Team-BHP - Poor bumper design 'costs motorists billions'

This is a joke if we apply this to India. In our country we have much bigger causes that costs motorists not only billions but also their lives.

- Poor potholed roads roads.
- Lack of traffic sense and lack of rule enforcement.
- Complete ignorance of personal safety (not wearing seat belts and helmets)

The US based IIHS published a report on bumpers here:

http://www.iihs.org/sr/pdfs/sr4201.pdf

The gist is:
Bad bumpers are the norm. With few exceptions, the bumpers on most vehicles have allowed way too much damage in crashes at 5 mph or slower. There are numerous problems. The bumpers on colliding vehicles often don’t line up geometrically so they don’t engage to begin with. Even if they do, they often don’t stay engaged during impact so they don’t absorb crash energy. Another problem is that the bumpers on many vehicles aren’t wide enough to protect the corners.

Some of the most costly low-speed crash damage occurs when vehi-cle bumpers slide under or over each other. This happens because the bumpers on colliding vehicles don’t line up, and braking before the impact can lower the front end of a striking vehicle just before it hits the other vehicle. Under- and override often result in damage to vehicle grilles, headlights, hoods, and fenders.

Although US require car bumpers to match up reasonably well with the bumpers on other cars, but no such rules apply to pickup trucks or SUVs so the bumpers on these vehicles often don’t match up with those on cars. They’re higher off the ground. The result is mismatch in collisions so that one vehicle over-rides the other. Or the bumpers may engage but then slide off each other instead of staying engaged. Either way the result is expensive car body damage.

what i have to point out is that ,the more the repair cost a car in frontal crashes means that it absorbes more energy than others.just take an example of our old amby and swift as said.in case of an ambasador crashing into a pedestrian,the whole shock of impact is transfered to him rather than the car.if it was a swift then atleast some of the shock is absorbed by the car and so more repair costs.this was a study done by the insurance guys to save money from their side.but in real life what i feel is it may save a life.
ram

Quote:

Originally Posted by ram_hyundai (Post 662154)

I recently read somewhere that cars are now getting good at occupant safety, but they have still some distance to go to ensure pedestrian safety (reflected in high pedestrian safety ratings). This may involve higher car damage cost in case of hitting a pedestrian.