We recently had a small hail storm come through San Antonio and unfortunately I got a few dings on my hood from the hail.

I was looking for opinions and suggestions as to whether I should even claim it to my insurance or not.

My main question is... Should my insurance go up if I claim this? I know if I am in some type of accident that is MY fault, this would cause an insurance rate increase.... but this clearly I have no control over. Does anyone have any experience with this issue?

I am insured with Progressive by the way and my deductible is $500.

Damage: There is about 4-5 noticeable dents on the hood (one of which is right on the "V" curve so I'm sure thats gonna be a little tougher getting out) and there is 2 dents on the fender above the front driver side wheel.

Thanks in advance guys!

 

i feel for ya: https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-multimedia-photo-gallery-6/hail-storm-117879/

i had over 200 dents...you probably have many more that you can't see under normal daylight....my insurance covered it and most was fixable via paintless dent repair....

 

oh im sure... these are just the big ones that are clearly noticeable. The rest of the car looks pretty good. I was at school when it happened and it was over pretty quick. I know it could of been a lot worst.

I just dont want them to quote me $700-800 dollar repair on my $500 deductible and only get a few hundred dollars to repair it and on top of it have my insurance go up.

 

Is the $500 deductible on comprehensive or collision coverage? That seems a little high for a comprehensive deductible which your damage would fall under. Call your insurance agent and discuss the problem. They can't increase your premiums for talking. After all, this was not your fault, it was an act of God so the insurance company cannot hold you responsible.

 

I had nearly $2000 in hail damage last May - hail damage is covered under your comprehensive policy, and should not affect your rates. Also, on many policies (like mine) there is zero deductible for comprehensive, even if you have a $500 or whatever for collision or liability. I was advised by others on this site to go with paintless dent repair, which I did, and was VERY happy - be sure however, to make sure you find someone who is experienced with Aluminum PDR, it's a lot more work and takes more time (not to mention more $$)

 

as soon as i saw the hail falling that night i ran out of work and moved my car to where it was safe lol

 

yea I was at the UTSA downtown campus working on a project that evening. I heard it start to fall so I ran and moved my car into the garage.

.... only reason it wasnt so bad. I will most likely be calling my insurance agent on Monday morning and i'll let you all know what happens.

Thanks guys

 

So I called yesterday and took the car in for a quote today. After waiting in the office for 45 mins... the guy told me that only 2 of the dents would be covered under the hail damage claim. There is about 4-5 total dents on my hood, 2 on the front fender and 1 on the truck.

He said only the one on the trunk and one of the fender looked like hail damage and that the second on the fender and none on the hood were. To me (the un trained eye) all of the dents look exactly the same but the guy swore they looked like someone stepped on my car. He even said "maybe you parked outside of a bar and there was some type of fight and something or someone was tossed onto your car. By this time I just said, well that definitely wasnt there before the hail storm... so what now?!? He said I would have to call the 1800 number again and file a different claim... so I did.

The lady called within the hour and said that they would file a claim also comprehensive since it wasnt my fault and that it would cover all damage (even separate the 2 dents that were from hail). So now I have to take the car back on Thursday for another quote... so they can cut me a check minus my $495 deductible!

 

Are you sure your deductible applies to comprehensive claims? Just wondering, because many policies (mine included) there is no deductible on comprehensive...either way, you'll be glad to have it fixed. Don't let them talk you into a regular body shop - they will just fill with bondo, paint over, and in a few years it will look lousy. Paintless Dent is the way to go - if you're not sure who a good one to use is, try calling some local car dealerships to see who they use, or a local car club. Be sure that whoever you use they have aluminum experience. Hopefully your insurance adjuster knows that aluminum PDR will be more expensive...good luck.

 

i work for a insurance company. each state has their own set of rules regarding insurance. since i live in texas, you have a choice of having no deduct (but pay higher premiums) or pay a certain amount on deduct. in his case he has a 500 comp deduct.


also tc, would recommend taking it to at least 3 different bodyshops before filin g a claim. you might get lucky that one of the body shops might say those other dents are caused by hail. but i just notice you had already filed one. hmm you can still get antoher opion from antoher body shop. any how gl to you.

 

be cautious on your claim.. if there is tooooo much damage, they will turn your good title into a salvage title. my mom had hail damage over the summer from a pretty bad storm we got here and if she made the insurance claim, they were going to salvage the car due to the amount of divots in the car hood, trunk, and roof. she decided to just pay out of pocket and go with the paintless dent solution. hardly noticeable besides a few spots. shows how quick an ins. company is at jumping the salvage gun.

 

^^ it depends really. we have lots of hail claims where i live. and for the past 4 years working here, i havent seen any cars turned into salvage, and we have lots of hail claims where the car has dents every where.. but i guess it might be due to me working for the number one insurance company in the US. also texas might have different rules on how determine if the car should be consider a salvage car.

also tc i forgot to ask, how much was the estimate? if its over a few hundred or so, i would just pay out of pocket and not file.

 

yeah, it def. varies by state. I had a deductible on my comp claim when a sever storm dropped a tree branch on my 8.

 

I doubt the damage will be anywhere near salvage. You cant even tell the dents are there unless you walk right up to the car and look. I will definitely use PDR. I went into a Progressive service center and they said that they would cut me a check on the spot minus my deductible and I am free to choose whatever shop I want to do the repair.

I'll try my best to take a few pics and let you know what they quote me.

 

Hope it all works out for you - my paintless guy was amazing - you can't tell there was ever any damage - and I had 2K worth of dents up to quarter size - he even took out a few other non-hail dings while he was working on it, and asked me for my touch-up paint and took care of any paint chips (again, completely unrelated to hail) I couldn't have been happier - my car looks better now than it did before the hail!

 

Lucky you! I would love to have something like this happen to me! I got my car keyed like 2 years ago and I still havent had a chance to get it fixed. I'm afraid of it being too expensive! It runs from the front door all the way to the back quarter panel.

This will def be next on my to do list. Anyone know of a good way to get something like this fixed?

 

Your best bet is to find a reputable body shop in your area and let them look at the areas that need fixing. Talk to local owners and see if they know of a place that will be honest about what is needed.


A good shop will fix what they can w/o any major body work and tell you which spots need more work and why.

 

Update:

So I took the car into the Progressive Service Center again for a second claim. Here are the estimates they quoted me. Attached are some pictures of the damage.

Hood Replacement: $518.40
Blend R Fender Outside...
Repair L Fender panel
Refinish L Fender Outside

Total Cost: $1406.02
minus my deductible of ($495)

they cut me a check for $911.02

So I basically can take my car to which ever shop I chose to have it repaired. I was very surprised to see that they are going to replace the hood and not just repair it. I honestly thought those dents were removable using Paintless Dent Removal.

Im guessing that one particular dent (see picture) that is right on the crease of the V shape the hood has is a tough one??

What do you all suggest? I used to have a carbon fiber hood on my turbo DSM back in those days... but im not too sure I want to go that route.

 

I'd definately check with a good PDR guy - I had dents worse than those that he took care of - even some on that crease. You can't tell there was ever anything there at all.

 

A good PDR guy guy could fix that perfectly for a few hundred bucks.