These cars and trucks scored the worst in crash test and rollover ratings for the model year

Earlier this week, Ford Motor and General Motors announced dismal sales results for the month of January. With all the industry’s giants–even Toyota–struggling so mightily, it’s a wonder how any automaker can survive the global recession by continuing to crank out unsafe cars.

Still, they do–scores of them. In good times and bad alike, automakers design, build, produce and sell dozens of models that fail to impress in crash and rollover tests. The 2009 model year is no exception.

“Definitely the economy is going to play a big role in some of this stuff,” says Doug Scott, senior vice president of GfK Automotive, a market research and consulting firm. “Things like safety are probably, if not put on hold, then money will simply be pulled from these sorts of things toward something else.”

Behind the Numbers
To compile our list of the most dangerous vehicles of 2009, we used crash results from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and rollover ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA awards up to five stars for rollover safety, while IIHS uses a scale of “good,” “acceptable,” “marginal” and “poor.”

After each IIHS crash, the test dummies are checked for trauma in 28 regions for front crashes and 37 regions for side crashes, with each region earning a rating based on specific parameters for trauma. A “poor” rating means severe and possibly fatal trauma happened to drivers and/or passengers during the crash, while a “good” rating means little to no trauma occurred.

We awarded point values for each NHTSA and IIHS rating, with more points awarded for better results. The 16 cars on our list scored the lowest number of total points.

Among the lowest-scoring are the Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV, the Kia Rio small sedan and the Ford Ranger pickup.

Chevrolet Aveo, $12,625; Mini Car
Front: Acceptable
Side: Marginal
Rear: Poor
Rollover: 4/5 Stars

Chevrolet Colorado, $18,555; Small Pickup
Front: Acceptable
Side: Poor
Rear: Marginal
Rollover: 4/5 stars

Chevrolet Trailblazer, $29,900; Mid-size SUV
Front: Acceptable
Side: Marginal
Rear: Poor
Rollover: 3/5 stars

Chrysler PT Cruiser, $18470; Small Car
Front: Good
Side: Poor
Rear: Poor
Rollover: 4/5 stars

Dodge Nitro, $22,685; Mid-size SUV
Front: Good
Side: Marginal
Rear: Poor
Rollover: 3/5 stars

Ford Ranger, $15,835; Small Pickup
Front: Acceptable
Side: Marginal
Rear: Poor
Rollover: 3/5 stars

GMC Canyon, $17,430; Small Pickup
Front: Acceptable
Side: Poor
Rear: Marginal
Rollover: 4/5 stars

GMC Envoy, $31,370; Mid-size SUV
Front: Acceptable
Side: Marginal
Rear: Poor
Rollover: 4/5 stars

Hummer H3, $34,135; Mid-size SUV
Front: Acceptable
Side: Acceptable
Rear: Poor
Rollover: 3/5 stars

Hyundai Accent, $9,970; Mini Car
Front: Acceptable
Side: Poor
Rear: Poor
Rollover: 4/5 stars

Jeep Liberty, $23, 460; Mid-size SUV
Front: Good
Side: Marginal
Rear: Poor
Rollover: 3/5 stars

Jeep Wrangler, $21,210; Small SUV
Front: Good
Side: Poor
Rear: Marginal
Rollover: 4/5 stars

Kia Rio, $12,145; Mini Car
Front: Acceptable
Side: Poor
Rear: Poor
Rollover: 4/5 stars

Mazda B Series, $16,780; Small Pickup
Front: Acceptable
Side: Marginal
Rear: Poor
Rollover: 3/5 stars

Nissan Frontier, $17,460; Small Pickup
Front: Good
Side: Marginal
Rear: Poor
Rollover: 3/5 stars

Suzuki Equator, $22,895; Small Pickup
Front: Good
Side: Marginal
Rear: Poor
Rollover: 3/5 stars

SOURCE: FORBES

Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) — Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co. say a C$12 billion ($9.9 billion) proposal by Canada to buy pools of auto loans and leases may help revive slumping auto sales.

The federal budget yesterday included a government pledge to buy securities backed by loans and leases for autos and equipment. The so-called Canadian Secured Credit Facility is among measures aimed at boosting lending in Canada.

“Improving access to financing is critical medicine that the Canadian economy needs right now to return to health,” said Reid Bigland, president of Chrysler’s Canadian business. “The creation of the Canadian Secured Credit Facility to support financing of vehicles is a big step forward to helping automobile sales in Canada.”

Leasing has become less popular in Canada, in part because fewer carmakers offer it. Chrysler Financial and Detroit-based GMAC LLC stopped leasing in Canada in August after borrowing costs soared and the value of used vehicles tumbled amid a glut of unsold cars.

“This is definitely a most welcome effort,” Meredith Libbey, a spokeswoman for Ford Motor Credit Co., a unit of the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker, said in an interview. “Obviously, the goal is to take some quick action and get funding out to the Canadian public.”

The percentage of Ford’s Canadian customers who lease vehicles has fallen to about 10 percent from 40 percent a year ago, David Mondragon, president of Ford’s Canadian unit, said in an interview earlier this month. For Chrysler, that figure dropped to zero from 53 percent, according to Bigland.

Fewer Leases

Leasing accounted for about 30 percent of Canadian car sales last year, according to the Power Information Network of J.D. Power & Associates. That’s down from almost 43 percent in 2007.

Many Chrysler customers haven’t been able to qualify for financing from traditional lenders due to tight credit markets, Bigland said in an interview from Toronto today. The government plan may prompt Chrysler to resume leasing, he said.

“We are interested in getting back into leasing,” Bigland said. “We’re hoping it will make vehicle purchases for those who want to purchase a vehicle accessible, and open up leasing options back to the Canadian marketplace.”

Auto sales in Canada fell 21 percent in December as the U.S. recession spread north. The December decline, the worst for that month since 1996, pushed nationwide sales down 1.1 percent in 2008.

Ford is the second-biggest U.S. automaker, after General Motors Corp. Chrysler, controlled by Cerberus Capital Management LP, ranks No. 3.

SOURCE: BLOOMBERG.COM

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Ford Motor reported that its ongoing losses soared in the fourth quarter, but the company reiterated it still does not need the federal bailout already received by its two U.S. rivals.

Ford reported a net loss of $5.9 billion, or $2.46 a share, up from a loss of $2.8 billion in the same quarter a year ago.

For the full year, Ford lost $14.6 billion, and the company has now lost nearly $30 billion over the past three years.

Excluding special items, losses were $3.3 billion, or $1.37 a share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were forecasting a loss of $1.30 a share on this basis.

Ford’s automotive operations reported a loss in every region but South America during the fourth quarter. Worldwide vehicle sales plunged 31% from a year ago, to 1.1 million. Total sales dropped 36%, to $29.2 billion, but they did top Wall Street’s consensus estimate of $27 billion.

Separately, the company’s Ford Credit arm confirmed that it was eliminating 1,200 jobs, or about 20% of its staff, due to lower sales. In addition to suffering from weak demand for vehicles, Ford also sold its Jaguar, Land Rover and Mazda brands last year.

Ford (F, Fortune 500) burned through $5.5 billion in cash during the quarter. That left the company with gross cash of $13.4 billion as of the end of 2008.

The company said it will burn through cash again this year, but Ford added that it does not anticipate needing to receive federal help “barring a significantly deeper economic downturn or a significant industry event, such as the bankruptcy of a major competitor that causes disruption to the company’s supply base, dealers or creditors.”

Instead, Ford said it will draw on its available credit lines to receive an additional $10.1 billion in cash on Feb. 3.

“Ford went to the credit markets two years ago when they were functioning normally and obtained the funding necessary — including our credit lines — to support our product transformation and restructuring,” said Ford CEO Alan Mulally in a statement.

“Given the instability of the capital markets with the uncertain state of the global economy, we believe it is prudent to draw these credit facilities at this time,” Mulally added.

Ford’s access to credit and cash on hand puts it in far better financial position than General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) and Chrysler LLC, who both needed loans from the federal government to avoid falling below the minimum cash level they needed to continue operations.

Ford had asked for a $9 billion line of credit from Congress at the same time GM and Chrysler were appealing for help last month. Congress did not approve such financial assistance, forcing the Treasury Department to step in and give the loans to GM and Chrysler late last year.

But the company did announce a slightly more conservative sales target for 2009, however. When it presented its turnaround plan to Congress in December, Ford said it expected 2009 U.S. industrywide sales of about 12.5 million vehicles, including medium and heavy duty trucks. On Thursday, the company said it now anticipates sales of between 11.5 million to 12.5 million vehicles this year.

The company announced it had reached an agreement with the United Auto Workers union to eliminate the jobs bank, which guarantees nearly full pay for UAW members who lose their jobs.

Ford said management and the union are working on details of implementing that agreement. GM announced a similar deal Wednesday, and there were reports Monday that Chrysler had also reached such a deal with the UAW.

SOURCE: MONEY@CNN