Contrary to popular belief, the higher the horsepower doesn’t mean the more frequent the vehicle collisions.

That’s good. Though only 9 percent of all vehicles came with engines capable of developing more than 200 horsepower in 1990, 54 percent do today.

The growth in midsize and full-size sport-utility vehicles and trucks in recent years is one reason for so many more higher-horsepower engines.

And though they aren’t as accident-prone as most think, the higher the horsepower, the higher the insurance claim when the vehicle is in a collision.

“Higher-horsepower cars tend to be involved in fewer accidents, but when they hit something, they do more damage,” said Rick Crawley, product development general manager for Progressive Insurance, the nation’s third-largest auto insurer.

Progressive studied more than 12 million private passenger cars insured in the last three years to learn the role of horsepower in accidents and claims. It found that cars with more than 200 h.p. are involved in an average of 17 percent fewer accidents than those with less than 200 h.p.

So the next time you see a Vette, Mustang or Lexus SC430 zip buy and say, “There’s an accident waiting to happen,” you should bite your tongue.

Chances are the Civic, Cobalt or Focus that the sports model passed is 17 percent more likely to be in a fender bender.

But, of course, the downside is that Progressive also found that the insurance claim tends to be higher for the more powerful vehicles in a crash.

Speed? Maybe.

You also have to suspect that higher-performance, and thus higher-cost, cars have higher claims because they offer more amenities that add weight and require a bigger engine to move.

But Crawley said Progressive studied only accident frequency and severity, not the causes. So all people can do is speculate.

Write to Jim Mateja, Chicago Tribune, 616 Atrium Drive, Vernon Hills, IL 60061-1523, or send e-mail, including name and hometown, to jmatejatribune.com.

Progressive found that the claim payment averaged $4,663 for the owner of a vehicle with less than 200 h.p., but $5,673 for the owner of a vehicle with 200 to 250 h.p., $6,308 for a vehicle with 250 to 300 h.p., and $7,837 for a vehicle rated at more than 300 h.p.

The lesson is that if you opt for higher horsepower, be prepared to pay higher premiums.

For example, Crawley said, a 38-year-old married male who buys a Honda Accord powered with a 4-cylinder engine would pay $289 in premiums every six months, vs. $305, or $16 more, if the Accord is powered by a V-6. The car’s 4-cylinder achieves less than 200 h.p. and the V-6 more.

And if the same person bought a Mustang, he’d pay $358 every six months for the V-6 (210 h.p.) version, but $432 for the V-8 (300 h.p.). That’s $74 more.

And besides the $16 or $74 extra every six months, there’s also the added cost of gas burned by the beefier engines.

—

Honda says it expects record export sales this year.

Of soybeans.

The automaker said it expects to export to Japan more than 1 million bushels of soybeans grown and processed by more than 200 farmers on land it owns or leases near its plant in Marysville, Ohio.

The soybeans are shipped to Japan in the containers used to ship spare auto parts to the United States.

Rather than send the crates back empty, Honda years ago began exporting soybeans to Japan in those crates. Its soybean export business is estimated at $10 million annually.

Talk soybeans and carmakers recall one of Henry Ford’s dreams. He wanted to build car bodies from soybeans, which were more plentiful and cheaper than steel. He even built a prototype, but hungry cows that stopped to admire the creation ended his dream, or so one story goes.

—

(Write to Jim Mateja, Chicago Tribune, 616 Atrium Drive, Vernon Hills, IL 60061-1523, or send e-mail, including name and hometown, to jmatejatribune.com.)

—

(c) 2005, Chicago Tribune.

Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

AP-NY-04-29-05 0622EDT