Buying a new car with hail damage

[hybridbear]

I'm curious if anyone has ever bought a new car with hail damage if anyone has experience with what kinds of deals are offered, etc. We had severe thunderstorms roll through last night with golf ball sized hail at our apartment. Fortunately our FFH was parked underground and safe. There are a lot of car dealers right along the interstate near our apartment and just a few blocks from our home there is a lot with about 500 new cars stored from a variety of dealers that don't fit at the dealerships. I walked by the lot on my way to work this morning and every single new car in the lot has major hail damage.

 

What do dealers do when this happens? How can new buyers make sure they don't get a damaged car? What impact does buying a hail damaged car have on your insurance rates? Resale value? Purchase price? Financing?

 

Thanks!

[neod192]

A couple years ago we had a tornado touch down around here and there was a GM dealership close by. Lots of their cars had damage and they fixed them up. They told me the cars will be sold at a lower price, but don't know how much lower or even if they were telling prospective buyers about the damage.

[aaronj1159]

We had some bad flooding here a month or so ago. The Acura dealer down the road had a couple rows of cars that had some water damage. I don't know anything personally, but I was told that the dealer basically put those cars on "clearance" and gave VERY reduced prices after they cleaned them up. Not sure about the rest of the process.

[hybridbear]

Thanks. I'm also curious how this might affect lease deals. Since in a leased car you're paying for the depreciation between its value when leased and its value when turned in I'm wondering if this will make leases more attractive or less attractive as a way for dealers to move cars.

[jsolan]

When I was still looking for a car, the Cadillac salesmen told me that a car had recently jumped the curb and hit 4 of their vehicles. They have insurance for things like that and had to send them out to be repaired. I imagine it's similar for hail. I'm not sure if they have to tell the customer the "new" vehicle was damaged, but I would imagine if they do there should be some discounts.

[djminfll]

I believe that legally, if the cars undergo body work, the dealer MUST reveal that to the customer. They usually will either repair the cars, advise the customer of the repaired damage and offer a discount; or not repair the car and sell it at a higher discount. Depending on the damage, some customers are willing to buy it, or perhaps get it fixed themselves. As for insurance, financing questions, I don't know.

[tr7driver]

We had a hail storm in early 2012 that damaged the hood and roof on my daughter's car, leaving dimples across the surfaces. The repair estimate came to $1,800.

[acdii]

Then they can have the car repaired and not tell the customer, but sell it at a decent price without haggling. The 2009 TCH I got for Invoice with 2% financing, and later discovered it had been repaired for hail damage when I had it looked at to repair some scratched in the fender from my horse chewing on it. If the repairs are done in house without insurance involved then no reports are made for Carfax to pickup.

[djminfll]

Then they can have the car repaired and not tell the customer, but sell it at a decent price without haggling. The 2009 TCH I got for Invoice with 2% financing, and later discovered it had been repaired for hail damage when I had it looked at to repair some scratched in the fender from my horse chewing on it. If the repairs are done in house without insurance involved then no reports are made for Carfax to pickup.

Then they can have the car repaired and not tell the customer, but sell it at a decent price without haggling. The 2009 TCH I got for Invoice with 2% financing, and later discovered it had been repaired for hail damage when I had it looked at to repair some scratched in the fender from my horse chewing on it. If the repairs are done in house without insurance involved then no reports are made for Carfax to pickup.

I don't have much faith in Carfax - I had leased a Honda Accord coupe that was in two minor collisions, both requiring body work, both handled through insurance. Yet, when I turned it in at the end of the lease, the inspector advised me that other than needing new tires, the car was perfect, no reported accidents, and no damage. So apparently Carfax didn't catch either one.

[acdii]

I dont trust Carfax either. The 2010 FFH I had did have previous work done, it had quite obvious paint flaws and masking lines that I discovered while doing a full detail on it, of course it was several months after I got the car, but it had a clean carfax.

[Eddie Sessum]

I had a mustang that carfax didnt report a wreak a year prior untill about 4 months after i purchased it.