[eff1dude]

After yesterday's freak hail storm in Melbourne I am now the proud owner of a rather pockmarked BMW 320d (14 months old). Bonnet, boot, roof and all side panels down one side are pretty beat up The dents aren't huge, but there are dozens of them - probably around 100 all up.

Has anyone else ever suffered hail damage and if so, what do the insurance companies usually do ? I know for older cars they usually write them off because they aren't worth repairing, but what about a more expensive car ? I can see how they could replace bonnet, boot and door skins but what about the roof ?

Some google research indicates that they might use 'paintless dent removal' but i'd be worried that it would never look the same

[Dec540]

Ring them up and see what they have to say. Most insurance comapanies cover for hail so you should be sweet there.

There are some really good paintless dent removal places and if they can repair them you will never notice they were even there. Some dints cant be popped if they are on corners or uneven parts so they would replace those panels. If your car is worthless then yes they will write it off but there is no chance they will write off your car because you are probably within the new car replacement period which means you would need to have 60-70K + damage before they write it off.

[cruvon]

Sad to hear that and hope is resolved favourably, I would think they would
normally writeoff a badly hail damaged car,
know there was some kind of rule for replacing
a car for bad damage within the first year of ownership,
not sure, would be good to hear others experiences so
you could act accordingly

[E92325i]

Sorry to hear but every full comp insurance i've seen covers hail damage so you should be ok. The only thing i would recommend is taking it to a bmw authorised repairer if you have a choice of repairer in your insurance policy

My car is currently at the dealer (it has been for a few days now) and i was told on thursday that it would be ready no earlier than tuesday but i got a call at 11Am yesterday telling me it's ready to be picked up but i couldn't make it down there by 12. I really hope they put the car undercover (but i highly doubt it)since i put their brand new loaner in my garage before the hail started.

[QUM01Z]

Sorry to hear that mate, I am currently in Melbourne on Business from Brisbane and was walking the CBD streets when the hail storm hit, It was something I have never experienced in my time, I was watching all the nice cars, BMW's, Porsche's all driving through it. As an owner of a 335 I really felt there pain.

I am sure your Insurance Company will look after you! All the Best!

[benaud]

Out by Knox we were playing cricket and all of a sudden it was like someone was hitting golf balls onto the oval, the wind was making them bounce across just like a driving range. I ran off grabbed my keys and tried to get the car under cover somewhere. Copped a couple of massive hits whilst i was in the car, like someone was kicking it, but i cannot see any damage to the car at all, lucky. I have 15 holes in my garage roof now too. The cars in the garage now, but I have blankets on the bonnet as Rnd 2 is about to come through!

[eff1dude]

Finally managed to get through to my insurance company at midnight on Sunday night. I felt sorry for the operators, it must be a nightmare for them. I do have choice of repairer on my policy so will have to wait and see what the assessor says.

I have used Superfinish down in South Road Moorabbin who are an approved BMW and Lexus repairer. They did a great job once before when some a-hole on a bike decided to leave a nice long calling card down the drivers side of my car & then rode off into the distance without leaving a note.

Heard on the news that there was a $1 billion worth of damage so i'm certainly not on my lonesome and am guessing this could take a while. Compared to some people who's houses were totalled, I consider that I got off relatively easy, just a $500 excess and the loss of my rating 1 (which I have had for over 20 years).

The car is under BMW Full Circle which allows for 'normal wear & tear'. If it is repaired by an authorised BMW repairer, would they be able to use the repair as some sort of excuse not to pay out the guaranteed future value come trade in time ?

[johnnydad]

If the dents are small and multiple, it might pay to ask a dent removal specialist to quote also. I have had two cars hail damaged and repaired with the paintless dent removal technique, this over 10 years ago when it was a newer thing, and the results were superb. Original paintwork is retained and even when we traded one of the cars 8 years later, there was absolutely no sign it had ever been damaged.

[eff1dude]

Thanks for the info, that's good to know.

Re my earlier post about the $1 billion damages bill - I heard that on the radio this morning. Just now on the news tonight it's $200 million. Do these guys just make stuff up as they go ?

[Dec540]

Originally Posted by eff1dude

Finally managed to get through to my insurance company at midnight on Sunday night. I felt sorry for the operators, it must be a nightmare for them.

I work in sales at Auto and General insurance and claims got absolutly flogged today. I feel sorry for them too. We pulled over 30 people from different areas to jump on and lodge claims yet the whole day there was at least 30 clients waiting on hold to lodge a claim. Qld floods + VIC hail storms and everyone having labour day to ring their insurance company to lodge a claim doesn't really speed things up haha.

[benaud]

Originally Posted by benaud

Out by Knox we were playing cricket and all of a sudden it was like someone was hitting golf balls onto the oval, the wind was making them bounce across just like a driving range. I ran off grabbed my keys and tried to get the car under cover somewhere. Copped a couple of massive hits whilst i was in the car, like someone was kicking it, but i cannot see any damage to the car at all, lucky. I have 15 holes in my garage roof now too. The cars in the garage now, but I have blankets on the bonnet as Rnd 2 is about to come through!

Spoke too soon, found quite a large dent in the roof. Didn't spot it earlier as it's right next to the antenna fin.