2010 RX350 AWD Repair Costs after Minor Accident

redarrow239 · October 14

We have a 2010 RX350 AWD in generally excellent condition with just 120,000 miles. It has been an excellent vehicle for our family for many years, and now it's being used by a teenage son. He was recently in an at-fault accident where he was switching lanes to the left and pushed his passenger-side front quarter panel into the right side of a passing vehicle. The damage to both cars was relatively superficial (e.g., scraping and some denting to panels; side mirror damaged; front bumper slightly dislodged on the driver side).

When we first took the vehicle into an insurance-approved repair shop, the estimated cost to repair was $3,500. After beginning to remove the front panels, they now say the driver-side headlight assembly needs to be replaced, and they adjusted the repair estimate to $6,500+. The rationale was supposedly that the type of headlights (i.e., the kind that auto-level and move left/right with steering) supposedly costs $2,500+.

Looking at PartsGeek and CarParts, and they show both lower-cost and higher-cost headlight assemblies for this make / model / year, etc. -- Assuming we have the more expensive headlights currently on the vehicle, would we need to pay those prices to replace one (or both, try and match) assemblies?