Motorists’ bills bumped up by billions

The crash repair bills of British Motorists are being bumped up unnecessarily by more than £2 Billion a year, new research from the Thatcham insurer research centre has shown – and all because Bumpers Don’t Bump.

The shock figures are a knock-on effect from the fact that there is no effective universal bumper design incorporated in vehicles, meaning an impact of only 6mph can write off a car.

Ten top selling brand new cars were crash tested at the front and rear to assess their bumper performance the results were disappointing of the 20 bumpers tested only 1 was deemed to be ‘Good’, 1 was ‘Acceptable’, 7 were rated ‘Marginal’ and 11 ‘Poor’.

Matthew Avery, Research Manager at Thatcham – The Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre, will reveal that the impact of the report has ramifications for millions of British motorists.

Slow speed collisions account for 85 per cent of all motoring insurance claims.

These new crash, tests carried out in Berkshire, were conducted under a new international protocol design by RCAR (The Research Council For Automobile Repairs).

They provided conclusive proof that a seemingly inconsequential impact, which on the best performers would cost only a few hundred pounds to repair are in the worst performers costing over £2,500 in an identical crash test. Scrimping on good bumpers is stinging British motorists for billions of pounds of unnecessary repairs.

On the Suzuki Swift, The combined front and rear repair costs following the six mile per hour crash tests caused £4,600 pounds worth of damage which would have written the car off.

“This is a ridiculous state of affairs,” said Matthew. “If only motorists could see for themselves the limited protection that some bumper systems are giving their vehicles, they might not buy them in the first place.

“Some designs don’t have a bumper beam at all – just a flimsy plastic covering that looks like a bumper!”

The lack of agreed international design and production protocols mean that bumpers are set at different heights and widths – causing chronic override and underride (where one bumper goes over or under the other car’s bumper in a collision.)

“It is time manufacturers addressed this issue and fitted vehicles with bumpers that bump.

“Not only would it knock more than £2 Billion from British bills – it would have a hugely beneficial impact on the environment with thousands of cars avoiding being written off.”

Worst performers in the tests were:

Honda CR-V, Citroen C4 Picasso, Landrover Freelander 2, and the Suzuki Swift all rated ‘Poor’ for both front and rear bumpers. This rating means that front and rear collision repairs at just 6 mph costs in excess of £1,350 (each end of the car!)

A ‘Good’ assessment would be a repair cost of less than £350.

The best performers in the tests were:

The rear of the Ford S-Max which rated as ‘Good’ and the front of the Toyota Auris which achieved an ‘Acceptable’ rating.

Concerns that strong bumpers could injure pedestrians were disproved as the best frontal performer, the Auris, also achieves almost a top score in the Euro NCAP pedestrian safety tests.