On a trip to Florida a truck in front of me and one lane over lost part of his tire and that huge chunk rolled towards my car and I could not avoid it.

It made a huge bang and at the next exit I came off the highway to check on the MINI and here is what it looks like.




The lower grill got ripped loose from the bottom piece, plus the bottom black piece got warped. I feel lucky that it isn't worse, but it is still annoying. Curious now, would insurance cover that? Plus if I have to replace that lower piece would I have to worry about it not matching the color faded 2005 rest? How expensive do you think it is?

Also what is the trick to snap the grill in place? Im the center where there are holes you can use wire hooks to pull it closer but towards the edge it is solid and thus that trick won't work there. Please help with your thoughts.

And on the way home from Florida today my windshield got busted by a rock.

 

It is all very simple to do. I would just replace the front trim and not report it. The pieces are not over the top expensive to replace.
If you are concerned about matching the faded sections up, just pick up a bottle of Vynl (c/s?) and Rubber Shine from Griot's Garage.
The mess should pop back into place w/ no issues. (speaking from my experiences)
Good Luck & Motor On!

 

I am very sorry to hear that!!

It is very unfortunate... I would not get that covered by your insurance company... A new front bumper, including paint, wil cost you around $500...

I got the Aero front bumper for $300 from my local MINI dealer, and it cost me $120 to get it painted. The grill were $90 ( center center lower & upper, and fog lights grills)

 

I had an almost identical incident with my '04. A piece of a truck tire tread came up and center punched my lower grill. Fortunately my lip did not receive any damage.

If the black lip and grill are the only damaged pieces, it's pretty easy and economical to fix. Both pieces are available separately (you don't have to buy the whole bumper).

If the grill is not cracked, you can just replace the lip and gently but firmly pull the grill back into place (as you noted, a strong wire hook should do the trick - DON'T USE PLIERS TO GRIP THE GRILL, that will assuredly snap the pieces). The grill does screw into the bumper skin so if it is broken replacement will require removal of the entire bumper skin.

All in all, not a big project...

You might check with your dealer to see if the body shop they use to paint/install aero kits has any old bumpers laying about. You could score both parts for free or nominal cost if so. That's how I got my new grill insert.