Waaay waay better than GM… one in 81,481! Either way, peeing in the ocean to make the level rise! 
Any design feature on any of the old Volkswagen vans, or indeed the entire vehicle, might easily qualify as the worst safety defect ever incorporated in a modern production car.
These vehicles were dangerously slow, had minimal frontal crash protection other than your knees, were amazingly unstable (especially in a crosswind), had brakes that faded quickly, had defrosters that gave new meaning to the term “zero visibility,” and had internal rocker panel rot that could make the vehicle seem safer than it was. Their high center of gravity and swing axles gave them even trickier handling than VW’s bug. Early models had no gas gauge – instead, you had a reserve gas tank switch that you flipped when you ran out of gas – hopefully when you weren’t in the middle of an intersection. Other defects included a highly polluting engine that lasted about as long as a set of tires before it needed rebuilding, and a space-inefficient design that put the engine right where you wanted cargo room or sleeping space.
Oddly enough, these quirky but dangerous vehicles were loved as were few others. Even Ralph Nader never seems to have criticized them with much enthusiasm. And I’d be surprised if many Car Talk bloggers will have much bad to say about them, either.
My 59 Bug had no gas gauge and the spare tank. It really was no problem. I could almost predict when I’d need to switch tanks and it was a simple task of reaching down and flipping the lever as soon as it coughed. Kinda like a low fuel level light.
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Bing: Yes, perhaps it seemed like kind of an eccentric but money-saving feature. However, if you were in an intersection, or if you needed the 36 horsepower, it could be eccentric … but highly dangerous. Our early Sixties beetle had the fuel shut off while I was passing a car going uphill near New Haven, with other cars behind me, and it remains a vivid memory.
Here are some features on cars that I have owned that I considered a safety hazard:
1948 Dodge Sedan: the back doors were hinged at the back. These were called suicide doors. The 1935 Chevrolet went even further and the front doors were hinged at the back
1947 Pontiac Streamliner fastback coupe: the rear window might as well have been a skylight.
1954 Buick:. The cigarette lighter would be a hazard to a child in a panic stop as it was right in the center of the dashboard. The cigarette lighter was moved under the dashboard in the 1955 Buicks.
1961 Chevrolet Corvair: The hot air heating system could bring engine fumes into the cabin.
1971 Ford Maverick:. No glove compartment–just a shelf. On a rebound from a quick stop items would fall off the shelf and could become a hazard to the driver’s feet
1950 Chevrolet pickup: No vacuum booster section on the fuel pump which caused the wipers to stall on acceleration.
OK, once again, maybe I’ll remember this time but why exactly were they called suicide doors?? I’ve never been able to figure that out. I envision someone jumping out of the back door and being hit by the door rather than just rolling in the road but I guess that really never made sense to me.
Rear hinged doors got the name “suicide doors” because if the doors were opened when the car was in motion, the passenger could be ejected from the car.
Thanks. Still trying to picture it. So the wind from the car in motion would slam the door wide open and the unbelted occupant could fall out? Versus a normal door that the the wind currents would tend to close again with the car in motion? I’m a little slow this week.
Yeah, imagine driving along at 60 mph with your hand on the door. With suicide doors, if it opens it’ll pull your hand (and you) out of the car as the wind catches the door. With regular doors the wind pushes the door closed.
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@bing. Back in the days of suicide doors, we didn’t have seat belts. Except for the Lincoln Continental and the Ford Thunderbird of the 1960s, the last U. S. car with Suicide Doors was the 1952 Studebaker.
…but those suicide doors are back!
Every time that I go to the mall, I salivate over the sight of the Rolls Royce Wraith coupe on display there.
The RR Phantom coupe also features suicide doors.
For the price of a mini-mansion, you too can own a brand new car with suicide doors!
The suicide doors did make for easy entry to the back seat. I remember the 1961 Lincoln did have a feature that locked the rear doors when the car is in motion. I imagine the RR has the same feature.
I imagine that they also help with entry to the front seat of these 2-door Royces.
The only problem might be that the umbrella embedded in the doors could be harder to extract with the suicide door arrangement.
Don’t you wish that you and I had such weighty problems to contend with?
The swing arm was only a problem IF the shock absorbers had already broken into two pieces. Otherwise the shocks limited the arc that the swing arm could travel.
The Lincoln’s made at least through 1968 had rear suicide doors.
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There have been plenty to choose from but from the very recent times I would say the biggest safety issues are the complicated HVAV & audio systems on vehicles. In the good old days you turned the knob to turn on the radio and pushed a button to slide the pointer to your fav station. Today its a lot more complex. Todays cars are safer but more dangerous.
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