The 1998 Kia Sportage was the worst performing vehicle overall, with a total damage in four tests of $7,309

• Spare tire placement blamed
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ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- Seven small sports utility vehicles (SUVs), all 1998 models, had excessive damage in a series of low-speed crash tests, an insurance industry group said Tuesday. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said a major reason was tailgate-mounted spare tires that protrude so far they hit an object before the rear bumper does.

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The institute said only the Subaru Forester and Jeep Wrangler sustained less than $3,000 total damage in the four tests, all of which were conducted at 5 miles per hour (8 km/h).

The worst performer, the Kia Sportage, allowed damage costing more than $7,000 to repair. The Sportage's average damage per test was more than $1,800.

The crash test series includes front and rear flat-barrier impacts plus two localized impacts -- front-into-angle-barrier and rear-into-pole.

Spare tire placement blamed

"Manufacturers like to promote utility vehicles with an image of ruggedness," said Institute President Brian O'Neill, "but they're far from rugged. The designers obviously paid little attention to the basic purpose of bumpers, which is to prevent damage in low-speed impacts."

The 1998 Subaru Forester was the best performing vehicle overall, with a total damage in four tests of $2,207

O'Neill said most of the vehicles tested had "unnecessary damage" to rear windows and tailgates because of spare tires mounted on the tailgate that protrude farther than the rear bumper. This means the tire, not the bumper, takes the initial impact of a crash, he said. 272 K/23 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

"Only the Forester performed well in the relatively easy flat-barrier impacts. The rest of the vehicles should have done as well," said O'Neill.

"And in the more damaging angle-barrier and pole tests, the bumpers on all of the small utility vehicles failed to prevent excessive damage. The cost to repair the damage to the Sportage after four tests amounted to more than a third of the vehicle's price," he said.

None of the small utility vehicles tested sustained less than $1,000 damage in the "rear-into-pole" impact test at 5 miles per hour.

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