Are Modern Muscle Cars Safe?

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And do you care?

When shopping for a modern muscle car, the majority of buyers wouldn’t rank safety as the number one priority. We get that, because performance is a big draw, and so are looks. But, if that muscle car is your daily driver and you transport people you love in it, safety should still be a concern, even if it’s not at the top of the list. With that in mind, we decided to look at the safety ratings for the four muscle cars model lines sold in the United States today.

With Mopar muscle cars so hot these days, it’s interesting to see how the Dodge Challenger is ranked in crashworthiness by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The coupe gets Good ratings for side and moderate overlap front tests, but the small overlap front driver’s side crash test result is Moderate. Better are the Acceptable ratings for the roof strength and head restraints/seats tests.

Looking a little closer at that small overlap crash test, the big hang-up was with the safety cage holding up. It was so bad the crash test dummy’s left foot was trapped in the wreckage. That’s not super encouraging, but we’re not sure most people aching to buy a Challenger care too much about the result.

We know some people have a problem with calling the modern Dodge Charger a muscle car because it has four doors. But we’re still including it in this list because we think it belongs. According to IIHS, the Charger actually gets high marks in all crash tests but one, and you probably already know what that is.