It’s Spring, There’s a Hail Storm – Hail Damage Repair Information

Fortunately for car owners without a garage, most hail storms do not cause bodily harm to cars until the hail is more than ½ inch in diameter. Even then, it takes a bigger hail than that to cause significant damage. The first thing that happens after a hail storm is car dealers offer hail sales and hail repair kits appear like mushrooms after a rain shower.

1. Hail sales offer damaged cars at prices well below book value. However, the real result is that car dealers simply get higher commissions and sell more cars. Any car sold with unrepaired damage means the damage was too severe or too expensive to be worth repairing. Every car that a dealer can repair before sale with Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) will have already been repaired.

2. Repainting a car after PDR or other hail damage removal adds additional costs. PDR works well for small dents where the dent has no cracked paint inside the dent.

3. Dents too large for PDR to repair should be handled in a conventional auto shop and repairs should be painted and finished.

4. Large or deep dents or those where the metal is severely stretched or even cracked require repair work at the auto body shop. Deep paint-breaking dents will lead to rust on the metal body of the car if not repaired.

5. Some insurance companies pay car owners the amount of their estimate, regardless of whether the owner makes the repairs or not. Keeping insurance money without repairing it is legal, but choosing to leave the damage unrepaired can affect your ability to obtain full coverage auto insurance. It can also affect the amount you receive for future repairs or similar damages, as future events will be excluded from coverage.

6. Repairing hail damage to a car with insurance money has the repair listed on the CarFax vehicle report from then on. This helps insurance companies avoid false damage claims and is also used by car buyers to learn about the damage and repair history of their potential vehicle.

7. Owners who choose to leave it unrepaired may find that the cost of hail damage will be deducted from damage claims later in the car’s useful life. Document any hail damage repairs to ensure future claims are paid in full.

8. If you own your car, you need to decide how long you plan to own the car and how important the repair is to you. If you have a car that is of little value and you plan to drive it until you die, it doesn’t make much sense to repair hail damage.

9. If you have an active auto loan, the lienholder will likely require verification that the damage was repaired. In some cases, they may allow you to apply the hail damage repair check to your auto loan balance.

10. Obtain damage estimates and compare them to the claim payment offer minus your deductible before making a decision about filing an insurance claim.

11. The insurance company may “total” an older car with relatively minor hail damage simply because the vehicle has less useful life left. Motorcycles can withstand very little hail damage before insurance companies consider them a total loss.

When checking hail damage or getting an insurance quote, be sure to check your windshields for cracks and chips. If glass is involved, have it repaired and make sure the permanent seals along the windshield and rear window edges are also properly repaired and in place.