Sep 25, 2008

Economy Cars Aren't Economical When They Crash

As the insurance industry is well aware, low-speed collisions happen every day in commuter traffic and parking lots. These fender benders are rarely life-threatening, but they do end up costing car owners a lot of money and aggravation, because according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the bumpers on many cars aren’t designed to handle what should, in their eyes, be a no-damage event.

When looking at repair costs as a percentage of their overall value, small vehicles often fare far worse than their luxury and SUV counterparts in low-speed collisions. In a series of crash tests, the IIHS recently assessed how well the bumpers of 20 small-car models would protect the vehicles from damage in low-speed collisions, and the results were far from encouraging to either consumers or insurers. The worst performers were the Hyundai Elantra, Toyota Prius and Volkswagen Rabbit. Each sustained about $4,000 damage or more in a single crash incident. The Ford Focus performed the best among the 20, with about one-third that amount of damage in its worst test.