Cool car technology is cool until it breaks
Fri, Mar 27 2015
This is nothing we didn't know, these are just hard numbers to demonstrate it. Edmunds recently provided the same with its sledgehammer-bashing of the 2015 Ford F-150, Tesla Model S buyers have been shrieking about repair costs to their electric sedan's all-aluminum bodywork, and used-car sites are full of articles about which expensive-to-repair features to steer clear of if you want to avoid big repair bills.
Those expensive bits increase the price of a car - Kelley Blue Book says the average price of a car is now more than $33,000 - and that raises rates for repairs and insurance. This comes in spite of some carmakers that have been collaborating with insurance companies and repair shops at the design stage in order to engineer parts that are easier and less expensive to replace.
But the tech can have its cost-saving benefits: a 2011 study by the Highway Loss Data Institute found that Volvos fitted with that company's City Safety feature "filed 27 percent fewer property-damage liability claims" than luxury SUVs without it, and just last month the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety called adaptive headlights one of the top four crash-preventing technologies on cars today (after coming out against them in 2006). So yes, the technology costs a mint when it needs to be fixed - but being able to avoid an accident in the first place might make it worth it.
- News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.
- Image Credit: Copyright 2015 AOL
- Cadillac
- Car Buying
- Used Car Buying
- Auto Repair
- Insurance
- Maintenance
- Safety
- Technology
- Luxury
- replacement parts
By Jonathon Ramsey
See also: Cadillac finds a few more horsepower for ATS-V, Weekly Recap: GM scales back as Russian auto market teeters, New V6 engines are only the start at Cadillac.