When is an Economy Car Not an Economy Car?

The answer to this headline is very easy: when it is involved it becomes a victim of the parking lot wars; is involved in a low-speed bump-and-thump or whatever you might want to call a low-speed bumper-thumper.

According to some information recently gathered from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety - the go-to group for auto insurance statistics, testing and comments - the only economy vehicle that turned out to be a real economy car was the 2008 Ford Focus. The 2008 Focus was the first major redesign of that venerable subcompact in about eight years.

The 2000 Focus was the first one introduced and its styling cues were later echoed in other vehicles including such vehicles as the 2003 Toyota Prius sedan, the 2001-2004 Honda Civic (the cues were more squared, but they were still there), The Kia Spectra, Hyundai Elantra and even the Mazda RX-3 (although you really would expect the Mazda/Ford cues to be the same since they were actually built on the same assembly line, Flat Rock, MI, and about the only difference was the body that was ultimately bolted on).

Ford's restyling wasn't radical, either. It seemed to rationalize and modernize the fender lines, hood line, roofline and rear quarters and trunklid. Built on a nice chassis, to begin with, the design team didn't go hog-wild with a whole new vehicle. It improved on things, including making some nice improvements in the ride and handling department (the older Focus tended to have a comfortably, but somewhat choppy ride that the new model has dialed out. A 200-mile trip in one, not too long ago, confirmed the ride and handling, as well as its fuel economy, even with a heavy foot). On the whole, the new design just looks right.

On the whole, Ford's Focus makes effective use of safety features, such as bumpers, too, as does the Scion lineup, too. Repairing the front and rear of a Ford Focus would cost about $3,000 while the Scion xB would cost about $3,700 (according to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety figures). It shows that these manufacturers realize that bumpers are there to protect a vehicle and not there for show.

IIHS runs a series of four tests. The tests are low-speed full frontal and rear crashes into a fixed barrier and angle crashes front and rear. They represent the type of aggravating accident you are most likely to have in a parking lot or at a traffic light and they are likely to prove costly, if you're driving the wrong car.

If, on the other hand, you were driving a Kia Spectra, you would find yourself with about $7,500 in repairs while Toyota's highly popular Prius would run you about $9,500 to repair.

Imagine buying a Prius for its economy and finding yourself shelling out a deductible of $1,000 or more to repair the damage caused by a low-speed accident and that the accident parts themselves for the repairs would cost nearly $10,000 (based on retail pricing).

Just to see if this pricing was accurate a check was run on what it might cost to repair the front end of a 2009 Honda Civic that was involved in a low-speed, front-end crash was about $3,000 and if the air conditioner condenser assembly was also involved in the accident then the cost would be about $1,000 more. Those prices were confirmed off an independent catalog of parts for that particular car.

So, what this means, according to IIHS - and commonsense - is that even though you go out to buy an economy car. That car's economy may not be as great as you think especially if you are involved in a bumper-thumper.

Now, why did this happen? Researchers who looked at the damaged vehicles have found a couple of items that stand out glaringly. The first is that the support bar that extends behind the bumper cover does not extend the full way across the front end of the vehicle. This means that the bumper literally hangs over the edges of the support bar and that there's no protection as the protective arms are attached to the support bar.

The other item that researchers found is that the protective material behind the bumper cover doesn't extend fully across the front and rear ends of the vehicle, although it looks like it does. Indeed, the bumpers are fared nicely into the fenders so that they look just right but when you take a close look at the material it looks like a short bar of protective material is sandwiched behind the bumper cover and in front of the support bar and when they get pushed back they tend to be pushed in from the middle. The result is, for want of a better expression, a "dimple," except in this case it looks move like a huge cleft in a person's chin.

This isn't a rave about the Ford Focus or Scion xB, it is just that with today's emphasis on fuel economy and economical cars that might have loans of 72 or 84 months or leases of 48 months are, regrettably, built much the same way, as inexpensively as possible. Granted, the days when you could be a reasonably well-equipped car for $6,000 are long, long, gone. In fact, they were gone before 1980, when full-sized cars cracked the $5,000 barrier. And, we thought that was "sticker shock" at the time. A long time ago, a $50 car was something, but that was very long time ago (about the time of Elvis) and it was inevitably used and abused and that price quickly (for the time) jumped to $100 and then $200 and by the mid-1960s, it was in the middle hundreds (imagine a car payment of $69 per month, unbelievable, right, not in 1967 it wasn't). Imagine picking up a brand-new semi-hemi Mitsu (Dodge Colt) in 1971, equipped with a dual-barrel carburetor, four-speed, leather, and AM/FM stereo for less than $2,000. It was possible, too.

Today, though, that just about pays for your deductible when even inexpensive cars are in the low- to mid-teens and are not built much better the $50, a 1955 Dodge that was likely built better in the first place.

That isn't to say that cars cannot be built to put less strain on your pocketbook and on the insurance and auto industries.

The IIHS conducted an interesting experiment with a Toyota Prius. For instance, according to the insurance industry group, it costs just short of $3,000 to replace the rear panels that would be damaged in a full crash at 3 to 6 miles per hour). Working with Allstate Insurance's Tech-Cor research division, they modified the front bumper of a Prius.

The researchers extended the reinforcement bar and foam absorber material by 10 inches so that the headlight assembly received coverage. On a retest, the repair costs dropped by nearly $1,000 from $1,200 to $254. That's quite a savings and shows you don't have to scrimp on body integrity to have an economical car. As another example, the Prius taillight lens and reflector assembly cost about $205 to replace, while the same assembly on Ford's humble Focus is $65.

Says the IIHS: "Bumpers must be taller and wider and (the) parts underneath mush manage crash energy better and extend far enough to protect bodies in (the) corners. If the (reinforcement) bar is too short lots of damage is likely (as) even the lights are not protected...11 of the 18 cars tested required headlight replacement or repair." For example, the headlight assemblies on the Honda Civic cost about $500, just in parts with no labor) to replace. That's quite a piece of change and isn't likely to be covered by your deductible.

Whatever way you look at it, today's economy cars are built for economy in more ways than one and if you just changed one of those ways, they would truly be economy cars for everyone, especially the person shelling out the $18,000 or so for the new Civic, in the first place.