American’s Most Dangerous Pickup – Dodge Ram 1500
Tim Esterdahl | Jun 04, 2012 | Comments 10
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Consumer Reports, NHTSA crash safety ratings and JD Power’s Initial Quality Study all agree – the Dodge Ram 1500 is the most dangerous pickup in America.
A 24/7 Wall St. story concluded that the Dodge Ram 1500 is America's Most Dangerous Pickup.
The Delaware based online financial news and opinion site 24/7 Wall St. recently looked at the various studies to come to the conclusion that the Dodge Ram 1500 is the most unsafe pickup.
Chart from thetruthaboutcars.com using 24/7 Wall St. data.
These numbers were derived by taking the models that received “marginal” or “poor” ratings in two of the four IIHS categories. Then, they combined this combined this data with records from NHTSA crash safety records, JD Power’s Initial Quality Study and Consumer Reports. The final list was dubbed “The Most Dangerous Cars in America.”
According to 24/7 Wall St., the Dodge Ram safety’s record has been unimpressive for years. In fact, from 1998-2001, the truck failed the IIHS front offset tests and was rated poor in protecting heads and left legs as well as retraining the test dummy during a crash. Although, it has improved its frontal offset ratings, side-impact and rollover ratings still leave a lot to be desired.
Interestingly, the NHTSA’s tests on the Dodge Ram, found the opposite. The front was good, the side impact wasn’t.
The Toyota Tundra on the other hand, has been ranked highly in all these studies for several years. In fact it could be argued that the Tundra is the safest truck in America.
Do consumers care? 24/7 Wall St. says they don’t.
“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.”
Too bad consumers don’t pay more attention to these numbers. They would find that Toyota takes safety seriously.
Related Posts:
Filed Under: Auto News
People care. Ram is selling less than half of what Chevy and Ford do in half tons. Ram is in last place among half-tons. Save for Tundra but they are much newer to the big full size trucks market than Ford so it is understandable that they would sell less. I don’t care how many upgrades Ram brings out for 2013. Until Fiat-Ram starts improving their quality and crash tests, Fiat just won’t interest me.
Agreed. The reason I stayed with the Tundra was exactly because of the Ram’s poor showing in both safety and reliability
The Ram’s do drive nice and have a great interior layout, IMHO, but I didn’t like the idea of always having my truck in the shop or how it would fare in a serious accident.
It’s too bad Dodge can’t get their act together on this. Personally I think the Ram’s are the best looking truck out there.
I agree Dave. After having three crashes with my 07 Tundra. One a deer strike and pit bull strike, both on the interstate. The other I was rear ended. Truck held up strong. I’m now over 136k miles.
F-150 also was a top safety pick. They just released crash test ratings for the first time on Heavy Duty trucks. See pickuptrucks.com for the details. Ford 5 stars. Chevy 2 stars. Ram 2 star front crash and was the truck that caught on fire! Chevy 1 star side pole. Ram 2 star side pole. Ford 5 star side pole. If you want the best crash test ratings, stick with Ford and Tundra trucks. That is all I have to say about that.
Toyota cares about WHAT???? Didn’t Toyota try hiding there run away throttle issues by first denying they existed and then blaming their customers? Yep “Toyota takes safety seriously.” may back side. Maybe “24/7 Wall St.” has stock in Toyota and are trying to recoup some of their losses? Toyota Pays $16.375 Million Civil Fine
April 19: Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood made the following statement after Toyota Motor Corporation agreed to pay a $16.375 million fine – the largest fine permitted by law – for failing to notify NHTSA of a dangerous pedal defect for almost four months: “By failing to report known safety problems as it is required to do under the law, Toyota put consumers at risk. I am pleased that Toyota has accepted responsibility for violating its legal obligations to report any defects promptly. We are continuing to investigate whether the company has lived up to all its disclosure obligations.”
Are talking about the same throttle issue that was investigated by the government and NASA which found no mechanical or electronic fault on Toyota’s part????? The same issue that pretty much was nothing more than an unfounded witch hunt. The next time you post how about posting ALL THE DETAILS concerning that “issue”.
Don – Your quote applies to Toyota’s knowledge of a potential safety issue related to floor mats.
NHTSA cleared Toyota’s throttle system of any faults – “runaway” Toyotas are a myth: http://www.insideline.com/toyo.....eport.html
Sorry to say but Toyota runaway its true I know Toyota techs and the confirmed it
It was all fabricated at a time Chevy was going in the dumper Toyotas are far better quality
How about brake pressureless for 500 ms for Toyota Hybrid.
Of course Toyota agreed with some kind of settlement, otherwise the facts would come out about the brake safety issue.