Nooooooooooooo!!!!

[Elliott Potter <epotter@abraxis.com>]

Had a rough week so far...

I was sitting at a traffic light Monday night, thinking about how
irritating the fog lights on the Nissan Pathfinder behind me were, when
suddenly I noticed that they were GROWING!  Within a few seconds I
realized that they were in fact getting closer, and CRUNCH the
Pathfinder drifted right into me, and its large brush guard made a small
hole in my bumper.  Some poor college student was driving and was
absolutely terrified...
Anyway the car is fine except the rear bumper now has a small hole about
1 inch tall and 1/4 inch wide.  The other driver was insured so it's no
problem but all the same, I know exactly what situation she's in (I was
in a similar one myself) and am interested in making this as painless as
possible, and maybe not even involving insurance companies (partly for
her sake and partly for mine...).
I'm taking the car to the dealer on Saturday to get an estimate of what
it will cost to fix this, and was wondering if there is some way to
patch the bumper or if the whole thing must be replaced (assuming of
course that it's not coming disconnected or something but I don't think
it is).  It's got "alpine white" paint so I was thinking maybe there's
some kind of patch or filler they can use?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Taking it somewhere besides the dealer is out of the question (yes dear;
coming dear; yes dear; to the dealer it is dear...).

TIA

Elliott