The Wall Street Journal-20080212-Eyes on the Road- More Muscle Fuels Collision Losses
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Eyes on the Road: More Muscle Fuels Collision Losses
Full Text (559 words)The freedom to drive fast in a powerful car is fundamental to the mystique that auto makers use to sell cars. Now, as if the auto industry didn't have enough trouble, come more signs of a looming war on horsepower and speed.
The average horsepower for new cars has risen steadily since 1985, both in absolute terms and in terms of horsepower per 100 pounds of vehicle weight. A 1981 Honda Accord had a base engine with just 75 horsepower. A base model 2008 Accord has a 177 horsepower four- cylinder engine, and you can buy a six-cylinder model with 275 horsepower. As recently as the mid-1990s, that would have made Honda Motor Co.'s current Accord more powerful than a Cadillac Eldorado from General Motors Corp.
Meanwhile, motorists are stepping on the gas, especially since the demise of the national 55 mile-per-hour speed limit in 1995. The average vehicle speed exceeded the posted limit on freeways in eight urban areas monitored by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. (The cities were Albuquerque, N.M., Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Omaha, Neb., Tampa, Fla., and Washington, D.C. The Institute didn't visit Detroit, evidently. No need. We Motowners tend to view speed-limit signs as reminders of the minimum speed required to justify taking up space on the freeway.)
It's not just environmentalists who are casting disapproving eyes on these trends. "All this power on U.S. roads has translated into higher insurance losses," the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says in its latest "Status Report", a regular newsletter that highlights issues of concern to the insurance institute research arm. The IIHS is perhaps best known to consumers as the sponsors of the crash tests that are staples of television news magazines. Over the years, the IIHS has helped push auto makers to develop and make available a number of important safety technologies such as side-curtain airbags.
The IIHS highlights a study released this month by its sister organization, the Highway Loss Data Institute, that concludes insurance losses have been rising steadily since 1985, as cars have become more powerful.
The HLDI study compares the insurance losses of a 2005 Pontiac Grand Am, a midsize GM car that had a 140 horsepower engine, to Nissan Motor Co.'s 2005 Altima, outfitted with a 3.5 liter 260 horsepower engine.
"Collision losses for the more powerful Altima are an estimated 20% higher than for the less-powerful Grand Am for rated drivers 25-64," according to the Insurance Institute's summary of the study. That means that an Altima driver living in an urban area could expect to run up an average of $339 in collision losses on an annualized basis compared with $283 for a similar driver behind the wheel of a Grand Am.
The Insurance Institute/HLDI conclusion that higher horsepower correlates to increased insurance-claim losses across the board -- for younger and older drivers -- isn't a welcome development for the industry or consumers who like cars with larger power-to-weight ratios.
The IIHS's broadside against power and speed -- launched amid the bigger debate over the automobile's role in our energy and environmental problems -- should represent a warning to car makers and automotive enthusiasts. There's a backlash building against the idea of the car as an unassailable icon of freedom and power. America has changed since the late 1960s. The car culture may have to as well.
