Bought my wife a 2018 4runner and right on time, got crushed by a Colorado hail storm today. Called insurance company and have a claim filed. Has 4,000 miles on it and really like the truck, but don't see how they can get that many dents out of it.

Any words of wisdom from the fire in dealing with hail damage? Not a big deal in the whole scheme of things but don't feel like taking it in the shorts with the insurance company either.

It depends if you're one to trade every few years or keep your vehicles until they're worn out like me. Several years ago I bought a used F-150 and a year or so later we had a bad hailstorm that dented my truck severely. There was so much vehicle damage in the area that the insurance adjusters set of big tents in parking lots. I was worried that they were going to total my truck but instead they wrote me a check for nearly what I payed for the truck and didn't total it. It's still my daily driver with over 250,000 miles and some rust but the hail sure made it an inexpensive vehicle.

Leaning that direction actually. Will see what they come up with.

The dents are like dimples on a golf ball.
You are going to be one lucky SOB. That thing will start
getting 120mpg. And once word gets out, Exon will buy it
from you for $250k. Just to test it.



Of course, we will never hear about it again.

Actually tried that on the 2008 Tundra. Never heard from Exxon ever.

Shortly after my older daughter got married, her car took it in the shorts from a Nebraska hail storm. Her insurance company came through, though. I was up there about a month later and saw that it was still dimpled. She told me that she was just going to drive it that way, and that the insurance money was going for a down payment on a house. They were just waiting for the final approval on the loan.

In 2016 my new ram 2500 took it good in Colorado Springs from a hail storm. Filed my claim with Gieco, they assessed gave me a check for a whopping $1600 bucks. They said take it to any shop you want. So did a ton of research and took it to one of the best shops for removing dents from hail damage. They looked at it said yeah this is going to cost more than $1600 they asked who my insurance company was. I said Gieco they said no problem they would call the agent and not to worry about it. Bill came to $6,000, they did have to repaint the top of the cab but they used one of the better paint shops in the springs. Now with all that, I was going to trade it in recently. They pulled a carfax report and asked what happened to your truck? I said hail damage, and I took it too the best shop in Colorado Springs. They said that's fine but they should of just wrote it up as hail damage. But how the shop entered it in carfax makes it sound like it it was in a real bad accident etc. so make sure if it's not totaled out the shop enters it just hail damage in carfax.

If it isn't horrendous and you drive the car a long time and you can live with the look you will likely make out pretty good by pocketing the check. Do be aware that if you elect not to fix it and then subsequently damage something that the hail claim already paid on, it will not pay again. For example, if they pay you to replace the hood and you elect to not fix it, they won't pay to replace the good if you get in a fender bender a few years later that ruins the hood.

I had that happen to my '11 Ram in 2011. Baseball size hail. Got an appraisal $11.5K and took it in to the dealers body shop. It ended up costing $12.5K, but the insurance company paid it. Truck was not totalled. A week or two after the truck got hit, my wife's '09 CX9 got hit, but it was only dimpled over most of the body. They gave me a check for $9K and I paid it off and never looked back. You had to be close to the vehicle to even see it had hail damage. Saved a load in loan interest by just paying it off.

I've seen some crazy hail damage get fixed like it never happened

I had my 2016 for a year when it got beat up to the tune of about $4700. I live close to the best body shop around here, and got there quick for an estimate. They didn't have to paint, and were about to do the PDR. The hail was only about the size of a quarter, so they didn't have to do too much beyond pulling dents.

I still have payments, so I wanted it fixed right. It was.

Good advice so far.

Most likely, the insurance company will make the check out to you and the Lien or Lease holder. You would need to endorse the check and send it to the Lien/Lease holder. If you don't fix the damage, the money will buy down your loan.

If it's leased, the lease company will want you to get it fixed, unless you decide to buy the car at the end of the lease term.

If purchased, the bank will either send the check to the body shop you choose, or if you don't repair it, the bank will apply the check to your loan.

If you own the car outright, do what you want with the check, fix it or not, your call.

What K1500 said applies as well.

I bought it outright. Went to what I think is the best hail repair place in Parker between appointments today. They said no problem getting it back to like new with PDR method. Cost was estimated at $5500. Just a lot of little dents all over. Going to get insurance company to work with them directly and I am just out the $1000 deductible. Hasn't even had an oil change yet lol.

Dang, that just plain sucks...hope the insurance company does OK for you.

Well it used up my P229 fund for the deductible. After it gets fixed, I'm putting a 3/4 length Frontrunner rack system on the roof I think. Might knock down the damage a bit on next storm. Worst part is my daughter is driving my Tundra around today.....I don't like my odds.

What? the Jeep is broke down? Quit spoiling that kid with modern vehicles.....

Jeep is running pretty good Don! Not good enough that I'd drive it to Deer Trail but plenty good. Tundra made it home in one piece and she has her old rig back now.

Oh they'll get the dents out.

My Ram got nailed last June. I'm going to get it fixed shortly. New hood and roof. Painless Dent Repair on the rest. $7800

I had hail on my Silverado last summer, 2 different storms. One of the paintless dent repair guys fixed it like you could not even tell. Some of those guys are real artists.

Lmao.....patent idea!!

I didn't have my current truck a month and it got nailed pretty good by hail. Having not been through the process before, I was skeptical as heck on the paintless process.
But when it came time to pick it up I was rather impressed. Serious voodoo skills, those folks.

Good luck with the process.

Ben, that also happened to Doug Kunz, my gunsmith in Albuquerque, whole his truck was parked in his driveway.

Over here in the East Mountains at about 6800' altitude, we get a surprising amount of hail. I leave my 2016 Ram 2500 outside since it won't fit in the garage, but whenever it looks like hail I throw a big tarp over it. So far, so good.

Norm

Throwing a cover on the truck is a pretty good idea. In the late 80's I was a USAF crew chief on T-38's in west Texas. Whenever there was the threat of hail and certain times of the year, we installed "wing covers" on the wings to protect them from damage. They were made from a heavy duty tarp like material with about an inch or so of padding inside and were held on with velcro straps.

Got caught in a real bad hail storm in South Dakota at a rest area where people had pulled in to try and escape being on the interstate with the passing storm....

every vehicle in the rest area got hammered and messed up with all the hail that fell except mine...

was driving a 79 VW Camper, with a fiberglass pop up top on it.. and had my fiberglass canoe on top of that
as we were returning from vacation out in Wyoming....

hail just bounces off of fiberglass...

experienced the same thing with my 88 4 Runner in South Dakota another time...

managed to pull off the freeway underneath an old A & W drive in...then a bunch of bikers heading to
Sturgis pulled in.. so I backed the 4 Runner out far enough to fit them in, where all that was sticking out
on top of the Vehicle was the rear removeable fiberglass tops on those old vehicles...

once again, the hail just bounced right off the top of it...damaging nothing...

Got the 4runner back yesterday and you wouldn't know it was ever damaged. The dentless guys did amazing work on it. Good to go for now and no issues with Nationwide picking up the tab other than the $1000 deductible.