When SUVs And Cars Collide Insurance Costs Jump
December 2nd, 10There’s rarely such a thing as a minor fender bender when cars and SUVs collide according to a new report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Their bumpers don’t match up and that means what could have been a minor collision turns into a massive repair job for everyone involved.
Car bumpers are required to be 16 to 20 inches off the ground so that when cars crash into each other their bumpers hit. But there isn’t a rule for trucks or SUVs. Even crossover SUVs don’t have to follow the rule. “SUVs and cars share the road,” Joe Nolan, the Institute’s chief administrative officer, told CNN. “The problem is they don’t share the same bumper rules, and consumers end up paying the price.”
In the study the Insurance Institute set up low-speed crash tests. They had SUVs and small cars collide at ten miles per hour. Seven pairs of the vehicles were used including one SUV and one small car from seven manufacturers. They drove the SUV into the back of the car at ten miles per hour and then drove the car into the back of the SUV. “We picked vehicles from the same manufacturer because we think automakers should at least pay attention to bumper compatibility across their own fleets,” Nolan said in an announcement according to CNN. “The results show many don’t.” Here’s the damage they recorded:
- When the Honda CR-V SUV rear-ended the Honda Civic a total of $2,995 worth of damage occurred.
- When the Toyotal Corolla hit a Toyota Rav 4 in the back a total of $9,867 in damage was racked up.
- They also found that the bigger vehicle didn’t always win. At times it was the SUV that came out with more damage.
Test officials say even at $3,000 the damage was higher than it should have been. “Of the seven car-SUV pairs we tested, we can’t point to a single one as a model of compatibility because combined damage estimates ran into the thousands of dollars even for the best performances,” Nolan said according to CNN.
Tags: problem, Car bumpers, announcement, miles per hour, job, crash tests
