IIHS says small car bumpers are expensive to fix

The insurance-industry-funded Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) performed low-speed bumper collisions on seven vehicles including the Toyota Yaris, Honda Fit, Hyundai Accent, Kia Rio, Smart ForTwo, MINI Cooper, and Chevrolet Aveo. Five of the seven cars received "poor" ratings; the Chevrolet garnered "marginal" rating, while the Smart got an "acceptable" rating.

So how expensive are these bumpers to fix? See the table below.

	Rating	Front full	Front corner	Rear full	Rear corner	WEIGHTED AVERAGE
Smart Fortwo	ACCEPTABLE	$1,480	$663	$631	$507	$899
Chevrolet Aveo	MARGINAL	$1,071	$1,437	$1,370	$612	$1,155
Mini Cooper	POOR	$2,291	$2,637	$929	$743	$1,637
Toyota Yaris	POOR	$1,688	$1,167	$3,345	$474	$1,951
Honda Fit	POOR	$1,124	$1,216	$3,648	$999	$1,960
Hyundai Accent	POOR	$3,476	$839	$2,057	$831	$2,123
Kia Rio	POOR	$3,701	$1,758	$3,148	$773	$2,705

The IIHS says, "Better bumpers don't have to be complicated. Auto manufacturers already know how to make good ones. Longer and taller reinforcement bars and energy-absorbing material are key to reducing damage in low-speed collisions."

I think they're thinking something more akin to the bumper on the Toyota van above.

For a complete lineup of photos and the full press release, click the links ... and don't hit anything on your way there. It'll be expensive.

LINKS
FULL PRESS RELEASE: Mini and microcar bumpers allow pricey damage (IIHS)
IIHS: Small Cars Are Big On Damage In Low-Speed Collisions (Jalopnik)