Hail damage

Joined
Sep 23, 2002
Messages
278
Location
IL
Looking for some advise. Vehicle is a 2012 CRV with about 115k miles in good conditions, driven by my son. Vehicle got damaged by hail. No glass was damaged, but hood, roof and some trim pieces have dents. We have not reported the damage to our insurance yet. We were planning to trade it in to buy him a newer used vehicle, now that he graduated college, but obviously its value is now affected.
Not sure what to do now. My son does not mind driving it like that and he will be living in an area prone to hail.
Wondering if we should just put a claim with the insurance and let my son decide if he will keep it, fix it or just take the money and keep driving it as is. Will he be able to find insurance, once the damage is reported? I don't know what are our options if the insurance decides the vehicle is a total loss, due to the age of it.
 
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Being that it's almost 9 model years old and a CR-V, I'd live with the damage. Now if it was something special like a BMW M3, I would have it repaired.
 
Is Paintless Dent Removal an option? A local PDR wizard near me travels south for weeks at a time to repair hail damage.
 
Have you looked into an estimate for repairs? I wonder if you could get two quotes--one to make it right, the other to make it close enough. Get most of the damage out and it may look like normal wear and tear, and it might not be noticed on trade-in.
 
So we have not pursued any estimates because I'm not even sure I want to repair it. Even though it is in good mechanical shape, it is an old vehicle and my son does not mind driving it like that. I'm more concerned with what's going to happen with the title of the car once we report the damage to the insurance. If they total it, is my son going to be forced to buy another car, because now the CRV becomes uninsurable do to a "salvage" title? Or is he going to be able to at least get liability insurance and keep driving it?
 
Find an owner run body shop (not the big shop that usually work for insurance) and ask them for their opinion and estimate.

They used to dealing with insurance company themselves and see what their experience has been.

This forum members come from different states with different insurance policy and vehicle policy so what is valid in TX may not be exactly the same in IL.
 
in order to answer you questions about the title in particular, we need to know in which state its titles and in which state it was damaged.

Throw some pictures up and you'll get better guidance...
 
Originally Posted by JMJNet


This forum members come from different states with different insurance policy and vehicle policy so what is valid in TX may not be exactly the same in IL.


Yeah, I just realized that while investigating this. It appears that in IL, for hail damage, we have the option to keep the car and get liability insurance only. Title will be labeled as "salvage" though.


https://www.chicagotribune.com/news...0and,%22RV%22%20for%20rebuilt%20vehicle.
 
Originally Posted by DuckRyder
in order to answer you questions about the title in particular, we need to know in which state its titles and in which state it was damaged.

Throw some pictures up and you'll get better guidance...


The car is registered in IL, but it was damaged in Nebraska, while he was in school. I don't have any good pics yet. I just know some of the extent of the damage.
He will be moving permanently to Nebraska, so hope the "salvage" title does not become an issue for him, once he goes to register the car there.
 
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Quote
Is Paintless Dent Removal an option? A local PDR wizard near me travels south for weeks at a time to repair hail damage.


This if you want to fix it. Last hail storm here, they set up tents at the local Mercedes Dealership and the dent guys worked for a couple weeks!

Insurance companies don't cover this like they do windshield repairs, but they should. Even say it was for a single or some small number of dents. I had a quote for a single dent repair from a body shop and the price was like $1500.00! Dent guy came to my house and did it for $250.00. Insurance would have paid at least $1250.00 after deductible. Also took out a slight wrinkle for free that I didn't even see. These guys are GOOD!

This was on my older Mercedes.
 
IMO, based on your description, I will not even claim any insurance.
At least the car will never get a salvage title and you will probably still get a full insurance if necessary.
 
Well, lets talk this through.

You were going to trade it on a newer car? If it was declared a total loss you'd almost certainly come out better than a trade.

If the insurance company declares it a total you have two basic possible out comes:

  • Paid full value, insurance takes car.
  • Owner retains salvage (Buys it back)


Assuming its possible to owner retain salvage typically the salvage vendor will search recent sales of similar vehicles with similar damage and provide a figure of what the insurance company would expect to recover for the salvage at auction, that becomes the amount that would be deducted form the settlement to retain the salvage or "buy it back" titling may be no big deal, or complicated (or may make it impossible to keep). Usually in a cross state issue (title in IL, vehicle in NE) the most restrictive would apply (IL appears most restrictive in this case at least on the surface).

But lets talk about if its even totaled?

Its worth what $10,000.00 if its well kept and presentable with no significant damage other than the hail?

So its probably got to hit 7500.00 before you worry about a total. 7500.00 is a pretty big hail estimate, as long as there isn't broken paint or a bunch of large dents (over half dollar) its probably ok.

The pertinent questions are in absence of broken paint how may dents on each panel and how large are the majority? So for instance it the Hood has 31-50 dents and most of them a nickel (dime, nickel, quarter, half dollar) would cover thats one price, add for each one over half dollar... then on to the roof you say 51-75 and a quarter covers the majority, thats one price...

Check all the moulding, Hondas are notorious and moulding aren't cheap...

You apparently pay for comprehensive coverage, use it if needed.
 
Hmm...

Little more digging...

It is possible that IL has a very low threshold of 33 1/3 %, though it is unclear if this applies to hail. You may not be able to keep an 8 year old car though it is also unclear if this applies to hail that is "safe to drive".

You need to talk to someone familiar with IL titling.

Still, you'll come out better than a trade...
 
In Illinois you can keep the salvage if it is from hail regardless of the model year. OP, get it looked at by the insurance company, with it very clean and in indirect light, like in a garage during the day with no lights on so you get the most complete estimate. Belt moldings, appliqués, cowl grilles, top edges of lamps are all susceptible to hail in addition to the sheet metal. Then decide what to do. You can keep liability insurance and most companies will even let you keep collusion/comp in it but if you don't repair it may only value it at the salvage value if it were a prior total loss.
 
I would let him drive it. That way he can save up money for purchasing a vehicle later down the road. He could insure it without collision as well.

This assumes that the vehicle is safe and there is no damage to critical areas like pillars.
 
Some say I'm crazy, but my 11 year old, 142K mile truck is in the bodyshop now with over $5K in hail damage. Sorry, but I'm not driving around something that looks like a golf ball, no matter the age. Same situation with the '12 Jeep Liberty, which is worth way less than the Tacoma; it's getting repaired. If you're not worried about resale or how it looks than just drive it. If you make a claim and it's deemed "totaled" you could buy it back and drive as is. I honestly doubt it would be totaled, the CRV still has some value left. Have it repaired and trade it in the next couple of days incase insurance reports it on Carfax/Autocheck.
 
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