It Costs $28,131 to Ram Someone at 25 mph in Your C-Class

For those of you who have serious road rage issues, please seek help from a qualified professional. After that, consider that if you decide to ram into John Doe’s parked Chevy Malibu at 25 mph, the total damage cost will amount to $28,131 according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

Now, most people don’t intentionally use their cars as battering rams, but when drivers become distracted, one’s car has a higher risk of contracting battering-ram syndrome. Regardless of how a motorist crashes a car, insurance companies get all misty-eyed when they have to drop $28,131 on repair costs, so the IIHS has come out with a video showing us how fantastic automatic/autonomous emergency braking (AEB) is. Often times, AEB-equipped cars will come to a complete stop before colliding with the car ahead, but sometimes AEB can only reduce the car’s speed. The video below shows the difference between a 25-mph collision and a 12-mph collision. Cut the speed in half and the total damage cost drops to $5,715. We can surmise from this video that insurance companies will be lobbying for standard AEB in all new cars.

via [AutoCrashTest]