Opinions on buying a hail damaged/ repaired car

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Hello-

I've been on the look for a new Dodge Charger and my quest has brought me to a dealer in Iowa who have a number of brand new but hail damaged/repaired 2016 Dodge Charger R/T's (5.7 Hemi)

I've been conversing via email with a salesman and according to him these Chargers sustained very minor damage from a hail storm and have been repaired via PDR (Paintless Dent Removal)

The pictures he sent of one they sold yesterday looked pretty good. He says that the PDR guy's did a great job and it is very difficult to tell of any damage occurring at all.

So living here in New England it would require a 500 dollar deposit, a plane ticket to Omaha, paying for the car and driving it back home.

MSRP on these Chargers are pushing 37K....they are selling at this dealership for 23K and 24K...quite a substantial savings.


I've never dealt with anything regarding hail damage.......


Take advantage of a great deal or avoid like the plague?

Hoping some mid-westerners who have experience with this sort of event will chime in....even better if someone lives in the Sioux City IA area could swing by and check it out in person
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Thoughts?
 
As long as you don't mind how the hail damage looks, and don't expect to be selling the car for a while, or don't care that you'll get a lot less when you do sell it, then sure. As a rule, it's all just cosmetic anyway.
 
I bought my prius with a rebuilt title that was apparently from Hail damage. Cant tell at all, but I have no idea which method of repair was used. I got it for a VERY good price and I am extremely happy with my purchase. I bought it outside of warranty so I wasn't worried about the title anyway, in your case sometimes dealerships no longer give you a warranty if the title is branded rebuilt (which is my assumption with the large price decrease).
 
Offer 20K and see what they have to say.
These are now two year old cars with damage history.
The dealer got a nice insurance settlement on these cars and is probably ahead even after the PDR.
FCA probably also kicked in some $$ on these aging new machines.
Go with a lowish offer and work from there.
Would probably be a good buy even at $22K.
 
Did you ask him if the dents were repaired via PDR and he replied "YES"? Or did he volunteer that info. Many times it's easier for many small dings to smear body filler on the roof, hood and trunk to "fix" the dents. Then they are painted. Using PDR over the entire car would be better but many times that's not how they do it. Would be kind of nice to know for sure.

How is the warranty affected? As mentioned does it have a salvage title? You can look at more hail damaged cars on www.copart.com.
 
Does the insurance industry handle these clouded title cars differently? If you get clarification on the title, ask your agent on this.
 
I think it is worth a plane ride, I however would not put down a deposit. I am assuming these cars are not flying off the shelf due to their history. Getting a deposit back if it's not as advertised might be a problem. Go check it out though!
 
If they are selling them for much less than they are worth, how can they have clean titles?

Not the same league, but i found a 2013 Corolla for $6500 with hail damage. No broken class. 40k. Rebuilt or salvage title. Can't remember.
 
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I've had great results with PDR. If it's done well, it's SO hard to tell the damage was there.

If the title isn't clear that will affect the value more than the PDR repairs.

The '18's are appearing on the lots, so it's now 2 model years old. How much are 2 year old Chargers going for? I don't care if it's "new" because it has blemish on its history that makes the miles on a used one a wash IMO.

I'd have them throw in an oil change, I wouldn't want to drive from IA to NH with 2 year old oil.

+1 on no deposit. If this is Woodhouse Dodge, they have 11 on their lot so it's not as if they're a hot commodity lol.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Make sure that you can buy a car out of state. Cant here unless it has 7500 miles on it or more.


Only in California.
 
If you want a big cheap zero miles car that HAS A HEMI for the lowest possible price it sounds like a great deal. If your idea of a new car involves perfect paint, body, ect then it wouldn't be satisfactory long term.
 
Originally Posted By: dareo
If you want a big cheap zero miles car that HAS A HEMI for the lowest possible price it sounds like a great deal. If your idea of a new car involves perfect paint, body, ect then it wouldn't be satisfactory long term.
This^^^^. You won't be happy when the paint washes outta those dents and nobody wants a dented up car on resale. They already got their cost outta the car. $12,000 tops. NO deposit. Pick the end of any month,fly over and see what happens. Better no deal than a bad deal.
 
Yeah, the key question for me would be whether it was a rebuilt salvage title. If it's just a regular title with an accident damage history, it might be worth it for the discount. The key problem with a rebuilt title is that the manufacturer doesn't have to honor any kind of warranty on it but I think they still have to honor recalls on them. And that also includes extended warranties where some problem pops up later and they just extended the warranty but then it doesn't apply to rebuilt cars.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys!

Yes it is Woodhouse Dodge and according to CarGuru they've been on the lot for about 420 days.

The salesman mentioned the PDR first as their website mentions Hail Damaged. When I inquired about the damage he said it was minor and that all the cars had PDR work done on them.

I asked about the warranty and he said that all of the Factory Warranties are valid...3/36 and 5/60. Not sure how the state of NH handles registering a hail damaged albeit repaired car. My insurance is Geico so I suppose a call to them regarding coverage may be in order. He did not mention anything about a rebuilt or salvage title.


I'm not sure I follow about paint washing out of the dents?? That would only be if the painted right?


No sales tax in NH so won't have to worry about any issues there.


I really do want a Hemi this time around....I've been looking at a 2017 SXT for around 26.5K but the 5.7 has my attention right now. I already owned a 2014 SE 3.6 that I put 51K trouble free miles on in 2 years and I'm missing the big car ride.

Used Hemi's or even Chargers in general seem to be in short supply in New England..at least ones priced reasonably hence I stretch my search to all corners lol

He did mention that the bill of sale will say AS IS/HAIL DAMAGE on it....I questioned about the warranty and that's when he said the factory warranty will still be honored.

On another forum I asked a similar question and one thing I didn't think of was hail damage near the corner of any window....was told that very possible that water will leak in if the damage is near a seam of a window. These cars come with moonroofs as well

Hmmmm pondering
 
I'm from Sioux City, IA
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Woodhouse Chrysler Dodge is a decent dealership from my experiences. They're not really a high volume seller, unless it's a Jeep, hence why they still have 2 year old Chargers. There should be some room for negotiation.

The hail storm in question was a few months ago. It wasn't too severe and most damage it caused should be able to be corrected by a decent PDR tech.

It may not have a salvage/rebuilt title, but in Iowa a damage disclosure is required on the title if the vehicle has sustained $3k or more in damage.

Feel free to message me. I'd be willing to go check it out for you. It would have to be in the evening due to my work schedule, but I have a high lumens flashlight that'll bring out any imperfections.
 
Seems odd someone local hasn't snapped them up? If I was going to go that far, I'd try to decide if I want a dinged up car for $20k before I flew there.
I found a 285 mile 2016 for $27k, and ones half way into the second oil change are cheaper than that. Seems like Iowa is a cheap place for nearly new R/T's so if the hailed ones don't work out, you may find another one to take home.
 
I've had good luck with PDR. You can't see where it was done in fact.

The issue for me is this - was it all repaired with PDR? As far as I know they have to be able to get behind the dent and push it out. Some dents would be easy to get at and some not so much. Dents on the roof might not be accessible for example. I wouldn't want a car that had some hail damage repairs done with a little body fill and a quick spray. That fill might well fall out with a good shake!

The only way I might be tempted would be: model I really wanted, warranty still in place, non salvage title and unbelievably cheap.

I suspect there's a good reason they've been on the lot forever.
 
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