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A 10mph collision could cost £4000-plus to repair because most bumpers are positioned at the wrong height, says Thatcham.

A collision at just 10 mph could cost over £4000 to repair because most car bumpers fail to absorb the energy of a low speed crash, are positioned at the wrong height or are not fitted at all. These are the findings of Thatcham - the British motor insurers’ research centre, following two years of extensive research.

Many vehicles fail to offer sufficient protection from severe damage following a minor collision, the research found, because the bumper is poorly designed or in some cases omitted completely, leading to unnecessarily high amounts of damage.

The failure of many vehicle manufacturers to address this relatively simple problem is costing British insurers an estimated £250,000,000 of avoidable repair costs per year. For the UK motorist this could lead to higher insurance premiums, loss of valuable no claims bonuses and unnecessary inconvenience. Vehicle repairers are also adversely affected since with vehicles often being needlessly written off, the opportunity to repair and that associated income is denied.

European Law

Current European law requires bumpers to withstand simple pendulum tests. However, many cars are designed to meet these standards only, and do not satisfactorily protect the car from damage in a low speed, real world collision scenario.

The increasing popularity of large SUVs exacerbates the problem since height mismatches will often cause the larger vehicle to override the rear of the smaller car exposing to damage vulnerable high cost mechanical components situated behind the bumper. Exposed spare wheels can also be a problem creating unnecessary damage to both vehicles.

Brake dive - the natural dip exhibited by a braking vehicle, compounds this misalignment issue and adds to the repair costs further.

Matthew Avery, Crash Laboratory Manager, at Thatcham said, “Despite outward appearances too many cars on the road do not have sufficient bumper protection. Underneath the cosmetic bumper cover the bumper beam on many cars is either too small, poorly positioned or missing. Certain manufacturers have however proved that good bumpers can be cost effectively fitted. With the results of our findings Thatcham hope to encourage more and more manufacturers to address this issue, benefiting insurers, repairers and motorists alike.”

Following the results of the findings, and on behalf of the British Insurer Thatcham have begun taking steps to address the problem. Working with a number of international partners from the Research Council for Automobile Repair (RCAR), work has started to design an insurance test to encourage manufacturers to fit deeper, wider and more energy absorbing bumper beams to their future vehicles.

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