How to check a used car for hail damage in Colorado

Colorado ranks second in the country for hail claims. The single Denver storm in May 2017 produced roughly 150,000 auto claims. A lot of those cars were repaired well. Some were paid out as total losses, bought at auction, lightly fixed, and put back on the market.

Here is the part most buyers don’t know: Colorado’s salvage law leaves hail out of the definition of a salvage vehicle (C.R.S. 42-6-102). A car that an insurer declared a total loss for hail alone can keep a clean title. The title will not warn you. You have to look.

Where to look

Hail hits the horizontal panels. Check these in order, outdoors, with the sun low or with your phone flashlight held almost flat against the paint:

1. Roof. Crouch at the rear corner and sight along the roof toward the windshield. Dents show up as ripples in the reflection.
2. Hood and trunk lid. Same trick, same low angle.
3. Top of the fenders and the trunk edge. Smaller panels, often skipped in a cheap repair.
4. Glass. Pitting or small star cracks in the windshield and a replaced rear glass with a fresh adhesive bead are both hail tells.
5. Trim and lights. Cracked plastic on the roof rails, mirror caps and the top of the headlights.

Signs of a hail repair

A good paintless dent repair is almost invisible, and that is fine. What you want to catch is a bad one:

• Headliner that sags, has new creases, or has clips that don’t sit flush. The headliner comes out for roof PDR.
• Roof or hood with a texture different from the doors in the reflection, which means filler or a repaint.
• Repainted roof: look for paint on the rubber seals and a slightly different shade from the pillars.

What to ask

• “Has this car ever had a hail claim?” A dealer who knows the answer will say so. We put hail history on the listing.
• Ask for the vehicle history report and read the damage section. Insurance claims for hail do not always appear, but when they do they are listed with a date.
• Ask whether the car came from a Colorado auction after a spring or summer storm.

What we do

Every car we list has its roof and hood photographed in raking light, and the listing says plainly if the car has hail history. If a car was repaired by paintless dent repair and it looks right, we tell you that too, and the price reflects it. You should never discover hail history after you buy.