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Can My Car Be Totaled By Hail?

Jessica Black • March 3, 2025

Auto Insurance varies by company and state on the guidelines to declare a vehicle total loss. Most insurance companies will evaluate the actual cash value (ACV) of your vehicle at the time of loss to determine if the repairs exceed a certain percentage of that value. When your insurance adjuster inspects your vehicle, they will deduct any unrelated prior damage (UPD) or previous hail damage not repaired. Most customers assume their insurance cannot detect any past hail storm damage, but this usually isn’t the case. Each storm has specific details that will produce a certain size and depth of the dents. If you received a check for prior hail damage repairs without repairing, your insurance will most likely deny your new or any additional claims. This is why it is not recommended on keeping any funds for repairs your insurance sends you. Other factors that will impact the total loss evaluation include the vehicle’s age, pre-loss condition, and local market conditions for value and possible settlement amount.

If your vehicle’s repair costs exceed the value, then it is not worth repairing and is declared a total loss. If your vehicle does get declared a total loss from hail damage, you need to follow the right steps to get paid out from your insurance. Before you contact your insurance, be sure to document all hail damage with detailed photos and possibly even a video. Your insurance will then send out an adjuster to inspect the damage to determine what the ACV amount is. Your insurance will then give you options on whether or not you want to keep the vehicle. If you decide to allow insurance to take the vehicle, they will send you a check for the ACV prior to the hail damage, but will subtract your deductible amount. If you decide to keep your vehicle, insurance will allow you to purchase it from them at salvage value. This means your vehicle will obtain a salvaged title, and will significantly impact insurance options as well as the value. Keep in mind that if you have a car loan, your lender may have a say in whether you can keep the car.

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You've Been Through Hail & Need The 411

Hail stone layers from circulation in the cloud

How Are Hail Storms Formed?

By Jessica Black • March 3, 2025

When a thunderstorm has an updraft of water droplets, they can be lifted into freezing air temperatures, especially with stronger winds. Once this point is reached, the droplets freeze on contact and become pellets. These pellets will circulate within the cloud and continue to collect more cold-water droplets causing the ice pellets to grow larger. They will continue to go through this cycle until they become too heavy for the updraft to hold them, and then fall to the ground as hail stones. The strength of the updraft will determine the number of times the pellet cycles which will control the final size of the hailstone. When you are able to see hail falling in paths, it is known as a hail swath. There have been swaths know to be several acres up to over 100 miles long. Here are some cool hail facts: If it hails during a rain storm, it can cause the sky to turn green since hailstones reflect the entire spectrum of sunlight. \ It’s hard to measure how fast hail falls from the cloud. National Severe Storms Laboratory says a 2 ¾ inch baseball-sized hailstone can get up to 100mph. Hail typically falls in 5-10 minutes because of its fast movement and short bursts of energy. Sometimes it can last 30 minutes to 1 hour. If you break open a hailstone, you can usually see the layers to show how many times the pellet circulated before getting heavy and falling.