[*bibs*]

Hi All,

On Saturday here in Brisbane we had a huge hail storm. Some hail as big as cricket balls in my suburb. Anyway two out of our three cars were on the footpath parked. Both cars have sustained hail damage. Some large dents but lots of minor denting, especially to bonnet, boot and roof. Anyway my husband had his looked at already (not by insurance but panel beater near by) who say they would have to replace roof, bonnet and boot and some paint work??

Both cars are getting assessed next week in a major one hit assessment process (thats what the lady called it as there are so many claims). In other words you take your car they look at for about 15 minutes and say fix or write off on the spot.

Anyone have any ideas if a car that has sustained hail damage to nearly every panel would be repairable or written off? Or have any experiences?

Lexus ES300 2002 model

Lexus GS300 2003 model

Thanks in advance.

This post has been edited by *bibs*: 21/11/2012, 04:45 PM

[Jemstar]

When this happened in Perth many, many vehicles were written off' but equally many were repaired. One of thoses. Wait and see situations. There was also a special dispensation made for people without insurance that they could drive their vehicle for its lifetime without repair if necessary, as long as it had been assessed as safe, without fear of being done for driving an unroadworthy vehicle.

[PrincessPeach]

It depends upon the severity of the dents - some they can actually massage out & it looks like they were never there.

Last hail storm my neighbour got caught out & had dents over the majority of panels & the insurance company paid to repair it. TI nthe end only 1 panel had to be replaced & the rest of the dents were iron out. I don't know what model car it is, but it was an older model.

[galba]

Our Volvo XC90 was written off - I didn't think it was too bad compared to others as it had lots of minor dents but they were everywhere, every single panel.

[vanessa71]

I had hail damage on my car from the Christmas day storms last year. My car was repaired and you would never know there was any hail damage.

[~Mintie~]

A few year ago I had hail damage on my vehicle, all over, I think it was every panel from memory. They repaired it and did a great job. I think at the time, my car was valued at about $15000-$17000.

[The Old Bag]

In some cars (like Galba's Volvo) the roof forms part of the car's safety cell structure and that sort of damage would compromise its integrity in a crash. I would be talking to the manufacturer and getting their advice before agreeing to a repair job.

[JillyJellyBean]

we had two cars written off a couple years ago in a hail storm. Each panel needed replacing. It does depend though on the value of the car.
Hail storm damage is apparently expensive to repair. Good luck.

[Maple Leaf]

2 years ago we had hail damage and it was fairly extensive. They didn't have to replace panels but used this cool machine to suck out the dents. The car looks amazing now, I think they put a special finish on it afterwards.

We are with AAMI and other than having to pay the excess (which they reduced by $100 just to be nice!), was a fairly painless and quick experience getting it sorted out.

[2 Gorgeous Girls]

A lot of insurance companies are using paintless dent removal now. It means they can repair a lot more cars. I've never seen it done but I've heard you can't tell the difference.