Would you buy a new car with repaired hail damage?

[soupcxan]

I'm in the market for a Highlander, we just had bad hail storms come through Dallas last week and when I was at one of the dealers, almost every car had some kind of hail damage. The dings were not too deep, some cars had a couple, others had 30-40.

Would you buy a new HL that had hail damage repaired by the dealer? What's a fair discount for this? Any downsides I need to watch out for?

[becks]

Really depends on how long I was going to keep the HL, and how many dings it had repaired. If it had a couple I would like to get about $1,500 off. If it had 15+ I would try for $3,000 to $5,000. If I couldn't do that I would just order one, or head to a different locale for one.

A friend of mine who lived in New Mexico used to be a Fix-A-Dent repairman. That's all he did. Drive around to dealers lots to pull hail dings out of cars. Unless the paint is cracked it really isn't that big of a deal. If you ever get one on any car you can just take a compressed Air can (used to blow dust out of computers) turn it upside down and spray the ding. Then use a hair dryer on hot (don't melt the paint) and it will usually pop back out.

[TrailDust]

Depends on the buyer and the situation at hand. In particular, if I lived in hail country I'd seriously consider it given how frequently cars there get damaged. When I lived in Texas and Alabama as a kid every car we owned during that time (four cars) were all damaged by hail.

[vsansal]

Originally Posted by soupcxan

I'm in the market for a Highlander, we just had bad hail storms come through Dallas last week and when I was at one of the dealers, almost every car had some kind of hail damage. The dings were not too deep, some cars had a couple, others had 30-40.

Would you buy a new HL that had hail damage repaired by the dealer? What's a fair discount for this? Any downsides I need to watch out for?

Get the report about how they fixed (or going to) the damage. As an easy fix, sometimes instead of taking out the dents or replacing the damaged parts, they just fill the dent and paint it over which in time the paint or the material they filled the dent with might crack and show the damage. So if they replaced all those parts or took out the dents properly, you should be fine.

[dball711]

If the repair was paintless dent repair, I would not hesitate.

[dennydp]

It would have to be heavily discounted.Fixed or not its been damaged.

[Wayward_Traveller]

We recently had a similar problem here, but it was a severe wind storm and there is a retired railroad track that runs next to the Toyota dealership.
Needless to say, the gravel running on the train tracks had fun, 27 cars were damaged.

I missed the Highlander by 2 days, the sales manager bought it.... the insurance company reimbursed the dealership for the damages and they were big discounts.
The Highlander had no chips that were easily visual, but they were there on car... discount $11,000 on a brand new 2011.

I was so mad I missed it, just rock chips, nothing else.. and not like covered, like 10-20 chips per car.

[braZen]

I've had 3 cars damaged by hail, one totaled due to hail. Vsansal is exactly right in my opinion. If the dealer replaced or popped the dents using paintless repair I'd go for it as long as it looks good. If they repaired the dings with filler and then sprayed it, run- run fast.

[jasonjr23]

Originally Posted by dennydp

It would have to be heavily discounted.Fixed or not its been damaged.

I agree... I'd push for a huge discount. Then (if I was ok with the repairs) I would consider it.