The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has recently released a new crash tests and this time the main focus are car bumpers. According to the new crash tests revealed by the insurance industry, most bumpers especially on mid-size cars do little to prevent expensive damage to vehicles even in low-speed crashes say, 6 miles per hour. Further research revealed that most of the crashes happen in parking lots and commuter traffic.
The testing conducted by the Virginia-based Institute showed that only three midsize vehicles namely the Mitsubishi Galant, Mazda 6, and Toyota Camry were able to sustain lesser cost of repair amounting only to $1,500 for each of the four crash tests. The crash tests conducted were to review the extent of damage from front, rear, front corner and rear corner crashes.
According to Adrian Lund, the Institute’s president, “The cars with the lowest repair bills after our new bumper tests still sustained much more damage than they should have in some o fthe tests. We got crumpled grilles and headlights plus buckled fenders in impacts at speeds equivalent to an average person walking fast.”
There were seventeen midsize cars that were used for the low-speed tests. The Nissan Maxima together with Volkswagen Passat, Pontiac G6 and Hyundai Sonata suffered damages amounting to more than $4,000. The Institute has also done similar test on the 1981 Ford Escort and was amazed to found that the front end test only caused $86 in damages.
Such astounding performance of the 1981 Ford Escort according to the Institute is the result of the federal requirements that were in effect until 1982 that made it mandatory for bumpers to keep damage away from the vehicle’s sheet metal parts and safety equipment in crashes of up to 5mph. The Institute further stated that since 1982 the required test speeds have been cut in half which resulted to more damage.
According to automakers they are working to create designs for vehicles to resist low speed collision damage. Volkswagen of America Inc. exclaimed that “while low-speed collision repairs are an element of the total cost of ownership, we’re confident that Volkswagen products continue to provide exceptional customer value,” and that goes true to all the product range of Volkswagen both vehicles and auto parts such as Volkswagen wiper blade, etc.
Nissan also said that it believes that it’s Maxima “performs competitively in terms of cost of repair.” The Institute has also stressed that the tests conducted were only bumper tests and do not assess the passenger safety since serious injuries are uncommon in low-speed crashes.
