High tech car gadgets are cool, until they
need repair
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Just figuring out exactly how much the option costs
is difficult. Lexus doesn't sell it as a stand-alone option, but
packages the system with other features ranging in price from $1,200
to $4,800.
So, calculating what it would cost to repair the automatic
parking function, if it were damaged in a crash or failed entirely
after warranty, is near impossible. But collision repair experts
say that a general rule of thumb is that the cost of repairing or
replacing an option can run five to seven times the cost of the
option when the vehicle was new.
Satellite navigation:
Once only available on vehicles costing $50,000 or more, even garden-variety,
2007 Hondas can now be ordered with an in-dash navigation system.
The cost of the sat-nav option is still between $1,200 and $2,000
on a new car, but should the unthinkable happen and your 5-year-old
hurls something at the navigation screen and smashes it, it could
cost as much as $7,000 to replace, especially if the screen also
incorporates control of other functions, such as the audio system
or climate control.
"One of the issues that most people aren't aware of
is that manufacturers have piggybacked systems onto other systems,
so that when one is damaged, it will take out other functions,"
says Kim Hazelbaker, senior vice president of the Highway Loss Data
Institute. Whereas years ago a faulty power window usually involved
just a switch in the door, now the malfunction may be linked to
a failure of a computer module that controls other things, as well.
Keyless ignition systems:
Key fobs that transmit a low-power signal to the car, allowing it
to be started by pressing a button on the dash -- are all the rage.
Just don't lose the key fob. That could require reprogramming or
replacing of one of the car's control modules at a cost of $200
to $600.
Aluminum body parts: Another
potentially costly area involves greater use of aluminum in vehicles.
Some cars, such as the Audi A8 and the Jaguar XJ sedans, use aluminum
almost exclusively in the body and chassis to cut down on weight
and improve fuel economy.
The problem is that an aluminum car requires special knowledge
and tools to repair -- something that most body shops are not equipped to tackle. Hazelbaker
related a case of a man in Hawaii who bought one of the first Audi A8 sedans and
then was involved in an accident. There was no place on the islands equipped to
fix the car and it had to be shipped to California for repair at tremendous cost
to the insurance company and depriving the owner of his car for months.
"Aluminum is a great material. Insurance companies
don't have safety concerns, but there are repair issues, and it's
all about cost," Hazelbaker says, pointing out that insurance companies
are starting to factor in the cost of high-tech items into rates
for collision coverage.
A numbers game
For consumers, all these issues of cost, related to
the new high-tech features found on new cars, become more of a concern
as the vehicles age.
For the person who buys a car new, most failures of
things like navigation systems or rain-sensing windshield wipers
will be covered either by warranty or insurance. But for someone
who buys a car that's four years old or more, high-tech failures
could become more of a pocketbook issue.
It could become prohibitively expensive for people
to fix things that go kaput or they could get unwelcome news from
their insurance companies that their cars, which only have a crumpled
fender or two, are going to be totaled because of the costs to fix
damaged high-tech features.
Once the cost of the repairs exceeds a certain percentage
of the current value of the car -- often 60 percent to 80 percent
-- the insurance company will consider the car a total loss and
will not pay to make the repairs.
Brent O'Neill, a master mechanic
with a shop in Pembroke Park, Fla., notes, "It will soon get to the point that
after a car is six or seven years old it will be too expensive to fix a lot of
these new features. Cars will become even more disposable items."
Terry Jackson is an automotive
writer based in Florida.
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