Living in the Washington, D.C. area, you understand just how dramatic and potentially damaging hailstorms can be to any of your property. With hail as big as baseballs and tennis balls falling from the sky, your car is especially susceptible to some potentially serious damage. It could even possibly total your car!
As a matter of fact, hail is easily one of the most frequent causes of property damage and cost policyholders more than $2 billion in 2014. Storm damages are definitely one of the more frustrating things people have to deal with, an unexpected turn of events that is often unavoidable
There are a few things you can do to keep yourself, your family, and your car out of hail’s way. For example, stay updated on local weather reports, especially keeping your eyes out for potential thunderstorms because that is when hailstorms are most common. If you are on the road, pull over into a covered area or a garage if possible. If you can’t find a covered area, pull over anyway since movement will increase the impact of each hailstone. For truck drivers or those with cars with large and spacious trunks, consider carrying a car cover to help minimize the damage as much as possible. However, sometimes hailstorms are unavoidable and your car will pick up a few dents and scratches.
The best way to handle hail damage, even before you are inflicted by it, is to make sure that your insurance covers hail damage. Most insurance companies cover hail and storm damage under their comprehensive coverage, which will keep you financially safeguarded against a whole host of hazards including hail. But a basic liability policy often times will not help pay to repair your car after hail damage. Just make sure to inspect your car for damage as soon as possible after the hail storm, and if you do have comprehensive coverage on your insurance policy, file the claim for repairs as soon as you can in order to get you and your ride back on the road as soon as possible.
Most insurance companies will see hail damage as something unavoidable or as “an act of God”, thus not increasing your rates if you choose to file a claim. Even if it is just a few scratches and dents, repairing your car after a hailstorm is important, especially if you value the resale value of your car. Unless it has sustained some serious hailstone hits, your car will probably only need to repair a few dents and maybe a few scratches. The best way to go about this is undoubtedly paintless dent repair. The method of paintless dent repair helps pop dents back into the original factory shape while keeping the factory paint job intact.
Not only does PDR make your car look as good as new without compromising its original paint job, it usually takes very little time. In comparison to the minimum of two weeks a traditional bodyshop repair would require, paintless dent removal would only take two to three days depending on the extent of the repairs needed. Additionally, they tend to be far more affordable. Paintless dent removal could potentially save you hundreds of dollars depending on the amount of damage.
