I rear-ended an 07 Nissan Xterra this morning going about 10-12mph. Only 4,400 miles on the car. Urrrr.

 

You might want to edit your post subject line "...someone".
I thought you ran a person over!

 

i guess i could see how one might interpret that! unfortunately, i can't change the title.

for those in hybridland... I DID NOT HIT A PERSON but an SUV

 

It seems like SUV possibly was breaking and therefore already high bumper went even higher and your car, also breaking pushed front down, so you hit it with front grill, instead of bumper, not really designed to take any type of impact (I almost broke mine in my hands trying to take it out). Hood itself is designed to absorb impact and fold, instead of breaking out from it's mount and moving into windshield, (it was the part that took most of the impact). Possibly if you hit it bumper to bumper, there wouldn't be any visible damage, but there would be some damage underneath the bumper cover. I once witnessed small passenger car hitting breaking SUV in the back in such a way that it actually went underneath the SUV, lift it up on it's hood and flipped it over. As long as there are no injuries, car could be fixed, I wouldn't worry too much and I know it sucks, but then you can't blame it on anybody else.

 

Total damage cost: $4,800. By the way, the each headlight housing costs $700 each

 

auto insurance is a nice thing to have

 

No wonder my insurance company has been upping my rates left and right. They always state that the average expected repair cost continues to increase on these models.

I had no idea it would be that expensive to repair damage from such a small impact.

 

I think it will take legislation to return bumpers to being... bumpers. The current crop take their cues from motorcyle fairings, totally useless in collisions.

 

I did the same thing, but it was a Jeep something or other. My (insurance's) bill was $3898.12 plus a rental (ugh, a Prius) at 80/20.

My big ticket items were the hood sub assembly ($420) and the radiator assembly ($447), and various "smaller" items like the bumper cover ($244), headlamp ($320), and radiator sub assembly ($180).

Don't know if all the parts were genuine Toyota or not, though the collision center I used is also owned/operated by my Toyota dealership/service center.

I did get "lucky" though, since my coolant reservoir was punctured, it was deemed un-driveable and they rushed the repairs (otherwise they were backed up something like 2 or 3 weeks).

My big disappointment is the paint job. It might actually be worse than the factory job, if that's possible...ugh!

 

That's way too much. I paid less than $300 for a set on eBay to use while my original headlights were being retrofitted with HIDs.