Economy Cars Costly in Minor Collisions

The people at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety who calculate all things collision-oriented just studied 20 small cars in simulations of real-world, low-speed collisions that people encounter in parking lots all over the country. They found that some of the cheapest cars you can buy will cost a lot to repair, even if they get just a love tap at 6 mph.

The organization used a barrier to replicate the full bumper of another car in full frontal and rear collisions, as well as frontal and rear corner collisions at 6 mph and 3 mph, respectively.

Ford’s Focus came out on top as the least expensive car to repair, totaling $3,031 in damage after all four tests. The Volkswagen Rabbit was the worst overall performer, with $9,511 in damage.

These tests highlight just how complex small cars have gotten over the years, and how parts like headlights and taillights can be expensive to repair and replace.

A full list of the results is below.

Comments

Did they do a comparison with larger vehicles?

they only did minivans in the exact same way, and yes the costs were about the low end of the ones above. 3-5K range.

I guess it simply shows that a headlight for a VW is expensive no matter what kind of car it is. But then has there EVER been an assumption that small cars were cheaper to repair? Cheaper to run, yes. Cheaper to repair? Why should they be? If anything, because of the way the crumple zones have to work on small cars, isn't it almost expected that they would sustain more damage in protecting the occupants than a larger car?

This may be nit picking, but since the headline is very negative, I think the Rabbit should be in the picture, not the focus. the first thing I saw after I read that was the focus and immediatley thought is was the worst. Had I not read the entire article, like many will since its not that interesting, I would still think that.

acctually, it was TOTAl damage. if you acctually read the chart, you'll see that the Rabbit is acctually less money to repair that at least one vehicle in every category. the damage is only the most expensive if you happen to get boxed in by a bunch of concrete polls.

shuold be poles...jeez politics is on my mind to much...

good Lord i can't type today.

should*

this is why i hate it that you cant edit posts.

Toyota has improved, it used to be really expensive to do any work on them.

This is the reason most of the small cars end up as salvage.

Small little "Love Taps" can sometimes cause a lot of damage and at other times it can leave just cosmetic damage like scratches, or dents in in your bumper. Most body shops replace bumpers, but now you can have this type of damage repaired at your home or office inside of a few hours at 30%-70% less than what a body shop will charge. Check out www.fastcarrepair.com

One more thing, are the repair using parts made in the US? Or do they need to be imported?

How did they determine the cost of repair? I was rear-ended in my 2007 Hyundai Accent by a Jeep Cherokee at a speed greater than 6 MPH and it cost $570 to repair, including rental car. I was very thankful that even at that speed, there was no impact to the body of the car.

Then again, I look at the Hyundai Elantra and it's nearly $5,000 repair bill for full frontal repair. That's insane! If you look at the Elantra, you'll see that there is essentially no front bumper, it's just the entire front of the car hanging out there. Bad design? I'd say yes.

I remember the insurance institue getting upset on having to write off the whole vehicle. If I remember it correctly the change happened when bumpers where no longer required to withstand 5 mph (not sure if correct mph) so repair bills skyrocked. As you know if insurance companies won't insure your car then no car sale or your forced to buy a different car due to high insurance. GR I think your comment of no bumper is in line with almost all cars being unibody construction.

GR, this post talks about using a barrier to replicate a bumper but I remember seeing this type of test on Dateline where they would drive the car into a fixed steel post. I specifically remember the results of the RAV4. The steel post contacted the spare tire sitting on the rear hatch which caused the rear hatch to buckle in. I don't know the repair figure exactly but it was astronomical. Maybe they have changed their test procedure. You can probably go to the IIHS website and get more info.

Indeed, the IIHS came up with new tests involving a bumper-like device to replicate another car that replaced the pole and flat-barrier tests used previously in order to more accurately replicate the damage patterns seen on today’s cars, since override and underride are more of a problem today since design is less standard than it used to be.

Being unibody has nothing to do with this. In the early 1980's, all vehicles had to have bumpers that could withstand a 5MPH crash with very little damage to the bumper even. That included many unibody Chrysler and imported vehicles as well as smaller GM and Ford cars that were unibody. Typically bumpers were mounted on hydraulic struts. Sometimes grills were hinged and spring-loaded so they wouldn't be damaged either. Other designs had a steel bar with plastic or rubber covers with resilient foam under the covers.

The standard was weakened supposedly to save weight to save fuel and a more typical design became a collapsing strut that had to be replaced after an impact.

Now, the standard only requires certain safety-related components to be protected, so you see much more damage.

As to how the cost was determined, I’m sure the parts were calculated at cost from the factory while labor was based on industry-standard estimates. They are PART of the industry, after all..

Is there the same test with larger sedans?

Franxou
not yet no.

a back bumper for a 07 cobalt is 900 bucks. i put a nice fist size hole in it at like 15 mph. brushguard saved her car and mine.