If your car has been damaged by hail, you may have some questions about what happens next. Should you get it repaired professionally, or is it okay to wait? Does hail damage permanently reduce your car’s value, or can it be salvaged? This article will tell you what your options are, and how they’ll affect your car’s value.

Why You Should Get Auto Hail Repair Right Away 

Even though it may be tempting to leave cosmetic damage like hail dents alone, the best thing you can do after sustaining hail damage is to get it repaired right away. Here’s why:

Lower Trade-in Value 

Unrepaired hail damage can significantly lower your car’s trade-in value, and this devaluation is often greater than repair costs. Since hail damage is usually pretty minimal, it doesn’t cost much to fix them. Also, if you have comprehensive coverage insurance, it may not cost anything at all. 

Even if you’re not planning on trading your car in anytime soon, it’s still important to get hail damage car repair to preserve its value in case you ever need to trade it in in the future.

More Expensive Repair Costs 

Another reason to get auto hail repair done quickly is that repairs get more expensive the longer you wait. If hail dents are left untreated, they can rust and cause further damage to your car—damage that may be harder to repair. This means you’ll have to pay for even more extensive (and expensive) repairs down the line.

How Paintless Dent Repair Helps Preserve Your Car’s Value 

Hail damage is often much cheaper and easier to repair than collision dents. This is because hail damage can often be repaired with a process called paintless dent repair, or PDR.

What Is PDR?

PDR is a specialized form of auto hail repair that doesn’t require repainting, sanding, or other invasive procedures. PDR technicians use a variety of specialized tools to gently push the dented metal back into its original shape from the inside out—without affecting the paint.

The Benefits of PDR

PDR has many benefits, especially when compared to traditional dent repair methods. Because it is minimally invasive, it is fairly quick and easy to do, which gets you back on the road faster.

It also doesn’t require any sanding or repainting, which means there is no risk of paint damage or mismatched colors—two problems you may encounter with traditional dent repair. And, since it doesn’t affect your original paint job and reverses damage rather than repairing it, it can help you retain 100% of your car’s value.

PDR is much more affordable than conventional auto hail repair methods. Paintless dent repair costs are often about $50 to $100 for small dings, like the ones caused by hail. This is roughly 25 to 50 percent cheaper than comparable repairs done with traditional dent repair. Plus, if you have comprehensive coverage, you’ll likely get the entire cost of the repair covered.