The Chevy Corvair could roll over — and 'Unsafe at Any Speed' rewrote car safety law

The Chevrolet Corvair, launched in 1960, was a compact car with an unusual rear-engine, swing-axle design. That design made it prone to oversteer and, in certain maneuvers, to rolling over. Critics argued the handling was dangerously unstable, and the Corvair was linked to a number of rollover accidents and deaths.

In 1965, the young lawyer Ralph Nader published 'Unsafe at Any Speed,' a book that singled out the Corvair as a case study in how the auto industry prioritized style and cost over safety. The book became a sensation. GM responded by hiring investigators to dig up dirt on Nader — a tactic that backfired badly when it became public and embarrassed the company.

The Corvair controversy, and Nader's campaign more broadly, helped drive the passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, which created the federal auto-safety regulator (later NHTSA) and mandated safety standards. The Corvair was discontinued in 1969. The case became a landmark in consumer safety and corporate accountability — a reminder that an industry left to police itself will often choose profit over safety, and that one persistent critic can change the rules.