Toronto, Ontario — August 1, 2019 – One car dealership owner is combatting hail damage in an innovative way that’s protecting both his wallet and the planet.
In 2015, a dealership in Red Deer, Alberta. was hit with an unbelievable amount of hail. With more than 600 vehicles damaged with an average claim of $11,000 each, owner of Kipp Scott GMC and Scott Subaru was fed up.
“The hard part is just the value it knocks the vehicles down, about $5,000,” owner Kip Scott told Automotive News. “It shows up in the Carfax report and it’s a bit of a double-edged sword because when we take in a car on trade, we devalue it when it’s hail damaged, too.”
Thankfully, Scott’s cars were covered by insurance, but unfortunately, other dealerships who faced the same troubles weren’t. According to Scott, some insurers in Red Deer don’t cover hail damage, leaving dealerships having to pay up to $500,000 in annual premiums.
Not wanting to toy with his luck, Scott decided to install a massive solar-panel shield that will protect his cars and save him a massive amount of money. Scott predicts that this new installation will allow him to only pay about $200 a year for electricity, and other companies using the same trick are saving even more. The solar panels can produce up to 60 percent of their yearly electricity needs.
“[A customer] told me, ‘I have $4 million in inventory, and if we have just one event, this has paid for itself,’” reported Trey Jarrad, CEO of hail-protection company Renewvia.
Renewvia began outfitting dealerships in the US with hail-protection shelters in 2013. It has been reported that the shelters pay for themselves in just five years time.
So while dealerships work on putting their money into an environmentally and financially friendly protection plan, an increasing number of insurers have begun to start covering hail damage as leading hail repair technique, PDR makes breaks it’s way into the industry.
According to Ricky Chin, owner of Hail Specialist, based in Calgary, insurers can benefit from new methods of hail damage repair and save some money while they’re at it too. PDR
“Hail damage and dent repair benefit greatly from PDR nowadays, which can also help insurance companies save on blending some panels,” Chin told Collision Repair. “If the insurance companies start adding PDR on conventional repair panels, it can save blending the adjacent panels most of the time…PDR has been saving insurance companies large amounts of money and time for hail repair.”
