The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) says small cars can suffer some expensive damage in very low-speed driving.

The IIHS conducted a battery of tests on 20 small cars that found fault with many in the test, with 3- and 6-mph simulated impacts resulting in damages totaling nearly one-third of the vehicle price in some cases.

At the speeds used by the IIHS, only the bumpers should sustain damage, and then it should be cosmetic, they reasoned. The bumpers' job is to protect the expensive, structural portions of the vehicle such as hoods, headlights, and fenders. Automotive designers can take these realities into account while designing bumpers, but in most cases the IIHS found that bumpers in the economy class were substandard when it came to protecting the vehicles' sheetmetal.

Worst offenders in the class were the Hyundai Elantra, Toyota Prius, and Volkswagen Rabbit, all of which sustained damage of $4,000 or more in a single test. The Ford Focus was the best performer, with its worst damage about one-third of the cost the worst performers' in a single test.

It is the physics of these low-speed collisions that often quickly turns a fender-bender into a hefty insurance claim. A properly designed bumper, such as in the Ford Focus, meets the colliding vehicle square at bumper height, and both bumpers are able to absorb impact and protect other parts of the vehicle. But it was aggressive and trendy styling mixed with less than thorough engineering, found the IIHS, that contributes to bumpers that either push the colliding vehicle underneath the bumper (underriding) or push it above the bumper (overriding). In both cases, pricey components and accessories are damaged, and sheetmetal can also be deformed. Also at fault were flimsy bumpers that, even when colliding properly, weren't stout enough to handle the impact. Finally, bumper shape and height are critical design factors that can mean thousands of dollars' difference in an impact.

A series of four crash tests were performed to assess and compare bumper performance: full front and rear into a barrier designed to mimic the front or back bumper on another vehicle, and front and rear corner impact tests as well. Full-width impact testing was done at 6 mph, corner impact testing at 3 mph.

"Small cars are supposed to be economical, but there's nothing economical about three or four thousand dollars in repairs after a low-speed collision," says Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's senior vice president Joe Nolan.

August could turn out to be another dismal sales month for the domestic automakers. The results so far:

TOYOTA/LEXUS: Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc., today reported August sales of 211,533 vehicles, a decrease of 9.4 percent from last August, on a daily selling rate basis. The Toyota Division posted August sales of 182,252 units, a decrease of 9.4 percent from last August. The Lexus Division reported August sales of 29,281 units, a decrease of 9.1 percent from the year-ago month.

GM: August total sales were down 20 percent. GM is extending its employee discount sale through September 30, 2008 and a number of 2009 models are being added due to dwindling 2008 inventories.

FORD: Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicle sales totaled 151,021, down 26 percent. The decline primarily reflects lower demand for SUVs (down 53 percent) and trucks (down 39 percent) and lower sales to fleet customers (down 31 percent). Ford Focus sales were up 23 percent and Escape sales were up 17 percent versus a year ago.

CHRYSLER: Chrysler LLC today reported total August 2008 U.S. sales of 110,235 units, down 34 percent from the same period last year.

HONDA: American Honda Motor Co., Inc., posted August total vehicle sales of 146,855, a decline of 7.3 percent compared to record-setting August 2007 results. Year-to-date sales of 1,083,957 represent a 1.2 percent increase on a daily-selling-rate basis* compared to last year.

VOLKSWAGEN: Volkswagen of America, Inc. today announced August 2008 sales of 22,292 units, a 2.9 percent increase over the August 2007 sales of 21,655 vehicles. On a year-to-date basis, 2008 Volkswagen sales are 1.3 percent ahead of 2007 sales through August.

NISSAN: Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA) today reported August 2008 sales of 108,493 units versus 95,527 units a year ago, an increase of 13.6 percent. Sales of Nissan Division vehicles increased 14.2 percent, while sales of Infiniti Division vehicles increased by 8.0 percent.

HYUNDAI: Hyundai Motor America announced sales of 41,130 for the month of August, an 8.8 percent decrease from the all-time August sales record set in 2007.

MAZDA: Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today reported August 2008 sales of 23,680 vehicles, a slight decrease over last August of 4.4 percent. Year-to-date, Mazda has sold 199,239 vehicles, down 2.0 percent.

MERCEDES-BENZ: Mercedes-Benz USA reported August sales of 18,507 new vehicles, bringing the year-to-date total to 158,519, a 0.5 percent increase over 2007 year-to-date sales.

BMW/MINI: Sales of BMW brand vehicles decreased 4.1 percent in August for a total of 25,462 compared to 26,562 reported in the same month a year ago. MINI USA reported August sales of 5,469 automobiles, up 34.1 percent from the 4,077 cars sold in August 2007.

AUDI: Audi of America announced today auto sales for the month of August totaling 6,406, a decrease of 16 percent from last year's figures.

MITSUBISHI: Mitsubishi's total August 2008 sales were down 29 percent, compared to August 2007 (13,020 sales), which was the largest August sales month in four years.

SUBARU: Subaru of America, Inc. today reported August sales of 18,932 total units -- a 14 percent increase over the same month in 2007 of 16,573 units.

Watching its finances with ever-closer vigilance, a financially pressed General Motors is filing suit against workers and retirees who improperly extended their employee discounts to non-relatives.

The company claims these actions have cost it more than $450,000, which it is trying to recoup through the lawsuits.

On an per-transaction level, audits revealed that the non-family members benefited from discounts ranging from $1,000 to $9,000 per vehicle.

Interestingly, according to The Detroit News, some of the lawsuits were filed after GM extended employee discounts to the entire buying public on nearly all of its 2008 models and some of its 2009 models. GM Spokesman Tom Wilkinson called this timing coincidental, and also remarked that while the company might have overlooked loose controls on these perks in the past, it is now watching costs more closely.

Despite a surprise $15.5 billion loss in the second quarter, and the drumbeat of lower truck sales and shrinking market share, General Motors' board of directors is firmly behind Rick Wagoner.

Friend of the TCC house John Stoll reports over at the Wall Street Journal today that Wagoner's leadership at GM isn't in question whatsoever, despite the dark news surrounding the company throughout the past six months. While Wagoner and his executive team carved out and implemented a recovery plan for the automaker, the world changed around them--and that's why he's in no danger, Stoll reports.

"The board is totally behind Rick, realizing nobody could deal with this situation any better than he," a source close to the GM board told the Journal. "It's a case of an excellent plan, [and] delivering on all promises."

Wagoner has survived a remarkable downturn at General Motors since his arrival in 2000. A continuing drop in market share has left GM with only about 20 percent of the U.S. market right now; at the start of the decade, GM execs were working feverishly to preserve a 28-percent share, even then a historic low.

To Wagoner's credit, the piece says, GM has cut equally historic deals with the United Auto Workers, turned around the quality of its cars and trucks, and seeded strong growth in China and other world markets outside of stagnant Europe and shrinking North America.

To give some momentum to its latest turnaround plan, GM announced last month it would cut more trucks from its production plan while it pushed ahead the launches of several new cars and crossover vehicles, including the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze; the 2010 Cadillac SRX and Saab 9-4X; the Chevrolet Equinox; and an unnamed Buick sedan that likely will replace the Lucerne in 2010.

A Toyota engineer who died in 2006 was killed by too much work, a labor organization in Japan has ruled.

The Associated Press reports that in 2006, an Toyota vehicle engineer died of ischemic heart disease. (The engineer's name was not reported at the family's request.) The disease, his family argued, was brought on by excessive work--as much as 80 hours of overtime a month at the worker's office in Toyota City.

The news agency reports the engineer worked nights and weekends to get a vital car ready for the 2006 North American International Auto Show in Detroit--the same show that saw the world debut of the latest Toyota Camry as well as the new Lexus LS sedan. The 45-year-old had been working on developing the Camry Hybrid for the show, but died before the car made its way to Cobo Hall.

The ruling allows the man's family to collect work benefits.

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