Luxury cars do poorly in bumper tests

Very true and there is no longer a need to spend the extra money on a so-called luxury car as most luxury features have already trickled down to lesser cars. An extreme example is the Suzuki SX4 which is very well equipped for its low price with the only thing missing being availability of heated power seats and leather. The seat material was a bit tacky but the seats were comfy and at the right height because the car is tall to begin with. We'll probably end up buying the 2008 C-class however. The 2008 Saturn VUE which my wife wanted was a complete disappointment to both of us.

Another screw up for Lexus.

Shame on them!

Try scratching the front bumper on a Lamborghini.. you'll get more than $5,500 in damages.

Pissed off that no Lexus is on the list? Typical German fanboys...

Current bumper design was in response to government regulations that required bumpers to survive a crash at a specified speed. Government regulators have forced families to spend more of their financial resources to fix these bumpers. My wife got rear-ended at a traffic light with our leased Audi A6 and there were only minor scratches on the outside of the bumper but the internals were wrecked requiring an expenditure of $600 to fix. Fortunately, this was the other guy's fault so insurance paid all.

Mercedes , don't listen to camarylover david989, your post is very clear. GO BENZ!

interesting to note:

he worst performer in the pack of 11 midsize luxury cars that were tested was the Infiniti G35 which sustained almost $14,000 in damage - that's more than double the cost of repairing a BMW 3-Series for God's sake! The Infiniti was a disaster,” said Institute senior vice president Joe Nolan. "There shouldn't be much or any damage in collisions at these speeds, especially to expensive and presumably well-made cars." The best performer was the Saab 9-3 which sustained "only" $5,243 in damage while the Audi A4 was quite close with $5.831. From the 11 cars tested, 4 broke the $10,000 barrier.

I really don't know what they're expecting? back in the 70's and early 80's you had cars with thick metal panels and metal bumpers. and if you got into in accdient you maybe had a small dent or crease. Now wiht gov't standards for crumple zones and occupent protection what else is it supposed to do besides fall apart? damages of over $2,500 back then were rare for this type of accident.

Not to mention most car companies make a lot of their money from aftercare (I.E. Replacement parts) Do you really think that tail light costs $600 to make?

You got that right, I recall I had a 1976 Buick Electra which eventually rusted out but at one point I took a metal hole saw to the front fender just to see how thick the metal was and I could not believe the contrast between metal thickness in those days and now. I must admit that this was before the days of galvanized bodies and better rust-proofing at the factory but those good old heavy cars sure had a nice ride. The Jeep Wrangler had the best bumpers of all -- just a piece of heavy C-section that anyone can buy from a structural steel supplier, have the supplier cut it to length and drill a few holes for the mounting bolts. Or, you can do it all yourself if you have the tools.

dont forget these luxury cars also have these sensors in the bumpers n etc which rly do cost more to fix. But of course when u buy a luxury car it always be very expensive to maintain.