the lack of safety features only adds to that mystique. There are much safer cars on the road for drivers to choose from than this.

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Dodge Ram Van

Another unsafe vehicle marred in controversy was the Ram Van. The Ram Van had the same basic design for decades, and while businesses loved the sturdiness of the van, safety was not the first priority. These things were prone to tipping over when they had to make a fast maneuver, and the lack of a modern ABS system only worsened things (via KBB).

What was even more amazing was the fact that the Ram Van stayed in production until the 2003 model year. There was a time when big passenger vans were a normal sight in everyday America. Nowadays, these behemoths have been replaced with vehicles like the Ford Transit Connect and the Chevy Express.

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Suzuki X-90

The Suzuki X-90 got it worse than almost every other compact SUV in the 1990s. Because the design didn’t make sense, and the lack of safety features was still there. The tall ground clearance meant this short thing tipped over easily. The two-seat design and lack of a passenger airbag only worsened things (via Motor Biscuit).

The X-90 had a bad reputation for safety, and the sales numbers for the thing were very low. It turned out that no one wanted the weird-looking little UTE after all. Unfortunately, the basic design of the X-90 was shared with the stellar Samurai in terms of off-road capability. But the X-90 was unsafe and never sold well.

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Driving Dangers: The Most Unsafe Cars On The Road At Any Speed

Dodge Stratus

Suzuki Samurai

Mitsubishi Mirage

Dodge Ram Van

Suzuki X-90

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