Are car designers a big cause of high insurance prices?

Question

In the name of style, many cars today don't even have bumpers - just painted bodywork, often made of plastic that easily cracks.

The slightest knock often needs a respray and maybe even big new panels, pushing up costs for the insurers that have to foot repair bills. As a result we all pay higher prices for our insurance.

Isn't it time car makers found a way to marry good design with making their cars more durable against minor shunts?

EDIT:

Many thanks for answers so far.

But some referring to crumple zones and safety are missing my point. I said "minor" shunts.

I'm talking parking knocks or accidental bumps in slow-moving traffic - what bumpers were supposed to be for. Do that today and you can scratch and crack painted plastic bodywork where bumpers used to be, causing expensive insurance-funded repairs where they didn't used to be needed.

Obviously crumple zones are important for safety in full-on crashes.

I don't want to go back to the big plastic bumpers of old. Just think car designers needs to get more creative to solve this problem, and save us cash!

Answer 1

Car designers have to dissipate energy from accidents, hence crumple zones. Otherwise the occupant inside the cars are at risk.

The old adage 'you can't put a price on a life' springs to mind.

Answer 2

I understand your point, but not entirely sure if the theory works if every car (not electric quadracycles, Geewiz is a different story all together) is tested to ENCAP standards and judged in terms of insurance accordingly.

No doubt that these days cars are not really built to survive intact for low-impact knocks, but surely these knocks cannot cost that much to repair ? (I am not really sure, as a good/lucky driver I do not have many crashes).

But will they change from plastic, easily broken bumpers etc. ? I very much doubt it. The world revolves around greed these days and if the design is too expensive it will get thrown out way before it ever gets to manufacture.

Personally, as a Fan of Beetles (Old Type) I love the simple chromed bumper, does save the body-work for those little Supermarket car-park problems. Conversely, I dont know if that type of bumper would be allowed as they may cause pedestrian damage, which is where a lot of the problem lies when moving away from current type bumpers.

Thunder has a great point Re: Disposable cars too.

Answer 3

I think you'll find the major causes of car insurance rates being so high are

bad drivers
careless drivers
people who drive without insurance and causing crashes
car theft

as regards to your theory on bumpers.. thats not really down to the designers/makers (although undountably they are contributing to the problem).. it has a lot more to do with the safety rules imposed by various authorities including the EU, for crumple zones, for pedestrian friendly design. yes you could argue with some justification that mebbe the choice of painted plastic is too expensive... but equaly mebbe the customer is also at fault for wanting to buy products with colour matched bumpers

Answer 4

Yes to a degree, but what really bumps up the price of insurance premiums is the claim culture that has swept in from the USA.

1. The minor bump claimers who see a good way of getting a few grand for 'whiplash'. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against people who genuinely are injured, but I know so many people who can't wait to get down to the solicitors on the way home from A+E because they can get a couple of thousand pounds (I don't know what the rest of the UK is like, but in NI we don't have a ceiling limit on personal injury claims, so people usually do pretty well, with the result of us having to pay the highest rates in UK and possibly Southern Europe).

2.Also premiums are increased to cover the fund for people killed or injured by morons who drive without insurance.

3. Also, yes, garages do stick their arms in for an insurance job, often quoting more work than is needed (not all cars have to be inspected - only borderline for market value write offs are usually inspected) and making a bit more than usual on the jobs by inflating labour charges.


My husband had a 50:50 blame accident on the private lane to his parents house a few years ago. He was in a Renault 18 (mini-tank) and the guy he had the bump with was in a 1year old Vectra. The vectra came off significantly worse (broken radiator, new bumper new bonnet). My husband's car needed a new lens for his nearside front light. That's all. Cost him about £10 off ebay and Kieran's vectra cost him quite a few hundred to get straight. So I suppose it does also support your argument too, but there are more factors than just design.

Answer 5

You know, you could stop crashing into people?

The painted bodywork you see is actually still the bumper. I see you're point but you can't blame car manufacturers for giving us what we want.

Volvo were always keen on having nice big bumpers. And lets be honest, they look awful. The the change is actually consumer driven by people like you and me.

Higher car insurnace is mostly down to the increase of uninsured drivers and personal injury claims, thank america for that one.

Answer 6

Actually the most expensive part of any insurance policy is personal injuries to the driver and passenger. Even a top of the line car maxes out around 40k or so, (I know there are more expensive ones out there!). Severe injuries in an accident however can get over that limit very quickly. Just basic surgery at a hospital can easily now cost over that 40k mark, especially for a mulit injury accident. Insurance costs are always based on actual losses, that is what dictates insurance prices.

Hope this helps!

Answer 7

One of the reasons for the integrated "plastic" bumpers is to lessen the injuries to pedestrians. The new standards going into effect in the EU will likely be adopted in most countries, including Japan and the US if only by default as their manufacturers will want to continue to sell cars in the EU and it's cheaper to have a single design as much as legally possible given the various safety standards.

Cars are replaceable, and the economic damage to them in an accident is comparatively minor compared to the damage to people who cannot be replaced.

Answer 8

as u mentioned just painted bodyword doesnt mean that there is no bumper. it is just not visible and it makes the car look better, remember old days with stuck out metal shiny bumpers. nowadays all replaced with plastic which doesnt mean they r worse than of metal, they crush easily in order to absorb all the force from the accident.

it is all about safety of passengers, and after all the cars are just nuts and bolts. human life is more important.

this is most advanced way of getting less damage to people, by making cars easily crushed to absorb force, take a look the most advanced F1 race cars, when they crash they fall apart into million pieces n the driver walks off not harmed...well most of the time

Answer 9

I often wondered about sprung bumpers like the buffers on a railway wagon but then I remembered that car manufacturers want to sell you cars with both a planned production span and planned life span as well as cars that will disintegrate on impact. Basically they want to stay in business by selling cars. If their cars were indestructable then they'd produce maybe a million and go out of business.

Answer 10

You've got things a bit backward. Car manufacturers are designing cars to sacrifice themselves to save your life. Run into a tree or a wall, steel bumper stands up to it, doesn't give, vehicle stops. You don't (an object in motion tends to remain in motion) and you get injured. In fact, if you aren't wearing your seat belt, you go out the windshield. You are definitely injured, perhaps dead.

Same scenario, 'plastic' bumper and crumple zones. The car absorbs the impact, folding in on itself and dissipating the kinetic energy while you, unharmed, now get out alive--only to complain of the cost of repairing your poor car...

Or, style is secondary to safety, which lowers the cost of insurance, not raises it.