TRANSPORTATION : Institute’s 5-M.P.H. Crash Tests Turn Up Much Fender-Bending
Since Jan. 1, California has required car makers and importers to disclose bumper crash standards on their vehicles’ window stickers.
But those standards are for the federal government’s 2.5-m.p.h. crash test, which was substituted several years ago for a 5-m.p.h. test.
Acting on the suspicion that a lot more drivers hit things while going at least 5 m.p.h. than 2.5 m.p.h., the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety decided to hold its own 5-m.p.h. tests. It selected 24 small, two-door cars for its test group.
The results of those tests, released recently, were “disheartening,” the institute said. None of the cars survived unscathed.
Cypress-based Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America, which imports and distributes the Mitsubishi Eclipse, shared the distinction of least damage with its sister, the Dodge Colt, made by Mitsubishi but imported and marketed by General Motors’ Dodge division.
Total damage to the Colt in four 5-m.p.h. tests--hitting a barrier straight on with the front and rear bumpers, hitting a pole with the rear and hitting an angled barrier with the front bumper--amounted to $769. The Eclipse sustained $868 damage in the same four tests.
The Daihatsu Charade SE--imported by Daihatsu America Inc. in Los Alamitos--finished last, with $3,864 in damage.
Other county-based importers whose cars were tested, and their rankings in the test:
* Hyundai’s Excel had $1,983 in damage; the Scoupe, $2,429.
* Mazda’s 323, $2,039; the MX-6 DX, $3,042; the MX-3, $3,080.
Suzuki, which has its U.S. auto importing headquarters in Brea, did not show up on the test under its own name, but the Suzuki-built Geo Metro marketed by GM had damage of $2,815.
The institute said the repair costs were in December, 1991, prices and included damage concealed by the bumper covers that many car owners choose not to repair.
