Greater percentage of wrecked cars being scrapped rather than repaired

This from the WSJ, via the carconnection.com site:

>WSJ: More Cars Being Scrapped

Car accidents are becoming more costly and as a result, The Wall Street Journal reports, more vehicles are being scrapped instead of repaired. The paper says this year thus far, 16 percent of vehicles involved in collisions are being scrapped, up from just 7 percent in 1995. Part of the problem is the increasing technology baked into vehicles like Jaguar's X and Audi's A8 aluminum-bodied cars with expensive and specialized repair needs. Airbags, too, are causing more catastrophic damage to the interiors of cars, resulting in high repair bills. Even headlamps - multiple beam xenon lamps in particular - are far more expensive to repair than plain old halogens.

Reply to
Geoff
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Computers which enable anti lock brakes and stability control reduce accidents and insurance costs. Also the biggest part of insurance is still liability and airbags saves lives which reduce liability costs so the heck with the interior of the car.

halogens.

Reply to
Art

What damage, besides killing smaller occupants, are airbags causing? They do cost an arm and a leg to replace. I wonder if that is the catastrophic damage they are referring to.

They build what people buy.

I think your average new car has much more computing power than a datacenter from the 70's.

------------- Alex

Reply to
Alex Rodriguez

Air bags don't save lives. Seat belts do. Air bags may lessen injuries, but they don't save lives. Some air bags also kill.

------------ Alex

Reply to
Alex Rodriguez

Except that insurance companies have been scrapping ABS discounts for years now, since they *don't* reduce insurance claims.

Except that airbags *take* and *damage* lives, too.

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

Yep! Art Begun's ignorant parrotting notwithstanding, you are correct.

Ever sat in on a focus group?

There're at least three of us (I'll let Mister Three nominate himself if he so chooses).

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

ABS doesn't reduce insurance claims because people don't know how to use ABS properly. The multi stage airbags should reduce airbag related injuries. In tests, side curtain cars do far better protecting passengers than identical cars without side curtains. Yes, Dan there are exceptions when the curtain is poorly designed and does not protect the head adequately. I think it was a Saturn.

Reply to
Art

Just call me miss Four :)

Lisa

Reply to
Lisa Horton

Well I guess you guys don't believe the insurance industry crash test results.

Reply to
Art

I'll respectfully dissagree here.

Yes, airbags can reduce the severity of injuries in that low percentage of accidents where serious injury DOES occur. However, the high cost of damage to vehicle interiors is incurred EVERY time the air bag fires. The air bag fires, the majority of times, in incidents (I won't call them accidents) that would be survived either injury free or with minor injury if the occupants are wearing properly adjusted seat belts. EVERY air bag deployment costs large dollars, while only a small mumber of incidents would involve serious injury without. Also, air bags can CAUSE serious injury in cases where non air-bag equipped vehicles would be safe.

Vehicle repair costs are a very real part of the reason for increasing insurance costs.

Lawyers and outright fraud are a larger part of the increase in insurance premiums than real medical costs.

The fraud artistes are well known to the authorities, but due to the lawyers, attempting to convict them immediately gets characterized as "racial profiling" so both the cops and the insurance companies let them continue pulling their scams.

Reply to
nospam.clare.nce

Complete instrument panel disintegration, windsheild damage, just for starters. Hit a curb at 10MPH with a late model Cavalier, and the interior damage excedes the suspension damage by a factor of something like 3:1

No. people buy what companies sell. Smoke, mirrors, and all.

Yes, much more than some early 80's main frames.

Reply to
nospam.clare.nce

In NC insurance rates have been remarkably stable.

By the way my father just got rid of a 87 Camry with only liability insurance and replaced it with a Saturn L300 Wagon which costs about $25k. New Saturn has full comprehensive and $250 deductible on collision. His insurance cost only went up $200 per year. I had to ask twice.

Reply to
Art

You are ignoring the fact that today people are routinely walking away from

35 mph crashes without a scratch. In the old days it would mean major hospitalization and insurance costs. A opthamologist friend noticed the trend in the late 80's when calls for emergency eye surgery from car accidents started to fall.

geoff snipped-for-privacy@nospam.hotmail.com

Reply to
Art

Which (time wise) also happens to coincide with states writing compulsory seat belt laws.

Reply to
Neil Nelson

I'm all for airbags and other safety features. But wouldn't it be possible to implement those kinds of features without quite as much in the way of electronics and computers?

I've recently read articles about celphones and car accidents, and some studies are showing that other distractions, including the new "telematics", are also major contributors to distraction and accidents.

Then again, I'm one of those few people who will answer the phone in the car with "I'm sorry, I'm in the car, I'll call you back as soon as I'm not driving" :)

Lisa

Art wrote:

Reply to
Lisa Horton

-Windshield

-Dashboard assembly

-Sometimes side glass

-Often steering wheel

All frequently destroyed or damaged beyond re-use in a bag deployment. And that's without counting the airbags themselves.

And people buy what they build. C'mon, now, did anyone *demand* $100 car keys?

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

Thank you. We agree.

Irrelevant.

Should, but don't.

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

Art, I "guess" you're right. I believe data accumulated from real-world traffic crashes.

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

Which you seem to want to credit solely to airbags.

I know it's very hard for you, but *try* sticking to topics you know at least a little bit about. That way you won't look like such a goof.

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

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