Petscar

I've lived in Colorado 11 years. Never had hail damage. Back in March I decided to treat myself to a nice vehicle as my van is 18 years old. Still runs great so I use it as my everyday driver. Anyway I bought an 07 Mercedes CLK 350 with 77k miles in pristine condition with a gorgeous white leather interior. While in the hospital back in June due to foot surgery, we had a horrendous hail storm with baseball size hail. My son calls me and tells me the vehicles have major damage including broken windshields. 3 hailstones went through my roof right thru the plywood as well. Turns out my first nice car in many years was totaled. The good news was I got $2k more than I paid for it.I

I originally wanted an rx 8 until I found out about the engine issues so I opted for the Mercedes. This time around I decided to bite the bullet and go for the rx8. I waited til I found a low mileage vehicle, which I did at 26k miles. So 3 weeks ago I became the proud owner of a pristine 05 rx8.

Well this time when a hail storm was coming, I ran out and bought some cotton drop cloths to protect the finish, 6 moving blankets which gave me 2 layers of protection and a tarp. So 2 weeks ago we got another hailstorm only this time the hail was only a little bigger than golf *****. Because there was a threat of more storms that week, I left the covers on for a few days. When I took off the covers I discovered a broken windshield and some sizable hail dents.

I had the Mercedes 3 months. The rx8 barely 2 weeks. In fact you may have seen the hailstorm on the news where several animals were killed from the hail at the Colorado Springs Zoo. They got hit harder than where I live in this most recent storm. 200 cars in their parking lot so bad!y damaged, they were not driveable.

Anyway, I have an appointment today with the insurance co. I just wanted to share the plight of my rx8 with you guys. She was so beautiful!! Now she aint. Still fun to drive however!

FYI....I just purchased from hail protectors.com an inflatable hail cover that supposedly can absorb softball size hail. In case anyone is interested, they are having a 5 year anniversary sale with $200 off. Normally it is $379. I got it for $179 plus shipping. I set it up and it seems to work well so far. Several videos on You Tube. It is a very well thought out product. They also give you an app to warn you when a potential storm is On the way. I hope this helps someone to avoid the heartbreak of losing or damaging something you really care about. 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
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New Yorker

Sorry to hear this. Just bad luck - what can you do? I hope PDR (paintless dent repair) and a windshield replacement leaves your RX-8 as nice as it was before.

Petscar

Thanks. I had it looked at and they can do a paintless repair although they are not sure about the hood. They may have to replace it. Thank God I have zero deductible comp.

Gr8White

This wasn't in the Denver area was it?

arakawa

I know the feeling, caught hail less than 6 months after buying my RX8... They had to replace both fenders, both back doors, the roof and the gas cap. Everything else had PDR. All in all, every single panel in the car was touched. The glasses all survived, though.

Petscar

It was 75 miles south of Denver in the Colorado Springs area.

This weather is crazy. More storms the next 2 days. Time to put on the hail protector in the morning just in case. I had $3800 in damage. I don't want to add to that.