Should you buy a hail damaged car from a hail sale?
No, you shouldn’t. Not from a dealer, anyway.
I know it seems tempting. After all, the only thing wrong with the car is that it has some hail dents. You can live with that, right? The problem is that your dealership won’t adequately reduce the price to compensate you for the hail damage. The truth is that dealerships LOVE when their car lots get hail damaged. I have seen this many times, first hand, as I have worked at dealerships after hail storms. They collect huge insurance checks and have a huge HAIL SALE! They pretend to give you a $3000 discount by subtracting $3000 off the sticker price. Are you kidding me? You can get $2-3000 off the sticker price with NO hail damage whatsoever! What are you really getting? In most cases, you are getting a hail damaged vehicle that has $7000 worth of hail damage for the same price as you could probably buy an undamaged vehicle on the other side of town with no hail damage.
Steps to take when you want to buy from a hail sale.
1Take the car and get a quote to remove the dents first. Never get a car salesman’s opinion on how much it will cost to repair the hail damage. They will say almost anything! We have had many customers show up at our shop with cars that are dented so badly that most of the car is not even fixable with PDR and they have been told that they only have $1000 in damage.
2Get a bottom line price for the same car at an undamaged dealership. This will save you thousands. For example, when you want to buy a Honda Civic with hail damage, first go across town and negotiate a price on an undamaged Civic to get a reference so you can REALLY get the bottom dollar at the hail sale.
Buying a hail damaged car at a dealership usually is a bad idea, unless you know what you are doing. I know it is tempting to buy from a hail sale. However, when you want a new car….buy a NEW, UNDAMAGED car!
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