BUYER BEWARE: The Downfalls of Purchasing A Vehicle With Hail Damage
So you purchased a new vehicle with hail damage. First off, congratulations! A newer vehicle is always an exciting time. That newer car smell. Something different to drive and more comfortable. We would like to discuss some items you should know for future reference.
Car Insurance
When you go to sign up for new insurance on this vehicle some insurance agents will want to see the vehicle in person or at least have pictures on file. If there is any indication that is has hail damage even in photos you may be denied for any future hail damage claims.
Future Accidents and Claims
We have even seen insurance companies subtract the damage amount for hail damage on a panel for a collision or accident. Lets say your hood for insurance has $500 in hail damage, please note this is NOT a lot of damage. You later get in a front end collision in your vehicle which damages the hood. Some insurance adjusters will then subtract the $500 in hail damage you have on the hood prior and not pay out that amount to have the vehicle fixed from its collision. This is rare and a complete headache for the vehicle owner and the repair shop. Even I myself cannot believe this is an issue but I have seen it myself first hand. So say it costs $1200 to have a body shop take the car apart, paint a new hood, install the new hood, blend the color into the fenders for a color match and put it all back together. The insurance company may only pay out $700.00 total because of the preexisting damages on the hood. Something to take note of.
The vehicle has a salvage title or damage disclosure is that the vehicle is now valued at a lesser amount. If the vehicle is then totaled out for damage again you will receive much less than the blue book value for the vehicle, often times using rough trade in for a value amount is in the ballpark.
CarFax History Report
Have you heard of Carfax? Its like a credit report for a vehicle. Whenever an insurance claim or accident is reported this information is then uploaded to Carfax to show the vehicle has some type of incident. Lets say this damage slips through the cracks and somehow is not recorded through Carfax. This vehicle gets to you with out any Carfax History Report. You then take the vehicle to a local body shop to have an estimate for your hail damage that you want repaired. Some body shop estimating systems and dealer computer systems report their info to Carfax. EVEN IF YOU DON’T HAVE A REPAIR DONE! So now your vehicle has been reported without your consent to Carfax and everyone from now on will know if they check the vehicles history, it had hail damage, or at least damage all over the vehicle. Some of these common body shop estimating systems include CCC One, Mitchell or Audatex. So be aware!
Often times we have people contact us asking “Should I buy a vehicle with hail damage?” They then send us photos of the damage or a web link to the vehicle on a website. Also they may have already purchased the vehicle. There are many considerations to take when purchasing a vehicle with hail damage and today we will cover those.
First off, Why Do You Want To Buy A Vehicle With Hail Damage?
People get attracted to hail damage vehicles because of the purchase price. After all the car is just cosmetically damaged. No frame damage or inner structures are damaged on the vehicle. Typically they have low miles and a very nice clean interior. The only downfall is the outside of the vehicle is full of dents and dings. To some buyers they are ok with the damage being there. They will drive the vehicle for years without a care in the world and not fix it. Others are looking to purchase the damaged vehicle cheaper than an equivalent vehicle without damage, then have it repaired later.
Does The Vehicle Have A Damage Disclosure or A Salvage Title?
These are very important questions that you will need to know. Even if the vehicle is fixed 100% correct a salvage title or damage disclosure may still haunt the vehicle for the rest of its life. Each state is different so check with your local state to see the requirements.
If it does have either of those on the title, was it added to the title because of hail damage specifically? The reason we ask is cause some vehicles have been repaired because of frame or other structural damage then these vehicles get hit with sometimes even light hail. The seller may then say something like, it has a damage disclosure or salvage title because of the hail. The will say this so you think oh its super simple damage, only a few dents per panel, no big deal. Later you may then find out it has previous frame or structural damage that was actually the cause of the bad title.
Extreme hail Damage – Sioux Falls South Dakota
How Does A Vehicle Get A Damage Disclosure or Salvage Title?
When a vehicle is damaged the total cost to repair the damage is assessed. The cost to repair the damage will be in excess of 60% to 80% of the total vehicles value. Each state is different but most states range from this percentage.
Did you know that for some insurance companies will “total out” a vehicle even into the fifty percentile just because the insurance company knows that the specific vehicle manufacture and model will bring a premium when later auctioned off for sale. That’s right, a vehicle that is deemed a total loss will then be purchased by the insurance company from the vehicle owner. The insurance company then takes the vehicle to an auction to then be auctioned off to the highest bidder. This is why car lots tend to have vehicles with hail damage, they buy them at auction.
So for easy math lets say you have a vehicle that is valued at $20,000.00 In order for a vehicle to be deemed a total loss, the total amount of damage the vehicle would have to have is somewhere between $12,000-$16,000.00 range. As stated in the previous paragraph it may even be as low as $10,000.00 in damage on extreme cases.
Extreme Hail Damage – Sioux Falls Dent Repair
How Much Are You Really Saving?
How much are you saving verses purchasing a vehicle with no damage and equal miles on it? Some save as little as a few hundred dollars and some save several thousand.
The Seller Said It Would Cost Less To Repair.
In some cases the new vehicle owner says the seller told them they had quotes for only some low amount to fix the damage. This happens with hail damage as well as collision style damage. When the vehicle is looked at by a facility like ourselves for an actual estimate we give them a through estimate on the actual repair costs. Remember this is what we specialize in specifically.
Often times moldings and trim pieces on the vehicle become damaged, if these are missed they can add several hundreds of dollars to the repair estimate. For instance lets say some of the trim around the rear quarter panel glass is missed and has damage, those windows can range from a few hundred to over a thousand dollars to replace and that is just one side! The reason being is the molding is bonded to the glass, the glass must be replaced with the molding since they are all one piece.
Also remember the person selling the vehicle is trying to get rid of it. They are a salesman! We see it time and time again of people being taken advantage of when buying a damaged vehicle. Unfortunately we end up becoming the ones to deliver the bad news that the vehicle will not actually cost as low of a price to repair, it will actually cost much more. We typically tell a person expect the ACTUAL repair costs to be double at least but probably closer to four times the amount mentioned by the vehicle seller. Remember, they are TRYING to sell the vehicle, not actually repair it!
Our Actual Experiences
All of the pictures featured in this article were either taken by us or sent to us by customers. All of these photos show damage that we will not be repairing.
The silver car, the Toyota was purchased by a customer then brought to us for an estimate. The entire top side of the vehicle needs to be replaced and taken to a body shop.
In 2018 we had a customer come to us with a newer BMW 7 series with hail damage. He purchased the vehicle out of Colorado and was shocked when he found out the cost of the repairs. Here he thought he had basically stole the vehicle. He was given over $7,000.00 off of the price! When we looked at the vehicle the cost to replace just the hood, roof and trunk lid and NOT counting any other damages was over his $7,000.00 savings. Its unfortunate but we hope to combat these dilemmas for future customers by informing them before hand!
Our Final Thoughts and Input
Think of it this way, with hail damage, there is a reason we ourselves do not typically buy hail damage cars and fix them ourselves. We can do these repairs for just the cost of our time and still choose not to. It is just not cost effective.
Want to read more about future insurance claims, future repairs, Carfax history reports and more?
This is very subjective to each person, are small dents worth fixing? First off which one of these people best describes you and your vehicle?
A Mode of Transportation
Some see a vehicle as disposable and will get rid of their vehicle in just a few short years. It is just a way of transportation. We get it, everyone has priorities in life. A vehicle is important just not so much cosmetically. To some if a vehicle starts up, runs, drives, has air conditioning and heat, that is all they want and need. A small dent or ding is so low on the priority list it is the LAST thing on their mind.
Detailed and OCD
On the other hand, some people place a lot of value in the condition of their vehicle. They may have a high case of OCD, have a very clean and well kept vehicle. This type of detail often extends to other parts of their lives. A very clean house, well maintained yard. Do you often dress more on the side of a business professional, wearing button up shirts, polos, slacks or a suit. Or maybe a dresses and heals are more your style. Now we hate to stereo type but it gives a good visual for a reader and to help explain. We have seen people in both styles drive many different style vehicles.
This person may often have their vehicle regularly washed, and I’m not talking about running it through a basic gas station car wash. I’m talking they take their vehicle to a professional detailer who goes though every nook and cranny of their vehicle to make it spotless. After the insides are deep cleaned the outside is then washed, buffed, polished and they may even have a ceramic coating applied. To put this simply, this is the same theory as wax but just the theory is where the differences stop. Ceramic coating is often times well over a thousand dollars to apply so just the thought of us mentioning wax as similar may make people scoff. We get it, but to explain this as basic as possible this is what most know and it is the easiest for others to compare the basic concept to.
Which Are You?
Do you have an idea of which person you may slightly lean to or we may have described you exactly.
If you are more like the first person we described then maybe that small dent or ding is not worth fixing to you. If you are more like the second person we described then to you a small dent or ding is worth every penny to make sure your baby is always in pristine condition and spotless.
Other Alternatives
Are you thinking of selling your vehicle soon? Is your vehicle a lease that you are needed to turn in soon?
We have a whole article discussing selling a car with dents, dings and hail damage you can
We often get asked “What Kind of Dents Can Be Fixed?” Not every dent is the same and there are many variables when determining what can and cannot be fixed. Even down to each person may have their own standard for a repair.
Shallow Dents
These are typically the easiest to repair assuming we can get a tool to the backside to push the damage out. Even shallow dents in certain metals, lets say aluminum, high strength steel or stainless steel though create extra difficulties. Because these metals are stronger even though they may be physically thinner does not mean they are easy to remove dents from. Stronger metals make even a shallow impact point difficult to remove. This is especially true when we cannot push the damage out and have to use the glue pulling method.
A perfect example for this is kitchen appliances or washer and dryers. Most of todays appliances and the current trend is stainless steel. We have attempted to make repairs on these items and more often then not are NOT able to repair the damage to our satisfaction. That does not mean the customer is not extremely happy with the repair however. If a person can have a dent removed lets say 80 t o 90% that is fantastic for them. The reason being is their alternative for a repair might even be as extreme as replacing the appliance!
Deep Dents
There are many degrees of deep dents. What someone may consider deep we might consider not repairable. We even have a tool called a Dent Depth Gauge from Black Plague PDR to help measure the depth of dents to better estimate damage and know for sure prior to the repair how the damage will turn out. For our pricing structure we are talk tenths of millimeters for depth.
Our pricing guide prices out depths as so:
Shallow Depth <.25mm
Medium Depth: .26-.75mm
Deep Depth: .76+mm
We have repaired dents into the 2mm deep range, but also struggled repairing dents in the 1.0mm range. This is where access to the backside is extremely important. Not only for a dent repair tool but also specialized metal shrinking tools as well.
Here is our dent depth gauge being used to measure the depth of a dent (2mm+)
Glue Pull Dent Repair
When we cannot push damage out with a traditional tool we have to resort to the glue pulling method for repairs. Here we use specialized hot metal adhesives to glue a glue tab to the vehicles paint finish. Don’t worry this entire process is designed specifically for this and will not harm the vehicles factory finish. From there we let the glue try sometimes for only a few seconds. We then use specialized glue pulling devices to pull the damage out. From there we use a release agent to release the glue from the vehicle and it peels right off.
Traditional Methods
The best choice for us to repair dents is to be able to glue pull AND push damage out with a traditional tools. Even extreme damage we may start using the glue pull method to pull a bunch of the damage out. Once the damage has been pulled out we then can go in with a tool and do the final details to finish up a dent repair.
We always tell people 80% of the repair is ONLY 20% of the work. The last 20% of the repair IS 80% of the work. This is why you might see others do repairs and they look not quite finished, or much “better”. Say for instance you have a repair that takes a technician 4-5 hours. It might only take him a hour or so to “rough” the damage out or get it to 80%. The biggest battle is getting the minor waves, wiggles, low and high spots all flat.
Do you have questions about our dent removal process?
