Making SUVs the scapegoat for policy

By Eric Peters
Copyright 1999 Washington Times
October 29,1997

The insurance companies have got it backward. Government regulations - not big sport utility vehicles (SUVS) - are mostly to blame for increasing fatality rates and monster repair bills resulting from accidents between SUVs and passenger cars.

Slapping a 20 percent "surcharge" on SUV owners' insurance premiums - as the industry announced it was considering doing last week - does not address this reality. It certainly won't do a thing to reduce the carnage.

Federal fuel efficiency rules -CAFE in bureaucratic argot -have had a dangerous, "downsizing" effect on the nation's vehicle fleet for years. Today's smaller, lighter cars are demonstrably less safe than the larger, heavier cars of the past.

At the same time, light trucks and SUVs have gotten bigger and heavier. When a 5,000 lb. SUV broadsides a 2,200 lb. subcompact, the results are sadly predictable.

The downsizing trend is most noticeable on the lower end of the passenger car market - the segment dominated by economy models and subcompacts: Honda Civics, Toyota Corollas, Geos, Chevy Cavaliers, Saturns, Hyundais, etc.

Often weighing less than 2,500 lbs. soaking wet, these frugal but often fatal little deathtraps are no match for a two-ton Ford Expedition or Chevy Suburban.

Before the 1980s, extremely small, lightweight cars were fairly rare on American roads. There was the VW Beetle - but it was the exception. Most Americans drove domestic models that weighed, on average, between 3,000 and 4,000 lbs.

In addition to their heftier overall bulk, these cars featured generous "overhangs" (the part of the body that extends beyond the wheels at front and rear) to absorb impact forces. Passenger cars of that period also had fairly heavy chromed bumpers at both ends for added protection.

Nowadays, small cars - compacts and subcompacts - comprise the majority of passenger cars in service. These cars, even when equipped with air bags, will never be able to absorb as much damage as larger cars - let alone trucks or SUVs.

Modern subcompacts are not just physically smaller; they're also getting lighter. To meet the government's Corporate Average Fuel Economy edicts, automakers have switched to composite materials in place of steel for fenders and hoods and decreased the thickness of the metal panels that remain in order to curb overall weight.

This makes small cars even less able to withstand a major impact from a larger vehicle - particularly in side-impact scenarios.

Occupant safety is theoretically maintained by the use of strategically located braces and dual air bags for the passengers. Yet fatality rates for accidents involving small cars getting hit by larger cars or SUVs indicate these "Band-Aids" can't make up for the absence of mass.

Moreover, these thin metal and plastic-composite bodyshells are easily damaged in even minor impacts - which explains why repair costs have gone through the roof.

A 5-mph fender bender can easily result in thousands of dollars in property damage - a problem made worse by the absence of heavy bumpers on smaller cars.

Instead, there are rubberized "fascias," or coverings, that are readily torn or damaged beyond repair in the most minor of accidents.

In fact, only a handful of cars built today have anything that approximates the sturdy bumpers of yore. (That trend began in the late 1960s, incidentally, when Pontiac first unveiled the "bumperless" look on the 1968 GTO.)

The insurance industry is understandably upset about the money it's had to pay out in claims. But the fault doesn't lie with owners of large, safe and structurally much-tougher SUVs.

Part of the reason people are buying SUVs in record numbers is simply because of a well-founded belief that most of today's passenger cars are nowhere near as safe as the full-sized American cars of the not-so-distant past.

Accounting for fully 47 percent of all new vehicle sales as of late 1997, SUVs have become an attractive option for families seeking old-fashioned sturdiness, roominess and power - attributes no longer found in today's front-wheel drive, "downsized" passenger car marketplace.

By any objective measure, the typical "midsized" sedan of today would be regarded as tiny by the motoring public of 1975. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why SUVs have become so popular.

If the insurance industry wants to do something about soaring repair costs and fatality rates, it ought to consider joining the battle to get rid of government fuel economy requirements and the unsafe little deathraps these regulations have spawned.

Eric Peters writes on automotive issues for The Washington Times.