Most of us think that just a ‘little bump’ is going to be that, but did you know it could cost you thousands of pounds and leave you to walk home?
Well research undertaken by The Thatcham Motor Insurance Research Centre into how bumpers protect your vehicle from damage, have revealed some amazing results and clearly indicate they are failing to protect cars from expensive minor damage. When you consider around 85% of all crashes are low speed, its more likely that if you are going to be unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident, its going to be this type of accident.
I guess looking at the worst performing car they tested might be a good place to start.
You’ve seen it win rallies all over the world. It’s a tough, fast car and on many rally stages it’s just been unbeatable, its a really strong competitor and a car many of us petrol heads would just love to own. So you would think a car developed to withstand the rough and tumble of the World Rally Championship would perform well on the road (wouldn’t you).
Fact is, Thatchams bumper testing has showed that in a low speed crash, at just 6mph (designed to replicate one of the most common crash situations), the amazing Subaru Impreza was so extensively damaged that it was not even drivable.
The result of the 6mph crash, therefore leaving you to walk home, but worse than that, leaving you with a repair bill of over £4000 to mend the damage.
I am sure you, like me thought our cars bumper would take care of these small impacts and quite clearly, they don’t.
So what are the implications of this? Well we all have to insure our cars and whilst these tests are not part of the Thatcham insurance group rating tests, it doesn’t take much imagination to figure out that insurance companies will soon realise that some vehicles have consistently higher repair costs than others, leading to just one thing and that’s increased insurance premiums.
The Subaru, although worst in these tests wasn’t alone in getting criticised, as Most of the 12 vehicles tested achieved only ‘poor’ or ‘marginal’ ratings and that’s just not good enough.
The only spark of light came from the Ford Focus which performed best, with the rear bumper testing producing a repair cost of £789 and the front bumper testing showing the lowest repair cost of £1556.
Of interest, 9 of the 12 cars tested needed their headlights replacing, with The Subaru Impreza taking the laurels here, with the most expensive headlights at £382 each.
Subaru said: “While the quoted cost of repair within the report is of concern, we have no details of the items involved and cannot therefore comment further. “We are constantly monitoring parts prices, particularly in relation to minimising cost for low impact accident repairs.”
Thatcham warned that some bumpers were below standard and did not provide the protection expected. “Many bumper systems do not protect the rest of the car from damage because they are too weak, poorly aligned, too small, or in some cases, not there at all,” it said.
The bumper tests themselves are based on a new international standard bumper test from RCAR (the Research Council for Automobile Repairs).
For more information on these tests and all the other superb work these people at Thatcham do to make us all safer on the road, take a look at their web site at www.thatcham.org
