Rear end accident - tow hitch plastic parts damaged
 

On the way to work this morning my wife was stopped at the lights and a VW Golf ran into the back of her. Not high speed luckily, my wife is OK, just a minor soreness in her neck from the jolt. The XC60 tow hitch socket took a heavy blow and punched a square hole through the bumper of the VW

I've crawled under the XC60 and had a good look around and there is no sign of bending or deformation of the metalwork where the tow hitch is mounted. It's a dealer fitted Volvo branded tow hitch. What is damaged however are the plastic fittings at the end of the tow hitch - I've attached a photo of the 2 separate bits and I was wondering if anyone knows what the Volvo part numbers are for these 2 bits (assuming they are available separately)

The XC60 is off to a panel shop on Wednesday to have them look it over and confirm that there is no other damage.

It's essential you have the area thoroughly examined especially as each end of modern cars are crumple zones. There may be damage that you couldn't see. If you don't get a clear bill of no damage you could well regret it later on particulalry when trading in and something is found. Better to be safe than sorry.
Hope your wife does not have any lasting injury.

Tbh, that doesn't look like a genuine Volvo towbar, as it looks nothing like any of the covers. There's nothing on the exploded diagrams that has that shape.

If it is genuine Volvo, they will have part numbers moulded on them.

Have to agree that the parts you show are not the same as I had on my XC60 of that age with a removable tow bar. On mine there was a large hole in the bumper that was covered by a bumper coloured plate that was inserted into the towball receiver hiding the town at assembly and electric connection from view and road spray. There was no volvo branding evident other than on the inside, unseen surface where it had Volvo stamped and a part number. The latest is similar but doesn’t fit as easily or as well as the old system :(

Might be worth a chat with the dealer who fitted it.

Would agree strongly with the point about getting the car checked over - plastic bumpers return to their original shape because of the crash absorbing padding and can hide £000's of damage.

Had a Passat once that was rear-ended, bumper looked fine but scratched. Needed a whole new boot floor when inspected...

You wouldn't want to be at "We Buy Any Car" in 2 years time being told their going to give you 5k less for it...

Tow hitches in Australia are different to those in theUK so this may explain why it does not appear to be "genuine".

The pictures show that the car has had a fair hit.

Must agree with others it must be checked out by a dealer on repair specialist including taking the bumper off to have a good look at the towbar mounting points, the rear panel, rear strengthening bar and the boot floor and also check the wiring to make sue the cable is socket has not been damaged.

Don't forget the anti-whiplash seats , the backrest hinges deform if it is a big enough impact , dealer will know how to check ..

Update on rear crash damage
 

OK, so it seems that the Australian tow hitch as fitted by the dealer is different from ones sold in other parts of the world

The two plastic bits I needed I will state the part numbers here for reference purposes in case someone else ever needs them - not sure which is the surround and which is the plug bit though
The parts fom Volvo Australia are VO9493899 and VO9493922 and were quoted at $33 in total for the pair

The reason I will never need these parts is because the crash repair shop decided to replace both the rear bumper and the towbar. With the spare wheel removed there was no sign of deformation of the floor or surrounding panels luckily so that seems to be the limit of the damage.

With the other driver admitting fault and my insurance cover including a free rental car from Hertz for the duration of the repair (probably some ghastly buzzy econo-box) things could have been much worse. It wont be until late January that the car will be repaired though.