These cars have the highest driver death rates in America

We talk a lot about the safest cars or the EVs with the longest range, but there’s a whole world of automotive statistics with a decidedly darker theme. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently released its list of the vehicles with the highest death rates for the 2020 model year, finding that higher-horsepower cars and those on the smaller side of the spectrum were more likely to have fatalities in a crash.

The IIHS calculates death rates every three years and has done so since 1989. The latest study was the first to include calculations for the best and worst models. Six of the 21 worst models for driver death rates were muscle cars, including the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger. The highest rates of driver deaths came from the two Mitsubishi Mirage variants, while the lowest came from the BMW X3, Lexus ES 350 and Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

The overall average for this latest study sits at 38 deaths per million registered vehicle years. That's up from 36 in 2017 and just 28 in 2011.

The list of the vehicles with the highest death rates includes: