# Hail Damage...Any other exeriences?



## Laura328xi (May 20, 2007)

I took ED of my 328xi on 25-JUN-2007 to learn it was hail damaged. BMW tells me that 4200 cars were effected. I am driving the car in Europe, but it will not be shipped to the US. A new car is being produced for me that will be shipped in July. Has anyone else experienced same?


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## guppyflyer (Oct 26, 2006)

Laura328xi said:


> I took ED of my 328xi on 25-JUN-2007 to learn it was hail damaged. BMW tells me that 4200 cars were effected. I am driving the car in Europe, but it will not be shipped to the US. A new car is being produced for me that will be shipped in July. Has anyone else experienced same?


Wow.....4200 cars! I'm glad they've taken care of you with a new car. And now you don't have to worry about those pesky little break-in details!  Enjoy your trip.......can't wait to see your pics.

Erik


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## Kamdog (Apr 15, 2007)

Hail damage is fairly common in Texas and other similar places. It is like hitting your car with a ball-peen hammer.


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## JSpira (Oct 21, 2002)

Laura328xi said:


> I took ED of my 328xi on 25-JUN-2007 to learn it was hail damaged. BMW tells me that 4200 cars were effected. I am driving the car in Europe, but it will not be shipped to the US. A new car is being produced for me that will be shipped in July. Has anyone else experienced same?


I just heard from Fredric last night that he too had a hail-damaged car. It sounds as if BMW is doing a good job of keeping everyone in a car.


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## eyedoc (Jan 24, 2006)

I wonder what will happen with those 4200 cars?


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## Gran Turismo (Aug 7, 2006)

eyedoc said:


> I wonder what will happen with those 4200 cars?










:dunno:


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## adrian's bmw (Feb 14, 2003)

Jspira said:


> I just heard from Fredric last night that he too had a hail-damaged car. It sounds as if BMW is doing a good job of keeping everyone in a car.


BMW NA is indeed doing a fabulous job. I found out from my client who was picking up on the 27th. I already have a direct ship replacement order for him in my availability. :yikes:


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## adrian's bmw (Feb 14, 2003)

Jspira said:


> I just heard from Fredric last night that he too had a hail-damaged car. It sounds as if BMW is doing a good job of keeping everyone in a car.


BMW NA is indeed doing a fabulous job. I found out from my client who was picking up on the 27th. I already have a direct ship replacement order for him in my availability. :yikes:



eyedoc said:


> I wonder what will happen with those 4200 cars?


They'll either be repaired with paintless dent removal or used as police cars. :dunno:


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## lensman314 (Apr 28, 2006)

Hmm, when was this hailstorm? My car was in limbo (covered truck? big ole parking lot?) from 18Jun @ dropoff in Munich to 25Jun when it arrvied at Bremerhaven, and put on the boat on 26Jun. 

Sorry, I may be just a bit paranoid


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## chrischeung (Sep 1, 2002)

With all the cars parked on the street, imagine the damage to the general car population in Munich!


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## zoltrix (Mar 14, 2007)

so, what if this happens AFTER you leave Munich & start driving? Are you covered then??


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## JSpira (Oct 21, 2002)

coontie said:


> so, what if this happens AFTER you leave Munich & start driving? Are you covered then??


Well, you would have your insurance no?


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## guppyflyer (Oct 26, 2006)

Kamdog said:


> Hail damage is fairly common in Texas and other similar places. It is like hitting your car with a ball-peen hammer.


Here in Colorado as well (2 of my cars and 18,000 worth of damage), but 4200 new cars in Germany! Ouch!!!

Erik


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## AAS (Mar 24, 2007)

*Reassuring*



adrian's bmw said:


> BMW NA is indeed doing a fabulous job. I found out from my client who was picking up on the 27th. I already have a direct ship replacement order for him in my availability. :yikes:


It is definitely reassuring that BMW is going "above and beyond" in this matter. 4,200 is a very big number to make right.

Hopefully, BMW has an insurance company with very deep pockets. The look on the face of the insurance adjuster when they saw 4,200 hail-damaged cars must have been precious.... or the look on the BMW exec's face, if the damage isn't covered!


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## EricG (Jul 30, 2006)

lensman314 said:


> Hmm, when was this hailstorm? My car was in limbo (covered truck? big ole parking lot?) from 18Jun @ dropoff in Munich to 25Jun when it arrvied at Bremerhaven, and put on the boat on 26Jun.
> 
> Sorry, I may be just a bit paranoid


The storm was on 15 June. I was in Garmisch where they expected hail as well, but there was luckly only a monsoon rain.


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## caveatesq (Jun 23, 2005)

Has BMW notified people in advance of hail damage to their cars? I am picking my car up next week and would hate to show up at the delivery center to be told that my car is damaged and needs to be replaced.


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## adrian's bmw (Feb 14, 2003)

caveatesq said:


> Has BMW notified people in advance of hail damage to their cars? I am picking my car up next week and would hate to show up at the delivery center to be told that my car is damaged and needs to be replaced.


Yes, they have. If you haven't been contacted, you might be one of the lucky ones to get your car unscathed.


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## caveatesq (Jun 23, 2005)

adrian's bmw said:


> Yes, they have. If you haven't been contacted, you might be one of the lucky ones to get your car unscathed.


I spoke with my salesman earlier this morning to make sure that all my paperwork was done and he made no mention of being told that my car is damaged. I've got my fingers crossed.


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## lensman314 (Apr 28, 2006)

EricG said:


> The storm was on 15 June. I was in Garmisch where they expected hail as well, but there was luckly only a monsoon rain.


Thank you for the information! Makes me feel better. The car was being driven from Stuttgart to Gerolstein that day, with me driving it.


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## zoltrix (Mar 14, 2007)

Jspira said:


> Well, you would have your insurance no?


yes but I'm curious whether the ED insurance would cover hail. Because I know many policies in the tornado alley don't.


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## JSpira (Oct 21, 2002)

coontie said:


> yes but I'm curious whether the ED insurance would cover hail. Because I know many policies in the tornado alley don't.


I don't recall seeing any weather exemptions and it is 100% coverage so I would tend to think so but the only way to be sure is to ask Allianz.


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## The BoatMan (Apr 2, 2002)

Wow, crazy. How common are hail storms in Germany?

Here is an article I found about a Tennis ball sized hail storm last year. It killed a farmer:
http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_180160803.html


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## 335i (Feb 23, 2007)

I live in tornado alley, and I've NEVER heard of any such exclusion. In fact, my insurance company called me to see if my car had been hit last year from a mammoth hail storm that took off rooves. It was a brand new house, so the roof was new, and fine, (one car was in the garage, the other being driven) and we had just gotten home seconds after it finished (we drove into it on the highway, VERY scary, but no hail on the highway)

I was pretty impressed with the insurance company to call and make sure, as everyone around was getting new rooves and having estimates on their cars. 

Long story short, as long as you have comprehensive coverage, there isn't "hail exclusion" from it.


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## Calif65GM (Mar 27, 2005)

Laura328xi said:


> A new car is being produced for me that will be shipped in July. Has anyone else experienced same?


Wow good deal, since you get the car with zero miles on it...:thumbup:

This is a very interesting situation since BMW has to replace 4200 cars with the factory about to shut down for the summer. They must be putting in some major OT and what about the lack of engines for the 35s? Will some people's order be further delayed in order to fill those damage cars.


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## JSpira (Oct 21, 2002)

Calif65GM said:


> This is a very interesting situation since BMW has to replace 4200 cars with the factory about to shut down for the summer. They must be putting in some major OT and what about the lack of engines for the 35s? Will some people's order be further delayed in order to fill those damage cars.


I don't think the factories fully shut down any more, although more people are on holiday. There is no question that this will delay other orders, but to what extent one can only guess.


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## Calif65GM (Mar 27, 2005)

Jspira said:


> There is no question that this will delay other orders, but to what extent one can only guess.


I wonder if they'll be able to pull the existing engines from the damaged cars and use them.


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## Northcar (Sep 21, 2005)

*A little touchup paint should take care of the problem.*

Not sure what the big deal is. As anyone can see a little touchup paint should make these cars look as good as new.

Click and see:

https://www.terragalleria.com/pictures-subjects/wrecks/picture.wrecks.deva32571.html


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## IrvRobinson (May 10, 2006)

BMW is building duplicate cars for all of the ED's which wasn't that many ( maybe 50 ).The problem for the dealers is that a large amount of those cars have been billed out,so if the taxes get paid and the customer takes the second car instead,we have to try and unwind everything.Quite a few of the cars had very little damage,so they won't be replacing all of them.

Last year I had a customer whose car received 14 K in hail damage,BMW covered the entire repair.


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## Fredric (Mar 29, 2007)

As Jspira said, mine was one of the cars badly damaged. The roof looked like the surface of the moon, so I decided to request a new car. They were very nice and said that I could use it in Europe anyway, but that was not necessary, and I decided to let them have one less used car to dispose of. I believe that they can repair mine and still sell it at a discount as a new repaired car, but not factory new.
To keep things in proper perspective I should note that I met some other folks at the ED on June 26th whose cars were not damaged at all. And one whose car was so minimally damaged that BMW had already repaired it for them at their facility in Goshen. I believe that there was a total of aboout 200 US cars damaged, of those about 60 were ED. All the rest were European orders.
Sorry I do not have any photos to post.......Now the waiting begins......again.


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## KEVIN88GT (Apr 15, 2006)

hey Fredric...greetings from Prague... my car had a very minimal ammount of damage...in fact if they didnt point it out to me I probably wouldnt have noticed.... I'm probably going to have them repair it once it gets to the states and see what it looks like then. The genteman at the pickup center told me to contact my dealer but when I called her today 6/29 (the same SA that you dealt with) she didnt have much info about a replacement car (which bmw said I could do if I chose to) I asked her regarding possible wait times should I choose a brand new car and she said she didnt know.....just wandering what updated info you have from BMW and who I should be talking to. Thanks in advance.


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## Northcar (Sep 21, 2005)

others?


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## Laura328xi (May 20, 2007)

More on my situation, BMW was not in touch with me prior to my arrival, rather I heard the news only when I was signing paperwork at the ED center and informed of the car switch. I did not receive a welcome kit either so had to use the ED dept to provide the address to the ED center. Overall, the experience has been lacking, and I am told non typical.


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## the_fox (Jul 6, 2006)

On a positive note, you will get a brand new twin car back in the states, with under 10 miles on the odometer. :thumbup:


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## 325xi_dc (Nov 24, 2002)

Laura, I wondered why we were called before you in the bistro even though my wife and I arrived after you and your friend. I'm so sorry to hear about the hail damage, but at least you have a free rental and get a brand-new car in a few months. Our coupe missed the storm damage.

It was nice to meet you and hope you're enjoying Germany.


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## Calif65GM (Mar 27, 2005)

This is OT, but I wonder if the new Welt will have an indoor lot; so that, the weather will not damage the cars while they wait for their mamas and papas.

I guess the BMW Risk Managers have to weigh the costs of building a large enough indoor lot vs. the chances of really bad weather (hail) that could could damage cars every few years.


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## Northcar (Sep 21, 2005)

Calif65GM said:


> This is OT, but I wonder if the new Welt will have an indoor lot; so that, the weather will not damage the cars while they wait for their mamas and papas.
> 
> I guess the BMW Risk Managers have to weigh the costs of building a large enough indoor lot vs. the chances of really bad weather (hail) that could could damage cars every few years.


Actually it is not that expensive to provide car covers as opposed to constructing an indoor lot. At the Merecedes factory in Sindelfingen where you go for ED there are acres of tin roofs covering the cars sort of like carports.


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## Fredric (Mar 29, 2007)

KEVIN88GT said:


> hey Fredric...greetings from Prague... my car had a very minimal ammount of damage...in fact if they didnt point it out to me I probably wouldnt have noticed.... I'm probably going to have them repair it once it gets to the states and see what it looks like then. The genteman at the pickup center told me to contact my dealer but when I called her today 6/29 (the same SA that you dealt with) she didnt have much info about a replacement car (which bmw said I could do if I chose to) I asked her regarding possible wait times should I choose a brand new car and she said she didnt know.....just wandering what updated info you have from BMW and who I should be talking to. Thanks in advance.


Hi Kevin....I'm back home today.... It was nice meeting you and your wife at the ED center and I hope you are enjoying your trip. I don't think that our CA is likely to know when brand new cars could be made available. As you are aware, over 4000 were damaged. Probably need to speak with the person from BMW who contacted you initially. If I had very mimimal damage such as you describe I likely would have elected to keep the car rather than wait for a new one to be built, especially considering it is only a two-year lease. Best of luck.


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## Calif65GM (Mar 27, 2005)

Northcar said:


> Actually it is not that expensive to provide car covers as opposed to constructing an indoor lot. At the Merecedes factory in Sindelfingen where you go for ED there are acres of tin roofs covering the cars sort of like carports.


Yea you're probably right. As I recall, I believe there are some covered parking slots too, but I guess there are not enough to go around.


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## Laura328xi (May 20, 2007)

Hi Kevin, yes, it was a plesure meeting you both. My experience has been poor all around, no all, no notification at the center...I was there for hours. The ED center said they would be in touch and nothing has happened. My dealership has not been in touch either and I advised them of the issue immediately. I am really dissappointed with the service across the board. On a very happy note, I LOVE the car and have had a nice time with it these past two weeks. Enjoy your time in Europe and feel free to be in touch when you return to the states!


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## Fredric (Mar 29, 2007)

Hi Laura....Sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience. When did you leave the US for Munich? My pickup was on June 26th, and did not leave till the 24th. On the Friday before I left, June 22nd, I received a call from BMW's ED headquarters in NJ, advising me about the hail damage situation. They did not want me to suddenly be shocked when I got there. Also told me about the options available to me. When I arrived at the ED my car was on the list of damaged cars, and they were very accomodating. As my car was pretty badly damaged I immediately chose to have a new one built, and asked them to notify NJ. I was recently advised that there is now a production number for it. So I feel that they have acted very responsibly and considerately. Please feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss anything further.


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