Dealership question

I was out looking at cars today and at a Chevy dealership, about three dozen cars on their lot had hail damage from a storm that went through recently, possibly the one from the night before.

I know they're all insured and everything, but I'm curious what dealers do with a large number of cars that have been damaged like that. Do they just fix them and sell them as new cars without anyone being the wiser? Do they send them someplace or fix them all there at the dealership? Do they get fixed and then ship them off to another car lot and sold as nearly new with some sort of discount? Do they get completely written off?

It was something I'd not thought about before and was wondering how they deal with them.

Most fix them, some have "Hail Sales" (you buy them damaged at a discount), or they send them to auctions if they're too far gone.

I think laws vary from state to state, but here it depends on the AMOUNT of damage whether or not you have to report damage to a new vehicle, or sell it as 'used' now that its had bodywork. I think its 10% of the new car value here.
We had an idiot back the plow over the hood of a new Mazda3, but once fixed the bill was less than $2500, so less than 10% of the car's value, so it didn't have to be reported to anyone who buys the car.

pretty much what benfolio says.

Depends on the amount of damage, etc. In the end they will be sold as all car companies want to sell cars.

I know the dealers here in Illinois fix them and have a Hail Sale. And the cars are anywhere between $2k to $5k off the original price.

I might have to keep a lookout then. The damage wasn't too bad on some cars. If they fix them up, there could be a good bargain there if they knock some money off.

And there's plenty of paintless dent removal places that can pop MOST of them out, cheaply. Even more cheaply if you remove the interior panels needed to get to the dented areas (door trims, headliner, etc).

how does paintless dent removal work? is it something that given enough time/money/adequate equipment you or I could do on a weekend?

you usually never truely get rid of the dent using paintless dent removal, but 99.9% of the people won't ever see it or car. But to sell them as new, it's not quite right.

Turbojett wrote:how does paintless dent removal work? is it something that given enough time/money/adequate equipment you or I could do on a weekend?

You can buy the tools and whatnot, but a lot of it experience and finesse getting behind the dent with tools, and massaging it out.

When I worked at the collision repair shop, we had a guy that we would hire in on certain jobs. He had A LOT of tools and lights. Sometimes drilling was required to fix certain panels. It definitely took patience and a good eye.