Passenger getting credit for a vehicle kill is fixed in the next update I believe. As for the 'too far from suitable road' you just need to get closer to the road itself. The areas you showed have very few GPS nodes which the system likely uses to spawn your car on. Making the car spawn on the same level as you has always been a challenge, although it was way worse in the past. San Fierro is a bit of challenge because its very hilly, difficult to make the system work well everywhere since its more of a one size fits all deal at the moment. The car dying was intended as it went into the water, but you were able to get it back out quite fast, a rare edge case. As for it disappearing that is normal when the script thinks your vehicle has died or its been recalled.
