Only in America.........Even the newest SUVs fail the bumper test
SUVs are wildly popular because they’re supposed to be brawny and tough. But crash tests show that most new midsized SUVs have surprisingly brittle bumpers.
By insure.com
Those rough, tough and wilderness-ready sport-utility vehicles aren't as tough as they look.Get Online Insurance Quotes
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In crash tests conducted at a paltry 5 mph, seven 2001 and 2002 SUVs sustained thousands of dollars of bumper damage. The average car suffers a few hundred dollars' damage, at most. Most expensive to fix was the Suzuki Grand Vitara, with an average of $1,451 in damages for each test.
The tests, conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), crash a vehicle's front and rear bumpers into different barriers at varying angles (see sidebar) to determine whether the bumper design will stand up to the kinds of accidents that IIHS says frequently occur in traffic jams and in parking lots.
The four bumper tests conducted by the IIHS are:
Front into flat barrier
Front into angle barrier
Rear into flat barrier
Rear into pole
In the most recent round of SUV bumper tests, six out of seven SUVs performed miserably while just one, the Acura MDX, sustained about the same dollar amount in damages as a typical small car. Tested were:
2001 Acura MDX
2001 Buick Rendezvous
2002 Chevrolet TrailBlazer
2002 Isuzu Axiom
2001 Pontiac Aztek
2001 Suzuki Grand Vitara
2001 Toyota Highlander
The SUVs tested range in price from $20,000 for the Grand Vitara to $35,000 for the Acura MDX.
Don't bump the bumpers
The reason car bumpers exist, of course, is to protect the body of the vehicle from damage in a collision. But most of the SUVs tested by IIHS don't perform that function, leading to major body damage. (In these tests, one SUV's rear liftgate had to be replaced and another suffered a shattered rear window, both of which cost thousands of dollars to repair).
"The Acura MDX has the best bumpers of any midsize SUV the institute has ever tested," says Adrian Lund, chief operating officer for IIHS.
Key to bumper strength is the bumper bar, which should extend across the vehicle's full width and provide reinforcement to protect against damage at the corners of the bumper.
The Suzuki Grand Vitara and Buick Rendezvous had the worst bumpers. The Grand Vitara sustained $2,039 in repairs in a rear-into-pole test. During both rear-impact tests, the Grand Vitara's rear window shattered, making it "a terrible showing, the worst of a generally bad lot," Lund says.
The Rendezvous' rear bumper did not absorb the force of the 5-mph impact and its rear lift gate had to be replaced following the tests -- a $3,597 repair job. A front-into-angle barrier test caused over $1,000 in damage to the Rendezvous.
The Pontiac Aztek and Isuzu Axiom were also badly damaged in the tests. "This kind of damage shouldn't occur in 5-mph impacts. There's really no excuse for it," Lund says. The Aztek, which is built on the same platform as the Rendezvous, had slightly less expensive repairs because of minor design differences, with $2,218 in damage after the rear-into-pole test. The Axiom suffered an average of $856 in damages for all four tests.
The Toyota Highlander was slightly better at rear-impact tests, with about $400 in damage after the rear-into-flat barrier test and $532 after the rear-into-pole test. However, its front bumpers were worse than the other SUVs, and the front-into-angle-barrier test caused $1,400 in damages.
Oddly, the Chevrolet TrailBlazer suffered no damages in the two rear-impact tests, but the institute says that this was not because the TrailBlazer has bumpers of steel. Rather, its trailer hitch, which extends beyond the bumper and comes as standard equipment, is unusually strong and absorbed the force of the impacts. The TrailBlazer's rear bumper is actually poorly designed, with a bumper bar that does not extend the width of the vehicle, Lund says.
Other SUVs show same flaw
The results for these seven SUVs mirror results for other SUVs. Tests of just about all midsized SUVs showed big bills in collision tests.
Over the years, SUVs have performed badly in crash tests because they are not classified as automobiles and are therefore not subject to the more stringent crash-test standards that apply to cars.
For more information on bumper-test results for other vehicles, click on the link at left to go to Insure.com’s Car Performance tool. You can also check the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s ratings on all midsized SUVs.
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5-mph crash test results, midsize utility vehicles
SUV model Front into flat barrier Rear into flat barrier Front into angle barrier Rear into pole Total damage 4 tests Average damage per test
2001 Acura MDX $124 $282 $656 $730 $1,792 $448
2001 Toyota Highlander $636 $407 $1,413 $532 $2,988 $747
2002 Chevrolet TrailBlazer $776 No damage due to trailer hitch $843 No damage due to trailer hitch $1,619 $405
2001 Pontiac Aztek $348 $389 $469 $2,218 $3,424 $856
2002 Isuzu Axiom $811 $827 $1,474 $1,393 $4,505 $1,126
2002 Buick Rendezvous $206 $767 $1,029 $3,597 $5,599 $1,400
2001 Suzuki Grand Vitara XL-7 $656 $1,602 $1,505 $2,039 $5,802 $1,451
Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety |
