The Mitsubishi Mirage Is the Deadliest Car in America

A brand new Mitsubishi Mirage can be yours for just $17,650 out-the-door, making it one of the cheapest new cars for sale in the United States. New data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety suggests that driving one may not be a great plan, though. The Mirage hatchback and its sedan sibling, the Mirage G4, have the two highest driver death rates in the country.

There are several other interesting details in the IIHS' latest report, which tracks driver fatalities of all cars involved in multi-vehicle collisions, not just individual automobile data. In other words, if a specific car causes more than one fatality when it's involved in a deadly wreck—outside of the driver—the list shows that too.

The IIHS's data is compiled in terms of "deaths per million registered vehicle years, 2020 and equivalent earlier models, [years] 2018-21." The Mirage G4 leads with 205 fatalities, followed by its hatchback variant at 183. In response to the IIHS report, Mitsubishi Motors North America said in a statement that "The Mitsubishi Mirage and Mirage G4 both meet or exceed each and every federal crash-test requirement.  Additionally, all Mirage models from 2021 onward include Forward Collision Mitigation with Pedestrian Detection as standard."

Third on the ranking is the Dodge Challenger 2WD at 154, followed by the Hyundai Accent and Chevrolet Spark, at 152 and 151, respectively.