I'm glad the OP is ok and "walked away". Unfortunately I think we're going to see a battle about how the insurance companies view a cars value vs market value in these modern car sales times.
Don't forget we are entering the retail christmas period where their orders increase. More orders equal more rail cars equal the need for more trains. Problem is the rail companies have a limited number of crews so you will see rail cars, including the ones somebody's Mav is on, waiting to be...
My family ALWAYS ordered our new cars. That way we got them exactly as we wanted. The only time a car was bought off the lot was if a match happened to be there.
Nowadays with the limited option choices the odds of what you would order are already in stock.
But it's not a steel cross member. It's folded steel of roughly 18 gauge in thickness. Trust me, it'll bend like origami.
And of those rear end incidents, what kind of vehicles were they?
That's actually not a good idea for a Mav. As mentioned above, being a unibody there is no frame. The hitch is mounted to hard points in the rear. The OP being rear ended had the force spread across the rear of his Mav. Running that or any other hitch is going to focus all the energy into one...
Except.............if the OP doesn't have replacement insurance then all the demanding in the world is not going to change the terms of the insurance contract both parties agreed to.
And THIS is a huge reason to not pay the stupid ADM that some dealers want. NO insurance company in the world...
Unibody vehicles are actually quite strong. All of the cars with 5 star crash ratings nowadays are all unibody. Ease of repair........that's a different issue.