2001 Flaw in Bumper Design

[GT 2011]

2011 Flaw in Bumper Design

I am a proud owner of a 2011 Liquid Silver CX-9 GT. Of all the vehicles I have owned this one has been outstanding. Fit and finish,ride,technology,interior room and styling.
Recently at dinner one night a valet lightly taped a concrete pillar with the rear bumper. And I mean lightly! It missed the paint but hit the textured part of the bumper leaving a large abrasion in the black texture. No one I contacted stated it could be repaired so I though I would just have the black part replaced but on the "9" the rear and front bumper are one piece. So long story short I, I couldn't stand seeing the mark in the bumper so I had the cover replaced at cost of $1200.00. Every other suv I have owned the textured part was a separate piece. Not in this case. Anyway Jim Ellis Auto Group here in Atlanta painted and installed the cover in one day and matched the finish perfectly. Hopefully the next generation "9"will have a two piece bumper but for now I'll stay away from letting a valet park it in the future.

 

[jal142]

This is unfortunate, but not surprising.

Consumer Reports does a "bumper basher" test. The results are ridiculous. Many cars and SUVs rack up thousands of dollars in damage. The regulations for car bumpers are really a joke, and SUVs don't even have to meet them.

The only thing you can do is be careful.

 

[table5511]

Most bumpers now are a one piece plastic cover. The entire cover is primed, then the lower portion is texture sprayed, and the upper is paint to match. MOST Vehicles.

 

[table5511]

Also, GT 2011, you got burned BIG time on 1200 bucks/replacing the bumper. Textured repair is DEFINITIVELY possible in this day and age. Textured plastic is a non-painted (typical, but painted texture is also out there) non-smooth surface. The problem is (was) that in a damage area, if a body shop tried a repair to a damaged area, they would sand down and apply plastic filler (if necessary) which would now present a smooth surface in the midst of a rough textured surface. Until recently (about a year or two ago), it was common practice to replace any "textured" plastic part which sustained damage on a vehicle. However, companies such as 3M have now developed textured "shaker" cans, and procedures have been developed to blend a repair area into the rest of the textured part, and apply textured paint and blend it as well. I have personally seen bumpers which looked brand new after having a texture repair performed. Like I said, there are a few ways. Here is a Youtube video of what I would consider a semi-professional repair to a textured bumper cover, which is 100% textured, unlike the CX-9 which has a painted smooth upper, and a textured non-painted lower portion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY78Fh4svRY

Like I said, this video which shows the repair is semi-pro, but the face of the bumper looks good. The repairs to the ripped tabs and such look kinda amateur.
In the instance of a CX-9 or any vehicle with an integrated lower textured portion, a shop would simply tape off the upper non-damaged painted area, and repair the lowered damaged area to the texture, follow proper procedure for repair, and then utilize such 3M or other products which can match the oem texture exactly, and repair the textured portion to pre-loss condition.

Here is the main problem: In order to do this kind of repair, the shop has to send their technicians to training, and have to purchase additional equipment/supplies, which costs them money. Any right now, it is just easier to replace the bumper.

Shops do NOT make much money on repairing damage to a textured area, so they will push to replace it.

Its a huge scam because textured bumpers are VERY repairable, and it boils down to ignorance.

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

Is the restaurant paying for what their valet did?

BTW I had a woman roll into my cx9 at a light and the bottom textured black portion was gouged by her front license plate (Damn Mass law). I also though they were separate sections. The thing is though, having a bumper in two sections isn't as durable as one piece. For instance instead of a scratch you'd probably have to deal with the bumper coming apart at the seam. IMO

Were you in the car when the valet "tapped" the rear bumper? I've been quite impressed with how resilient my 6 and 9's bumpers have been to bumps. Other cars I've have haven't been so resilient.

I think its easy for us to call something a bad design when we really don't know what sort of cost/compromise manufacturers have to make to turn a profit and comply with safety regulations.

 

[ceric]

What "regulations on bumper"?
US have any?
In the old days, the requirement was "5mph w/o damages".
Those days, I think, are long gone. Thanks to an US automaker (forgot which one), which lobbied hard
to save cost.

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

I meant regulations for crash safety. My point is that cars have gotten much safer with airbags, better crumple zones, anti roll protection etc. That all costs money so manufacturers need to balance all that cost. So while they may have pulled cost from other areas like the repair cost of replacing a bumper your chances of surviving a crash is much better. Personally I'd rather have to deal with expensive bumpers.

 

[table5511]

Bumpers used to be a one-piece back in the day. "Bumper." Now most autos have a 3-part bumper: Bumper cover, bumper absorber, and bumper reinforcement. The cover is an appearance part, the absorber is your 5mph impact styrofoam or plastic, and then the reinforcement bar is your protection for impacts. Some cars/suvs have a plastic "support" which stretches behind the bumper cover just to reinforce the shape of the plastic cover. For some reason, bumper "covers" still require certification. Aftermarket covers must be "capa" certified. However, non-capa certified covers are available which you can put on yourself, and it just doesn't meet the certification. To me, it is really silly because its just a piece of plastic and serves no protection in a crash.

 

[jal142]

The previous bumper standard (this was in the early '80s) was that the bumper had to protect the vehicle from a 5 miles per hour collision without sustaining any damage to the bumper or vehicle. The manufacturers successfully lobbied to have this reduced. The current standard in essence states that the bumper must protect the vehicle from damage from a 2.5 mph collision. The bumper can sustain an unlimited amount of damage as long as the rest of the car is unscathed. SUVs and light trucks don't even have to meet this relaxed standard.

 

[ceric]

jal142,
I am surprised that you knew about that.
I actually put them down on my post, but decided to delete it since I could not find references anymore.
You know, just in case someone challenges me for it.

That is what I said "what regulations on bumpers?".
We used to have 5mph standard, but in order to save cost some "smart automaker" (name witheld) lobbied
our gov to get rid of it. Sweet!

My old BMW ('98) had 9mph bumper. There were actually two shock absorbers inside the bumper!
Germen obvious see things differently from us.

 

[table5511]

believe it or not, the current VW "new" beetles still use hydraulic re-useable absorbers behind the bumper, and also have styrofoam impact absorbers around the tail lights. But some other present day vehicles still use the old style hydraulic aborbers: Ford Crown Victorias, some Cadillacs', some european vehicles. They really are old technology and they really can wreak havok on structural components like channel style frame rails, rear body panels, floor panels, etc. No idea why some mfr's still use them.