Small cars big on damage in low-speed fender benders: IIHS

[Tideland Prius]

So you save a tonne of money buying a small car. Great. Now let's hope you don't dent it.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the U.S. (the same agency that crash tests hundreds of cars every year to figure out which are safest) has just tested seven of the most popular small cars — the smart ForTwo, Chevy Aveo, Mini Cooper, Toyota Yaris, Honda Fit, Hyundai Accent and the Kia Rio — in four different low-speed tests: front bumper, front corner, rear bumper, rear corner.

Full Article

[AussieOwner]

At least the Prius is not in that group

I can now attest to how good the Prius is in a low speed fender bender. I got hit in the back yesterday by an older Peugeot . Result - smashed headlight and bent bumper on the Peugeot, a couple of small scratches on my bumper. I was amazed at how little the damage to my car was. There was less damage than the couple of very small dents I put in the same bumper when I backed into a pillar in a car park.

When you look at the photos in the article, notice that for the front on test, there was not a scratch on the bumper - so are they testing for the normal impacts where it is bumper to bumper? Or is it a case that these small cars have their bumpers at the wrong height to effectively protect the car when impacting larger cars? The reason for the panel damage is not clear from the article.

[Tideland Prius]

usually low speed rear impacts are tested by backing into a bollard at 5mph. I don't know if these pictures are the result of that test because if so, that's a pretty bad hit on the Fit. I know cars should absorb and crumple but for something minor like this it should be able to hold its own.

[jayman]

Actually, the Prius does poorly in the bumper test, as do most cars now

Bumper evaluation: 2006 - 2009 Toyota Prius

This is how the Chevy Cobalt performed

Bumper evaluation: 2006 - 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt


Not sure if you're old enough to remember back when cars had real bumpers, that had to withstand a 5 mph hit with NO damage to bumper or car

The bumper had hydraulic absorbers and would take the impact of a typical parking lot ding. Now, you could be facing hundreds to thousands in damage

However, crash performance is much better on new cars. I'm not sure why they can't engineer a car with good 40 mph offset crash ratings, that has a bumper capable of taking a 5 mph impact

The worst performers are SUV's, especially luxury ones. The rear bollard and rear angle test, produces thousands in damage

IIHS news release