Accident Reconstruction Network > News > August 2007

Accident Reconstruction News Article

Repairing damages to luxury vehicles involved in low-speed crashes of 3 to 6 miles per hour, which typically happen in commuter traffic or in parking lots, can cost significantly more than moderately priced cars, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

IIHS found many bumpers to be ornamental and flimsy and failing to absorb energy in a crash which then caused to damage to the grille, hood and headlights.

“There should not be much or any damage in collisions at these speeds, especially to expensive and presumably well-made cars,” said Joe Nolan, a senior vice president at the Institute.

The institute conducted a series of four low-speed crashes on 11 2007 luxury vehicles and found the Infiniti G35, which starts at $31,450, had the highest repair bill at nearly $14,000 in combined damages for the four tests.

In one test involving the front-end, the G35’s bill was more than $5,000.

"The Infiniti was a disaster, and even the Saab sustained way too much damage in these low-speed impacts," said Nolan.

The Acura TL and Mercedes C Class cost more than $11,000 in repairs for the four tests while the bill for the Lexus ES nearly exceeded $11,000.

Damage to the Lexus IS cost more than $9,500.

Only three vehicles sustained less than $6,000 in damage. The are the Saab 9-3, Audi A4 and Lincoln MKZ.

Other damage estimates included $8,224 for the Volvo S60, $7,554 for the Acura TSX and $6,681 for the BMW 3 Series.

Automakers claimed the tests did not assess the vehicle’s safety and only focused on repair cost and charged that is difficult for IIHS to replicate the low-speed crashes that typically occur on the road.

In its report, IIHS said that there were multiple problems with bumpers, the first of which is that the bumpers on colliding vehicles often don't line up vertically so they did not engage to begin with. Even some that do line up don't stay engaged during an impact.

Aerodynamic styling may allow them to slide under the bumpers of the vehicles they strike preventing the bumper from doing any energy absorption.

The IIHS also found that the bars underneath bumper covers, which are supposed to do the main work of absorbing crash energy, often aren't up to the task. They may not be big enough to provide much protection from damage, especially if they don't extend to vehicle corners, or they may be too flimsy to absorb much energy.

To do an effective job of managing crash energy, the bars underneath bumper covers have to be long enough to protect car bodies out to the front and rear corners, according to IIHS.

“If a bar doesn't extend far enough, a minor corner impact is likely to cause lots of damage, even compromising lights and other safety-related parts,” Nolan said.

The Audi A4 was the best performer among the luxury cars in both front and rear full-width tests. Equipped with components that work like shock absorbers to dissipate crash energy before it can damage the car body, the A4 sustained less than $1,000 damage in each test.

"It isn't coincidental that the A4 is the only luxury car among the 11 we tested with this kind of absorbers, which usually outperform other methods of managing the energy of crashes. If the A4 had longer bumpers for protection in corner impacts, it probably would have been the best performer among this lot of cars instead of second to the Saab 9-3," Nolan said.

The barrier the Institute used to test bumpers is set 16 to 18 inches off the ground, in keeping with a federal rule that specifies a zone for car bumpers 16 to 20 inches from the ground.

The idea was to ensure that car bumpers line up reasonably well so they engage each other in collisions, allowing them to absorb crash energy.

However, the rule that applies to cars doesn't cover minivans, pickup trucks, or SUVs. The bumpers on these vehicles often are much higher off the ground, failing to line up with those on cars.

Even when bumper systems perform adequately to minimize damage in low-speed collisions, the damage that does occur still can empty a consumer's wallet because of the price of the parts needed to restore the vehicle, according to IIHS.

In the rear full-width test, for example, damage to the A4 was confined to the bumper cover. However, the cost of the cover alone approaches $600. Then it has to be attached to the car body and painted to match the report stated.

IIHS said that it wouldn't take much for automakers to reduce the cost of repairing the damage that occurs in low-speed collisions. It offered some suggestions:

1.Make the bumper bars longer so they protect headlights and other critical and costly equipment at the corners of vehicles. The bars all could be as wide as those on the Volvo S60, which was the only car that limited damage in the front corner test to the bumper cover alone. The rest of the luxury cars sustained damage to fenders and other body parts.

2.Make bumpers taller so they engage the bumpers on higher-riding SUVs and pickup trucks instead of underriding them, even during emergency braking.

3. Don't sacrifice function for style by mounting bumpers too close to the car body. This makes for a sleek look, but it doesn't leave much room for absorbing crash energy. Mount bumper bars farther out and use the available space under a bumper cover for energy absorption.

Without these design changes, "we can't say anything good about the bumpers on these luxury cars," Nolan concludes. "There's nothing exemplary about even the best performer, the Saab 9-3. It simply avoided racking up the most damage in any single test and ended up coming out the best of a mediocre lot."

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