According to new research, badly designed car bumpers are costing drivers an estimated quarter of a million a year in avoidable repair costs.
Thatcham, said that a collision at just 10mph could cost over £4,000 to repair, because most car bumpers are cannot absorb the energy of the crash. Thatcham found that most car bumpers are poorly designed or, in some cases, omitted completely, leading to “unnecessarily high amounts of damage”.
However, the research organization found that their bumpers do not properly protect an alarming number of cars on roads in the UK.
Thatcham said that the problem was costing British insurers an estimated £250,000 in avoidable repair costs each year, resulting in higher insurance premiums, loss of no claims bonuses and unnecessary inconvenience for motorists.
Thatcham is leading an international initiative to design an insurance test to encourage manufacturers to fit deeper, wider and more energy absorbing bumper beams to their future vehicles