Mid-size cars suffer costly damage in low-speed tests

Those minor fender benders might cost more than you think, according to new crash test results released Thursday by the insurance industry.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that most bumpers on mid-size cars do little to prevent costly damage to vehicles, even in low-speed crashes of 6 miles an hour or less. The crashes frequently occur in parking lots and in commuter traffic.

Testing for the first time by the Arlington, Va.-based nonprofit institute found that only three mid-size vehicles -- the Mitsubishi Galant, Toyota Camry and Mazda 6 -- sustained less than $1,500 in repairs from each of the four crash tests.

The tests were conducted to review damage from front, rear, front-corner and rear-corner crashes.

“The cars with the lowest repair bills after our new bumper tests still sustained much more damage than they should have in some of the tests,” institute President Adrian Lund said. “We got crumpled grilles and headlights plus buckled fenders in impacts at speeds equivalent to an average person walking fast.”

The institute conducted tests on 17 mid-size cars. In one front-end crash test at 6 mph, four vehicles -- the Nissan Maxima, Volkswagen Passat, Pontiac G6, and Hyundai Sonata -- had damage of more than $4,000.

Automakers said they worked to design vehicles to resist low-speed collision damage. Nissan, for example, said it believed that the Maxima “performs competitively in terms of cost of repair.”

Volkswagen of America Inc. said that “while low-speed collision repairs are an element of the total cost of ownership, we’re confident that Volkswagen products continue to provide exceptional customer value.”

General Motors Corp. said that the tests “have everything to do with damageability, but they are really not an occupant safety issue. These are new tests and we are assessing the results.”

Serious injuries are uncommon in low-speed crashes, and the institute’s bumper tests did not assess passenger safety.