Re: Buyin a car with hail damage, worth the discount?
I'm a big believer in purchasing hail damaged cars when the purpose is point A to point B and you drive it until the wheels come off. Over a life time a car is a major expense and this is a great way to control costs.
In fact, I drive a hail damage 2004 Chevy Tracker right now that had a $21K List Price that I purchased for $10,000. Not that these cars were ever worth $21K. The trick is to not repair them which would cost $6,000K for the hail damage I had. Yes, people think you are crazy and you have to have thick skin but you significantly lower your transportation costs. It's not a keep up with the Jones game-plan. At 60 MPH you really cannot tell.
In fact you can afford a SRT for the weekends.
After 60K miles in a few months I'll give this car to my college kid and I have more than got my money's worth. She will get a car to use through college. Yes, her friends will make fun of her but she too will learn the value of a dollar.
A Crossfire you would actually want to fix so the whole hail damage strategy does not work.
I might just buy another hail damaged car. New hail damaged cars still have full warranty and it's not like there is functional damage such as flood-damage - it's only cosmetic. But there are a lot of bargins out there and maybe I'll go buy a Pontiac the latest market casualty. The weekend comes it's back to the SRT.
Last edited by Larame_SRT6; 05-13-2009 at 11:19 PM.