
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 2, 1990                   TAG: 9003023509
SECTION: MISCELLANEOUS                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

CAR BUMPERS OFFER LITTLE PROTECTION

Small cars that should be protected from damage by their bumpers at low speeds cost between $769 and $3,838 to repair after four test bumps, an auto safety institute reports.

The most damaged among 16 new cars tested at 5 mph by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety was the 1990 Daihatsu Charade SE and the least damaged was the Honda Civic DX, said institute president Brian O'Neill.

"Every bumper we tested this year did a poor job of preventing damage, and some were downright lousy," O'Neill said in releasing the results of the annual testing Thursday.

The institute, funded by the insurance industry, buys the cars, runs each one into flat barriers, front and back, into a front angle barrier and then backward into a pole - all at 5 mph.

He said bumper performance has deteriorated since 1982, when the Transportation Department rolled back federal requirements that car bumpers be able to sustain 5 mph crashes without damage to the vehicle.

Manufacturers have weakened bumpers without the federal rules and consumers need to know which cars will require the biggest repair bills, O'Neill said.

A 1981 Ford Escort sustained no damage in any of the institute's four tests, O'Neill said, while damage to a 1990 Escort totaled $1,718.

Hyundai Excel bumpers were weakened during the 1990 model year, he said. An Excel tested before the change sustained $561 damage in the rear-into-pole test, while the same model with the weaker bumpers cost $721 to repair.

Eight cars that sustained no damage when run forward into a flat barrier, were badly damaged costing between $200 (for the Honda Civic) and $718 (for the Mazda 323 Protege SE) when run into an angled barrier, the institute said.

Among seven cars with no damage in rear barrier tests, damage in the rear-into-pole test ranged from $479 for the Dodge Shadow to $1,404 for the Ford Escort, the report said.

The institute said it found that Toyota Corollas manufactured in Japan and exported to the United States have more protective bumpers than Corollas built in California or nearly identical Geo Prizms built in the same California plant.

The Prizm had $267 worth of damage in the front barrier test, while the Japan-built Corolla, whose bumper assembly weighs two pounds less, had none, the institute said.

by CNB