Corvair

THE CHEVROLET CORVAIR was manufactured by General Motors (GM) beginning in 1959 with the release of a 1960 model. The Corvair was unique for its time in that it was small and lightweight, with an air-cooled and rear-mounted engine and a swing-axle independent rear suspension. The design of the car led some to state that the Chevrolet Corvair was an unsafe vehicle that was prone to over-steering and flipping.

At one point, Chevrolet was facing well over 100 lawsuits dealing with damages or injuries to owners of Corvairs. It was these court papers and depositions that would become the bulk of the research[Page 223] for a young, unknown attorney named Ralph Nader. In 1965, Nader released his research on automotive safety in the form of a ...