We had a massive hailstorm in Melbourne yesterday and having nowhere to get under cover I had to sit it out and hope the windows or sunroof did not break.

Every panel except the boot has quite a number of significant number of severe dints . The main roof part behind the sunroof has copped the worst.

We will now have to wait and see what the insurance company says, but fortunately they have a new for old policy for cars up to 2 years - mine will be 2 years on the 18th March to luckily it is on the correct side of 2 years

Time will tell

Fred K:mad::confused::confused::(

Hi Fred,

Sorry to hear that. This storm was certainly something else, and I for one am glad that we have a nice car port. Mind you, we weren't hit quite as hard in our area (only about 30 kms from where you are) as you.

Good luck with the insurance. Not sure how feasible it is to correct hail damage but you better hope they don't even attempt it.

Seeya,
Michael

No good at all Fred, sorry to hear that mate. Fingers crossed they give you new for old replacement ! I think the repair has to be approx 80% of the replacement value of the car to be written off. Should post some photos, I fortunately missed out on the hail in my area.

I had been wondering about how our Melbourne members fared with Saturday's hailstorm - the TV news footage was daunting enough.

We had a similar storm in Sydney back in the mid 1980's when a huge number of cars in western Sydney were hail damaged including a large number of undelivered new cars stored in the open by importers and local car makers. As a consquence of this storm, car distributors and car yards were required to store their vehicles under suitable cover if they wanted insurance coverage. The later 1999 storm with hail as big as tennis balls that hit the eastern suburbs resulted in similar levels of claims for registered vehicles but limited claims for new/used vehicles in storage or in caryards. It is timely to review what happened after these storms to help you negotiate with your insurers:

1. The market value of ALL hail damaged cars that had been repaired was sustantially less than that of an equivalent undamaged car - no matter how well the cars were repaired, used car valuers were able to easily identify hail-damaged cars and mark-down their valuation. This mark-down must be included as part of the claim cost alongside the actual cost of the repairs - I suggest you engage an independent assessor to assess your vehicle with instructions to appraise the market value of the vehicle as a repaired "hail-damaged" vehicle. The reason for this is to increase the claim cost to a level which will force the insurance company to "write-off" the vehicle thus invoking the "replacement new vehicle clause".
The independent assessors report will be of great benefit especially if you subsequently lodge a compensation claim if you do not receive fair treatment from your insurer. The independent assessor will include work and repair techniques which will not be included by the insurance company's assessor [this practice is to ensure the cost used by the insurer to negotiate with the repairer is less than what the job should cost if undertaken in accordance with best industry practice]

2. Some buyers of second-hand cars with hail damage repairs encountered problems in receiving full compensation when these vehicles were involved in accidents later in their life and had to be repaired - certain insurance companies took a very hard line and reduced the payouts on the basis that:


pre-existing damage also had to be repaired during the subsequent repair
that the pre-existing damage contributed to increasing the extent of damage in the subsequent accident
that the owner had not disclosed past damage under their duty of disclosure

The owner was then made liable for the insurer's assessment of these costs.

I hope you are able to get a fair and reasonable outcome from your insurer.

Hi Fred,

Sorry to hear of the damage to your baby. We were at a scout camp at Anglesea for the week end, and the Eos was safe in the garage as it couldn't carry all the gear. All of our laserlight has been punched out and one of our trees took out the neighbors tennis court fence - nothing insurance can't fix.

Speaking of insurance - 0ne of the good things about an Eos (and of course there are many), is that apart from the rear quarter panels, everything else is unboltable and replaceable - as opposed to most cars where the roof has to be cut out. The insurance company should cough up for a new one under your policy, but as long as it goes to a good repairer, repair isn't the end of the world.

Good luck.

hope it all goes well for you mate
I've been watching the news and I can't believe what I saw

Finally after 3 months just got confirmation that the damage was bad enough for the car to be a Total Write Off

As it was a few days less than 2 years old the insurance company will be supplying a brand new Eos

Now for the wait until they get a replacement

Fred

Finally after 3 months just got confirmation that the damage was bad enough for the car to be a Total Write Off

As it was a few days less than 2 years old the insurance company will be supplying a brand new Eos

Now for the wait until they get a replacement

Fred


Congratulations mate on a successful and appropriate outcome - how much "arm-twisting" on your part was involved?

Sounds like the right result to me, congrats mate. But this is a scary story, I just can't imagine the size of hailstones that would cause that kind of damage. Or does it reflect the gauge of steel used in the EOS body? I'll bet the boot wasn't damaged though. Hummmm, scary indeed.

Sounds like the right result to me, congrats mate. But this is a scary story, I just can't imagine the size of hailstones that would cause that kind of damage. Or does it reflect the gauge of steel used in the EOS body? I'll bet the boot wasn't damaged though. Hummmm, scary indeed.

No, there were tens of thousands of cars in Melbourne severely damaged in the hailstorm. New cars were being sold off by the dealers at 20% and 30% off to get them out of the yards.

Thousands of people have had their cars written off because they looked like golf balls, and not worth repairing, and then buying them back from the insurers as they were structurally sound.

This is introducing new issues, as many insurance companies will not insure a car with previous hail damage.

Maybe a hail stone damaged Golf could look like a golf ball?
:p

Finally today was told that my replacement is being built starting tomorrow
It has been a long time since March storm but quite happy as was also told that it was 2011 specification

nice, what are the specs? That's a good outcome for you. Do you have a car to use in the meantime?

Lams
Yes I still have the old one to drive as it is only dents in panels and not affect car roadworthy or performance. Quite happy to use up some of the rego and insurance as both of these disappear when they take possession. I had also just put new tryes on only about 5k before so get some of my money use out them.

I would have liked exactly the same but Samoa Red ( really a brownish colour with a tinge of purple in certain light) is not available so new specs are
Shadow Blue with Corn silk leather TDi with dsg and Bi Xenons.
Pretty basic really but very functional

Sounds good. I know of the samoa red colour, my wife wanted one - we found a base manual, no options, the car was nearing 3 years old and was still sitting brand in the new car yard, the dealer didn't want to talk price without a deposit so we left it there. Didn't like the cloth seats anyway

Love the bi-xenon, have them on my passat and can't go back to halogen now!!

Good news, Fred,

And I'm sure you'll be fine with the blue!

After all you'll be inside most of the time :-).

Seeya,
Michael

Good news, Fred,

And I'm sure you'll be fine with the blue!

After all you'll be inside most of the time :-).

Seeya,
Michael

As you can see from my signature, I think you have made the perfect choice! :D

Finally took delivery on 29/10/2010 of Midnight Blue replacement of the hail damaged Eos from the storm we had in Melbourne in March 2010
I had ordered Shadow Blue ( to match the Touareg) but as this classed as MY2011 built in August 2010 Shadow Blue is no longer a current colour and therefore Midnight Blue is the only Blue available.
Effectively on of the last cars built before the new model.

Congratulations, Fred,

Couple of photos would be nice (once the rain has stopped).

If you get a little sentimental I can always send you a few photos from our cruise last year.

Enjoy!!

Regards,
Michael

P.S.: I think you were lucky to get the "original" model, personally I don't think the facelift suits the Eos (or Passat, but looks fine on Golf and Polo). Just my $0.02.

Michael
Photos will have to wait until the rain stops otherwise will need to get the boat out to take them

Will have to try and arrange another trip soon get the new colour in the collection

Fred