Is Your Bumper Really Overcoming The Bumps?

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is one of the most trusted sources of information when it comes to car and driving safety. Now this group says that after doing some testing, they were able to find out how a car’s bumper works (or doesn’t work) to keep a vehicle safe during crashes.

The group tested midsize vehicles and had 17 units to work with. Among that number, only three units performed well. These three vehicles are the Mitsubishi Galant, the Mazda6, and the Toyota Camry. They have been able to receive around $ 1,500 in damages or even less during each crash test the IIHS did. The other vehicles the IIHS tested had malfunctioning bumpers. After testing, they estimated the other vehicles suffered damage to the home ranging from $ 4,500 to a whopping $ 9,000.

Adrian Lund is IIHS President and in these tests and studies, he shares: “Our tests measure how well bumpers protect cars from damage in everyday bumps. The purpose of bumpers is to keep bumpers away from headlights. , hoods and other parts that are expensive to repair, but this purpose was achieved in only 2 of the 68 tests we conducted.

Taking a closer look at the situation, it is a reality when insurance companies say they have been able to submit more than $ 6 billion per year in claims for damages during frontal crashes and rear impacts. Sure, if a bumper malfunctions, front and rear impact crashes could actually do a lot of damage to your Chevy’s body parts and even yourself if things take a turn for the worse.

Lund further expresses: “We don’t want automakers to change bumper height just to perform well in our tests. We want car bumpers to resist damage in actual crashes with other cars, as well as pickup trucks. and higher-driving SUVs, so we renewed our tests to reflect those crashes. In particular, we want to encourage automakers to use bumpers with energy-absorbing bars that extend further into the corners of the vehicle to reduce damage. to headlights and other critical and expensive equipment. Higher to fit the bumpers on SUVs and trucks instead of underestimating them. “