Hail Damage

[Vexed]

My Superb got hail damaged in a thunderstorm today... I have never seen or experienced anything like this before... Somehow I had a bad a feeling about it when it started raining massive rain drops (felt like small water balloons hitting the car) then followed with a crazy hail storm, as large as a golf ball, hitting the car every where, I'm actually surprised how the windscreen or the sunroof didn't break. Anyway, the aftermath, the whole car has dents all over, varying in size. It is not bvery clear yet, I will wait for the car to dry and will look at it under the sun tomorrow... it just ruined my day.

I have got GIO Platinum car insurance, will call them tomorrow and see what we can do...
Does this mean the whole car has to be painted?

[vk]

My Superb got hail damaged in a thunderstorm today... I have never seen or experienced anything like this before... Somehow I had a bad a feeling about it when it started raining massive rain drops (felt like small water balloons hitting the car) then followed with a crazy hail storm, as large as a golf ball, hitting the car every where, I'm actually surprised how the windscreen or the sunroof didn't break. Anyway, the aftermath, the whole car has dents all over, varying in size. It is not bvery clear yet, I will wait for the car to dry and will look at it under the sun tomorrow... it just ruined my day.

I have got GIO Platinum car insurance, will call them tomorrow and see what we can do...
Does this mean the whole car has to be painted?

My understanding was that dents on the roof lead to a write off

[Umai Naa!!]

The car will be assessed first.

There are guys who specialise in hail damage repair. Usually can be repaired without the need to paint, etc.

[The_Hawk]

My understanding was that dents on the roof lead to a write off

From what I understand that's usually because it's not economic to repair back to the needed standard so paying them out is easier, but yes after an assessment. As per normal, if repair cost is greater than payout - salvage insurers will just pay you out.

Someone can correct me, again as I understand it, there is no problem with the structure of the car itself, ie not a statutory write off.

(That also means that after an event like this there is a lot of cheap hail damaged cars hitting the market if you're the sort of person who doesn't car about these things... which probably rules out everyone here )

[Lucas_R]

Paintless dent removal guys can work wonders on hail damage

[tigger73]

+1. There was a massive hail storm in Adelaide before Xmas and a lot of cars were damaged. Paintless dent guys were flat out for 3+ months fixing all the dents.

A lot of cars in car yards were sold off cheap. Even though they had been repaired they couldn't be sold as new as the manufacturer would not warranty/cover the paint/body. If it had been paintless dent repaired I wouldn't be too concerned. It's just going to get more dents in the carpark

[feenix74]

Same here in Canberra last year after a couple of 2015/2016 summer hailstorms on the southside and in Queanbeyan. Extra the paintless dent repair guys were brought in from Sydney but they were still working on the backlog of work 6 months later - one of my work colleagues had to wait 4 months to get the dents taken out of the roof of her New Beetle and ended up with a new bonnet.

[Wolfgang]

From what I understand that's usually because it's not economic to repair back to the needed standard so paying them out is easier, but yes after an assessment. As per normal, if repair cost is greater than payout - salvage insurers will just pay you out.

Someone can correct me, again as I understand it, there is no problem with the structure of the car itself, ie not a statutory write off.

(That also means that after an event like this there is a lot of cheap hail damaged cars hitting the market if you're the sort of person who doesn't car about these things... which probably rules out everyone here )

Anything in NSW declared a write off is now a statutory write off, no more repairable write offs.

[Umai Naa!!]

If under 16 years old, from memory.

[Vexed]

I have just called GIO, submitted a claim, they said they will get it fixed.
The repairer is Australasian Hail Network AHN. The GIO lady told me they are one of the best in fixing hail damage.
She also told me this will not affect my NCD.