Hail damage and the route to take..

[gazwkd]

I'm thinking this is the best section to post in. Last week we had some pretty freaky weather in Melton Mowbray which included pretty large pieces of hail.
Suffice to say my car, in places, looks like the surface of the moon. Normally I 'd be pretty pissed at damage to my car but seeing as everyone else here has suffered and it was an act of nature I'm more bemused by the whole situation.

A lot of people are having their cars written off by insurance companies, others have an 'act of nature' clause in their policies. I'd take pictures but the 'micro-dents' don't really show up. The hail also managed to crack both my rear tail lights, some people have nice holes in their headlights/tail lights. Suffice to say it wasn't your average british hail storm.

My car has been off the road for a month or so and I'll be looking to get it back on the road in August. I have a round four small dents on the tailgate, numerous dents on the bonnet and more still on the roof. I have also received a couple on the pillars (between doors and roof).

My question.. is it going to be worth repairing my 225? I understand the roof can be skimmed and dents filled then resprayed although unsure of cost at this point. I'd look at just replacing the bonnet, probably the carbon fibre one, I'd imagine a dent specialist could sort the couple on the pillars.
Insurance route would be a no straight away. Not willing to lose any no-claims and think they have the 'nature' clause in there.

Or would you say just take a hit and ebay it as is or break for parts?

I love my car and it still has relatively low mileage at 55,000 for an 05' plate.

All suggestions welcome

[Stranger]

If you don't want to go through the insurance and remember with some of them as soon as you even enquire it'll go down as a claim so you need to be sure of that, it's whether you want to keep it or not.

You could get some quotes for repair work and see how you fare or, like you say stick it on ebay or break it as I'm sure you wouldn't have much difficulty selling the bits.

If it were me I'd try ebay but set a deadline of a few weeka before breaking it however, only you can decide

[gazwkd]

Yeah I'm thinking about that route and getting another 225. On the one hand I'm lucky my bank loan has just finished.. on the other I didn't particularly want to take another one out o_O

[Stranger]

Had a thought, how about asking one of these paintless dent removal places for a quote?

[gazwkd]

Yup I'm going to see them, it's the roof I'm overly concerned about with the amount of dents

[tomalamix]

if your car instantly burns it self without apparent cause, does the insurance company covers it?

[davelowe]

if your car instantly burns it self without apparent cause, does the insurance company covers it?

Please don't post such allusions again Tom.

[tomalamix]

its just a question, im not suggesting nothing...

[Keyholder]

Do the insurance job on it.. providing you want it written off. . . . . or not

Guy brought his rover MG round to my mates gargae, and this Mg was SPOTLESS. it was his baby... bottom line was he got a payout from the insurance company, seems to be the talk around here now as so many peoples cars have been damaged by the weather... funny enough your on the edge of leicester and thats where most of the damage has occured. my sister windscreen on her 4x4 was also damaged via the freaky weather..

Insurance company will write the car off due to it being cheaper pay you out and recover you for another car rather than get it repaired.. how this can be ive no idea.. but you know insurance companys they write off the smallest of damage claims.

I think its around the £30 - £50 per dent i think... last time i chcked anyhows..

[davelowe]

Okay, let me put this in simple terms. If you want to inform the insurance company that the car has been damaged by hail, do so - take the hit on your premium and no claims discount.

If you decide that your policy does not cover that as a legitimate reason to write it off, do not lie about it. This is illegal.

Can I put this in clearer terms?