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See more photos from glued-roof, aftermarket-part Honda Fit crash tests

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Repair Operations | Technology
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Full results from the Tracy Law Firm’s crash-testing of Honda Fits with aftermarket parts and improper repairs might not be ready until early next year. But attorney Todd Tracy has suggested the early data has proven his points about both industry issues.

Tracy commissioned Karco to conduct those two moderate-overlap crash tests, which smash 40 percent of the front of the vehicle into a honeycomb aluminum barrier at 40 mph, and a third test of a control Honda Fit this month.

“The vehicle crushed just like we expected,” Tracy wrote of Monday’s test of a red 2009 Honda Fit with non-OEM repairs mimicking those done on his clients Matthew and Marcia Seebachan’s car.

“We never expected the roof to separate like in the Seebachan accident because we could never replicate the override crush,” he continued. “What we expected would happen did happen with a glued on roof—the roof did not absorb energy properly and the frame rail below the driver crushed excessively which in turn destroyed the footwell space for the driver. Vehicles are linked together like links in a chain.”

Tracy has compared the accelerometer data from Monday’s crash to “known OEM baseline moderate frontal offset testing,” and he reported that “the improper repair crash pulse is dramatically different than the OEM vehicle.”

The vehicle “may look fine on the outside, but is cancerous underneath when an engineering and biomechanical engineering analysis is conducted.”

Tracy also called the Tuesday results of a blue 2013 Honda Fit with multiple aftermarket parts “monumental.” He wrote in an email that the testing “gives scientific, engineering based proof that aftermarket parts are deadly and dangerous” and “do not perform like (OEM) parts.”

He said insurance carriers “can no longer hide behind component parts tests, conjecture and speculation.”

See what you think with our coverage from Monday and Tuesday’s tests, and take a look at some more photos of the two unfortunate guinea pig Hondas. (Note: The galleries work better on a desktop computer.)

2009 Honda Fit with incorrect repairs

2013 Honda Fit with aftermarket parts

More information:

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety 2009 Honda Fit crash testing

“Putting Car Insurance Bullies To The Safety Test”

Tracy Law Firm YouTube channel, Dec. 7, 2017

Images:

A Dec. 19, 2017, test at Karco crashed a 2013 Honda Fit into a 40 percent moderate-offset barrier at 40 mph. The Fit was carrying multiple aftermarket parts. (John Huetter/Repairer Driven News)

A Dec. 18, 2017, 40 mph test at Karco crashed a 2009 Honda Fit into a honeycomb aluminum barrier covering the driver’s side 40 percent of the front of the car. The Fit had been “repaired” to mimic the conditions found on a 2010 Honda Fit — which is structurally identical to the 2009 Fit — owned by attorney Todd Tracy’s clients Matthew and Marcia Seebachan. (John Huetter/Repairer Driven News)

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