Friday night coming home from work I was rear-ended as I was stopped for a traffic light on a highway. The guy said he was daydreaming and didn't see me, oh well, his insurance rates will be going up.
When he slammed on his brakes the nose of his Dodge Mini-Van must of went under my Escape's bumper. When I got out of my car I saw his car first, the entire hood of the mini-van was pushed up to the windshield, anti-freeze leaking all over the place, both headlights gone. I could not believe it when I looked at the rear of my Escape thinking the whole back must of gotten pushed in. Nothing was noticable! I had to acutally look for damage to the Escape. The guy got out of his car and scratched his head, he looked at his mini-van and then my vehicle, he wondered where all the damage was on my vehicle.

After careful inspection, the only thing my bumper has is a few cuts or gashes in it and at one of the creases you can see that it took some stress there. The police officer who came to write up the report estimated the mini-van has about $3500 to $4000 worth of damage, plus with the radiator leaking who knows what happened under the hood, could only be that the hose came off, don't know...the guy needs a whole new front end...

Actually if I wanted to I could leave my bumper on the way it is, the damage is hardly noticable, but no way. This guys "daydreaming" is going to cost his insurance company to pay for a new bumper for my '03 Escape. I checked underneath the back and could not see any other structural damage, but will have the body shop check it out completely when they install the new bumper.
That massive rear bumper on the Escape is filled with shock absorbing foam I heard, it did a good job as not to cause any other damage. I told the other driver that vehicles today are designed to take the impact of a crash and not the driver. His mini-van front end took the impact of crumbling and not him, lol. His air bag did NOT deploy, which I thought was strange, looking at the damage he had.

Once the new bumper is installed I will probably get rid of it. Once a vehicle is smacked like that front behind, who knows what came loose throughout the car. Shame, I just got the '03 Escape in October '05, not even 4 months ago...just wasn't meant to be I guess..

 

"Once a vehicle is smacked like that front behind,"

Should read,"Once a vehicle is smacked from behind,"

For some reason cannot edit my post, sorry..

 

I had almost the exact same thing with my then 3-month old '06 Escape Hybrid. The clown that hit me tried to swerve back out of the lane so his left front hit my right rear corner. The bumper cover was broken at one of the hangers and the bumper itself was bent a little bit but other than that there was no damage. The repair ran about $900. My '06 has the gray (unpainted) bumper cover and there was absolutely no paint damage so the guy got off easy. His insurance even gave me a big Tahoe to drive for the 9 days it took the shop to repair it. The repair itself took a couple hours - what took so long was the BS with the insurance adjuster doing the supplement.

I was really nervous about the Hybrid batteries and all the electronics in the back of the car with the rear ender accident but after what I saw, I don't worry as much anymore.

The guy that hit me was driving a Honda Civic or Accord or something and he had substantial damage to the hood, bumper, fender and headlight assembly.

I wouldn't be in such a hurry to get rid of it due to an accident like that. Have the bodyshop check it out underneath but I would bet it is fine.

 

The airbag won't deploy unless there's enough of a jolt. While he had a lot of damage, he may have slid under your Escape rather than bounced off. The donkey I hit in my 02 Escape at 30-40mph bounced off. Air bags didn't deploy, barely spilled any coffee, but I had $8k in damage. Enough to total the Escape - 8 hours of unibody alignment, new fenders/hood and everything in front of the engine was destroyed. The rear-ends hold up much better than the front.

 

Don't be in a hurry to sell your Escape after the repair. Take some time and see if you can really tell any difference. My wife got rear-ended in a very similar manner in her SHO and we kept it for another 150k miles with no problems. In fact, I think she got rear-ended twice!

 

On the other hand, I've had lingering issues for 11 months after being hit twice. The body shop didn't comb over the vehicle very well. I've had a couple re-visits for accident-related wear, some covered under warrenty, but over $4K out of my pocket. Insurance just laughed that much later. I'm talking about hidden damage. My advice: Have a third-part check it out as if you were buying it used. If they spot anything with the drive train, or frame, even wheel bearings and the like, it should get fixed now.

 

especially if the mini-vans airbags did not deploy meaning that the impact of your escape recived was not even near enough the cauase damage to the escapes other vehicle systems or parts. I am sure it will be fine i no i would not trade mine in for that little of damage ;-)

BUILT FORD THOUGH!!