Why even a minor bumper dent puts you at risk
There’s a story about an old man who gathered his five sons together and gave them a bundle of sticks. He instructed each one to break the bundle of sticks in half but, of course, none of them could. The father then told them to untie the bundle and take a stick each. After they had done this, he ordered them to each break their stick – which they did easily.
The father was making a point about teamwork, but the safety systems in your vehicle are like that bundle of sticks – strong together, and only as strong as the weakest link. Even a minor dent in a bumper creates a weak link in your car’s safety team.
Unfortunately, a scratch or a dent on a car’s bumper is one of those minor irritations most motorists tend to dismiss. The truth is that your bumper performs a critical safety role in your vehicle – it is part of the overall crash mitigation systems in your vehicle.
Your bumper has a job, and its job is to absorb the force of an impact in a collision. Just like the bones in our bodies, when broken or fractured, they don’t work to their full potential.
A bruised bumper will cheapen your car
It’s plain and simple; a scratched or broken bumper drastically devalues a car. Not only does it take away from its allure for onlookers, it also strips its market value – bear in mind it creates safety issues.
If you ever have plans to sell or trade-in your car in the future, superficial abnormalities like scratches or cracks on your bumper are going to make it far more difficult for your car to resell or trade for a general market rate.
When selling, the state of the vehicle can send a few different messages to potential owners – a fractured bumper could suggest that the car is tired or it has been poorly looked after or it might even give the idea that the car is too expensive to upkeep hence the scratched or broken bumper at time of selling.
Superficial damage to a bumper doesn’t worry most car owners in New Zealand. The scratches are usually linked with thoughts of, ‘it could have been worse’ and the comfort of that thought is probably a reason why many drivers live with a dent or two for the rest of the life span of their cars.
If not for the safety of yourself and your car, get your bumper fixed to maintain resale value or at the very least out of concern for the safety of potential buyers.
