Hailstorm damage!

Well, my poor Blizzard Pearl has really been through the wringer since I bought it on March 12.
Let's see: 1) A paint scratch/chip on the nose in the first week 2) Hazing/cracking of the headlight covers and 3) Several dents on the hood and roof from golf-ball sized hail last week!

I do drive over a hundred miles a day four days a week and don't have a garage - so it's hard to keep it pristine. But this is a bit much for the first few weeks! However, I should add that at least I didn't park it under the tree in my driveway when the hailstorm hit ... If I had, I would have had even worse damage because several last branches came down.

 

I still haven't gotten my appraisal/estimate. It's been hard coordinating with insurance adjusters and dent repair shop because of the number of claims. I thought it would be a few hundred bucks because my dents are barely visible and maybe wouldn't be worth going through my insurance because I have a $500 deductible, but after calling around I now realize we are talking anywhere from $2000 - $7000! I didn't realize how labor intensive the process is and I do have more dents than I first realized (they're hard to see because it's rained almost everyday recently and car is always dirty - plus I'm short and can't see the roof without climbing on a stool). I doubt it's $7000 worth but... $500 plus whatever the insurance pays is a lot of money to be spending on a brand new car!

 

I've lived in and around this area for over 40 years and this is the first time I've ever seen hail this size. Why did it have to wait until I got a brand new car?!

Here's a picture of one of the hail stones. It wasn't the largest and this one had already melted a bit because it had been handled.

 

I had my last Prius for 6 1/2 years. I had a one-car accident about 3 years ago and somebody rear-ended me in a five-vehicle slip and slide a couple of years ago, but I never got any dents from projectiles or things falling from the sky. Neither did any of my previous cars.

 

The paintless dent repair will cost about $2200... my insurance deductible is $500. I can hardly see the dents! I hope the shop puts my car back together again properly after they rip out the liners.

 

Sorry about your Alfa! I was wondering what color it was until you said it was bright yellow. My previous dark grey cars always had people backing into or rear-ending me - I thought because the color blended into the road.

I actually have considered putting up a canopy. Not sure how it would look. We have squirrels but they don't cause a problem - just the birds, especially when they eat cherries and poop out red/purple/white all over the cars! I had hung a silly-looking windsock thing with big eyes like an owl in the tree, and that actually seemed to keep the (less intelligent birds) away. It broke and fell off during the storms and is hard to get back up, so now I'm just parking on the street away from trees.

 

Yeah, I can understand why'd you be upset when your Alfa got dented!
How much is the dent in your Prius going to cost? PDR is a lot more expensive than I realized. (I also have a lot more dents than I realized.)

 

The initial insurance estimate of $2200 wasn't even close. After I took it in to the paintless dent repair assessment, they said it was more like $5000. The insurance adjuster went back out and he asked that the hood be replaced altogether instead of repaired because the PDR would have cost a lot more. So I went and visited my car in the body shop and took a picture of the hood marked up with all the dents that you can't see under normal lighting. I am concerned because now they have to match the paint - but they reassured me that it is all computerized. They run a scanner over the existing paint on the car to get the exact formula for the color . I also noticed that my driver-side window was broken, evidently caused by the PDR guys. Nobody (at the body shop) had noticed it until I pointed it out.

 

I guess the body guys noticed it but thought it was part of the original repair ( they hadn't started the work). When I pointed it out to the guy who was sitting there on his smoke break, he went and told the others and they said they were glad I had pointed it out because they didn't do it! Don't know how it happened. I'm sure they would have fixed it before I got it back and I would have been none the wiser ... unless the window didn't work anymore!