If you get into a fender bender in your upscale car, it's going to hit you and/or your insurance company right in the wallet. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has announced results on its upscale sedan bumper test. Four out of the 11 tested cars sustained more than $10,000 in damages from four minor impacts.

The IIHS' bumper assessment consists of four low-speed tests: full frontal and rear into a barrier designed like a vehicle's bumper and front and rear corner impacts. The full-width impacts are conducted at 6 mph and the corner hit at 3 mph. Federal requirements for passenger cars spell out that there must not be bumper damage up to 2.5 mph. The bumper test represents minor fender benders such as those sustained in a parking lot or in stop-and-go traffic.

The worst performer in the luxury group was the Infiniti G35, which would cost almost $14,000 to repair the combined four-hit damage. Just the front-end bump alone has a price tag of over $5,000 to repair. The Acura TL, Lexus ES, Mercedes C-Class all topped $10,000 in total damage. Three vehicles sustained less than $6,000 worth of damage--the Lincoln MKZ, Audi A4, and the best out of this mediocre group, the Saab 9-3, which has a total of over $5,000. Other cars tested include the BMW 3 Series with $6,681, the Acura TSX with $7,554, Volvo S60 at $8,224, and Lexus IS with $9,577 worth of total damage. (See Consumer Reports' recent road test evaluations of many of these luxury vehicles.)

One reason for the high repair costs is the price of replacement parts for these  cars. As evidenced through this test, these  cars are not only expensive to buy, but costly to fix.

Bumpers are used to absorb the impact of low-speed collisions before they can damage expensive parts like fender and hoods. The problem with most bumpers is that they don't line up vertically with other vehicles and those that do don't stay that way during impact. Bumpers are also designed so they don't inflict an overly severe injury to pedestrians. The IIHS test also found that some of the bumpers were too flimsy to effectively absorb much energy and many don't fully protect the corners of the vehicle.

To help reduce the cost of bumper damage, the IIHS suggests that automakers make the bumper bars longer to protect the headlights and other costly equipment, make them taller so that they engage higher riding vehicles such as SUVs and pickups, and don't mount bumpers too close to the car body. This is mostly done for style, but it sacrifices function.

--Liza Barth