Cars

What’s a car that surprised you how badly it did in crash tests?


97-06 F150

by lifegoeson2702

29 Comments

  1. damngoodengineer

    Chrysler Town&Country (Voyager). It even failed in EuroNCAP at frontal.

  2. I_amnotanonion

    2nd gen GM U-body minivans. You’d think, with safety becoming a lot more popular in the late 90’s/00’s, that GM would make their people mover a lot safer.

    Nope. Did terrible in crash tests and GM didn’t do anything to improve it

  3. Raynet11

    On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero….

  4. badpuffthaikitty

    Ford crash tested a DeTomaso Pantera. The front wheels ended up under the front seats.

  5. ripped_andsweet

    the Nissan Quest for pretty much its entire existence was, for some reason, particularly awful in the front overlap crash test. it’s a hard type of collision to design around for sure but the Quest set the low bar,

  6. Building_Everything

    Back in the 80’s they did crash test demos on smaller van cutaway type RVs and holy crap they are terrifying. Nothing in the “house” was tied down with anything more than #6 screws and all of the cabinets & appliances ended up in the driver & passenger seats. You can find the vids on Yt

  7. Dannym0e

    The Chevy Astro/Gmc Safari or the Chevy Venture/Pontiac Transport or the Chevy Blazer/ Gmc Jimmy. All of these were horrifying to see how poorly they performed.

  8. Actual_Environment_7

    Oh, that’s an extended cab. Didn’t realize it at first.

  9. SweetTooth275

    I see nothing surprising in fridge on wheels failing car crash test

  10. IndonesianFidance

    The current 4Runner is pretty bad at multiple overlap testing

  11. R3TRO_131

    The ford sierra. The 1991 crash test decapitated the driver at 90KPH. Although, things did improve with later models, it was still unsafe.

  12. phlem_hamdoon

    Yugo. You’d be safer on a bicycle. Should’ve never been allowed in the country

  13. stav_and_nick

    Basically any new 3rd world car, especially by established brands. Yes, cheap is the name of the game, but some of the cost cutting is insane. I can sort of excuse shitty 3rd world companies like Mahindra, but when people like *Toyota* do it? You can’t tell me side airbags would add THAT much to the cost of the car

    I understand it, but it feels wrong to me

  14. lordmcturtle

    Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car in side impact test

  15. Fast_Dots

    Nissan Quest. There is a reason the discontinued it besides low sales numbers. That car would straight up kill its occupants.

  16. TreHHHHHAdN

    2012 toyota camry got poor rating on small overlap. i was surprised when I saw that

  17. ScruffersGruff

    The old style Ford Rangers. I’ve witnessed two fatalities where a car impacted the side going about 30 mph. Without getting too graphic, the steel sliced through the drivers mid-section, causing a massive bleed. Second one snapped his spinal column like a twig. Got there and the first driver died within about 15 seconds of me arriving on the scene. Second was DOA. I was just a witness, not a first responder.

  18. ValveinPistonCat

    Chevy Venture/Pontiac Montana, watch the crash test from those and you’ll wonder how the hell GM was even legally allowed to put those on the road.

  19. TheTense

    Gen 1 Durango. I remember my thinking as a kid, this is big, heavy, with steel bumpers. It felt strong and tough. It was our first family car with airbags. I just assumed it was safe….it came to market in 1998 with a 2 star driver crash test rating…

    Alternatively, a car people think is unsafe, but is actually reasonably safe: Honda S2000. 4 front and 5 star side impact for a convertible that came to market in 1999 is pretty impressive.

  20. deadmallsanita

    i remember when msnbc would show repeats of the dateline nbc reports on the crash tests in the 90s. I still remember how the dummy’s knee was completely destroyed in the Toyota Previa van.

  21. GregBVIMB

    Today… 2001 Ford F150. Was that thing made out of tinfoil?

  22. AshlandPone

    The steering wheel on the Aerostar literally blows its airbag and then pops off and lands in the driver’s lap… i mean, i wasn’t expecting much, with that tiny nose… but to pop off like that…

    Chrysler’s Cloud cars do exceptionally poorly for midsize cars.

    The first Gen Odyssey is decent among vans at the time but still quite poor. I was surprised because of how well the accord did, comparatively.

    The GMC Safari and Chevy Venture vans are both terrifying, like two different chassis, with catastrophic failures… let’s put the whole neighbourhood in them!

    90’s land rovers. All that weight works against them.

  23. Cheetah_Heart-2000

    The new bronco’s seem to fold up pretty bad

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