The $77,000 Explorer!

[Cameron]

Henry Ford is reputed to have said he'd give his cars away if he could have a monopoly selling replacement parts--and no wonder. Periodically, the Alliance of American Insurers announces just how pricey OEM replacement parts are by calculating the cost of building a vehicle from such parts. For a 1998 Ford Explorer, AAI says, the sum of the parts is more than 2 1/2 times its $27,145 list price (a few examples are called out below). That's high--but that's not the whole story. It costs more to package, inventory, ship, and sell individual parts. Automakers also must stock every replacement part, while aftermarket makers cherry-pick the most profitable ones. Keystone Automotive Industries, the largest U.S. aftermarket parts distributor, says its warehouses stock 15,000 to 19,000 different crash-part numbers; Ford inventories more than 35,000 crash-part numbers, plus 245,000 other Ford parts. Still, if imitation parts can someday deliver high quality along with their already-lower prices, the consumer can only benefit.

Dead Link Removed

Anybody want to by my 97 Sport? I'll let it go for only $65,000!

 

[mattadams]

I believe this is why Honda Civic's are the most stolen vehicles... there parts are much more valuable then the car itself, and the parts are always in high demand. That is definately interesting to know though

 

[Stephen]

Matt's exactly right, its the same way with a lot of older vehicles, their parts are like gold. The car together is more or less worthless.

 

[Dre]

and why Honda is stolen the most? Because these parts are in high demand. Every time a Honda is involved in an accident it almost needs a total rebuilt. Same with all the Korean cars. When you really look closelly at these cars you'll notice that they are built very poorly, cheap. I just call them tin can cars. Why should we be punished for that? (as we are per Insurance industry). SUV's pay higher insurance rates becouse they sustain less damage in a collision. Heck!!!! build better cars!!!!

Later,

 

[Stephen]

Andre, Actually Hondas are built very well. In fact, they are more or less legendary along with Toyota for product quality and stregnth. All small cars will require more repair in an accident than a big car. With less area on each peice, crash forces are spread out to more peices which is why they require replacement. Really has nothing to do with them being poorly built, or using inferior materials. Thats what these little cars are designed to do.

 

[Chief]

Oh wow...I'm now going to strip my car, sell it piece by piece, and buy a 1999 NSX.

 

[zensius]

Stephen is right about small cars and their inherent ability to sustain more damage. But at the same time it's well documented that a lot of damage is incurred by these smaller cars because style wins out over design. Hardly anybody looks at the cost to replace the front end of a new car when they're looking at buying it. I remember in the mid-nineties seeing a report on small cars. In a five mile an hour head-on collision an Escort (read ugly) sustained $0 in damages but the Honda Civic sustained something like $2000 in damages! The Civic isn't built poorly just with different priorities. I can't support any of this with actual reports. I don't save this stuff. It's simply a case of style over design. Look at a new Porsche. It's got bumperettes the size of post cards! But it's a damn good looking car. That's the trade off.
The other reason Honda and Toyota parts are so popular is that they are interchangeable among many years and models. My long-winded three cents.

 

[RU MAN]

All i know is my girlfriend has a 99 Civic and last year she was driving on some snow on the highway and by the way she was driving behind me. We came up on some cars that have wricked on both sides, so i just drive between them, she didn't and hit a car and then a ranger hit her. We were going maybe 15 mph and it looked like it was totaled. But her car's value is still up there, so the total damage cost wasn't a 1/2 of the civic value was, so it wasn't totaled. It cost $6,500 to fix. The reason the civic have alot more damage is because the car takes the impacked, not the driver. The car is built to last, but not hit a block well and be ok.

 

[Bill Kemp]

Insurance companies have been charging more for collision coverage based on "damageability" for a long time.
For a 50 yr. old it costs almost the same to insure a new Cadillac as it does a Cavalier.