Car crash repairs and Insurance

The dreaded car insurance quote arrived the other day, a year later, no claims and no discount! I remember when I first started driving, someone told me that my insurance would reduce significantly when I was 21. Guess what? Exactly, it didn't! Same story at 25 and again at 30. So I'm still waiting, hopefully when I get to 40 I'll get a big refund!

So why is is car insurance so expensive?

Inflation, uninsured drivers, 'no win, no fee' accident lawyers all contribute to the rising costs of car insurance. Now I don't profess to know all the details behind insurance costs and I'm sure the insurance companies are making a decent return for their shareholders, but I do know about cars and now thanks to an interesting seminar I went to last night I do know why they are so expensive to repair and how that effects your insurance price.

Euro NCAP crash test

The seminar was part of The Institute of the Motor Industry (The IMI) member association events and was hosted by a gentleman from The Vehicle Builders and Repairers Association (The VBRA). In all honesty I was a bit dubious about attending, I don't deal with crash repairs and it was a Friday night! That being said it was a really interesting presentation and I'm glad that I went. I thought that I would use my blog to share a few of the highlights.

You only need to take a look at the number of fatalities on the roads to see how vehicle safety has developed. In 2010 with 32 million vehicles on the road there were 1857 fatalities. In 1966 with approx 13 million vehicles there were 7985! A key factor in this reduction is the developments in vehicle technology and safety. You are much more likely to survive an accident now than ever before.

New cars are built with a passenger safety cell, this means the vehicle occupants have a much bigger degree of protection were they are sitting. This safety cell is made out of ultra high strength steel and is designed to offer maximum protection. Now if this cell becomes damaged it is very difficult to repair, the common practice being to replace rather than repair, this obviously increases the repair costs. The safety cell is underneath all the pretty body panels, these can be replaced and repainted, again at cost.

Outside of the safety cells, cars are designed to absorb impact. You may be aware of the term 'crumple zone', this means the certain parts of the car fold and distort to reduce the impact before it gets to the passenger cell. Again if this happens, its replace rather than repair.

Inside the car we have front airbags, side airbags, and seat belt tensioners, when these are activated they need to be replaced.

You will be surprised how easy it is to write a car off after a relatively minor crash. If you take a 2 year old£10k super mini with a current value of £6k and have a crash, the costs can quickly exceed the value of the car, this means that it is not financially viable to repair. This cost is then taken by the insurance company and they have to recover through increased premiums.

The presentation certainly raised my awareness of modern vehicle crash repairs and the amount of cost to carry them out.

Does it make my insurance quote cheaper? No, but it does make it easier to swallow. Given the choice, I would rather stick with the vehicles we have today than those we had in 1966.

What do you think? Let me know your thoughts and feel free to add them to the blog.

All the best
Stuart