My wife used to work for a major insurance company in what i will call their auto rates department. It was a bunch of lawyers and statisticians whose primary goal in life was to come up with reasons that the state should allow the company to raise their premiums. Every year if possible..

For whatever reason, low speed impact bumpers came up last night during a dinner out with friends. The wife went into one of her monologues... it went something like this.....

"Well, they sounded like a good idea when the gov't shoved it down the auto manufacterers throat. They were intended to keep down the cost of repairs, therefore lower premiums. Insurance companies don't like to hear that kind of stuff. Insurance company X spent a lot of money proving they don't work for a number of reasons.

- Some just plain don't work so well, even if the situation is optimum.
- Bumpers are different heights. If an SUV, truck, van or Humvee hits your car in the front or back, it'* going to miss your bumper. Standard damge cost in the rear. In the front your radiator is going to have a closer relationship with your engine.
- Big always wins. For example, 'everything' is bigger on an SUV and costs more to replace. But their rates don't reflect that because they don't do so badly in a low speed accident.

The bite is that car manufacturers put about $900/unit into the retail cost. So you paid for that, plus your rates only went down for about 15 minutes."

I think we should have skipped the whole thing.

just like the pass key was designed to prevent theft, right?

What about cars like the 2000+ LeSabre which have no front bumper?

If they need an excuse for raising insurance, why not penalize for owning a cell phone?
(gee, what connection is that scenario?)
They do for everything else, even bad credit, or having a red car.

I heard a rumor the rates are going up on white cars.