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A bad day for my Mazda6 :(

Buddy Palumbo

Hard-core CEG'er
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May 26, 2000
Messages
3,735
Location
near Reading , Pennsylvania , USA
I'm bummed as bummed can be ... we had a freak hailstorm yesterday afternoon & my Mazda6 SportWagon paid the price . Every panel looks like a golf ball (ironically the hail was golf ball size & larger) - hundreds of hits . It even took out the windshield , making it undriveable (well , it still "drives" , but ya know what I mean) . It's hard to get really good pics of dents on a light-colored car , but it certainly got it's ass kicked . I hope not , but I'm sure the insurance company will want to immediately write "TOTAL" at the bottom of the page . I'm not giving up without a fight ! It'll be a while till I find out the fate of the "MILF Wagon" , as there are TONS of damaged vehicles making claims . I'm hoping for the best , but not holding my breath :( .

The front shot :



The roof:






The hood :







It's beat-up all down the sides - even the mirrors got busted-up :



It even beat the side glass wiper seals all to hell :






I'm gonna go puke now ...
 
DAMN!!! Beat to hell doesn't describe that accurately. Good luck with the insurance man.
 
Thats the worst hail damage I have ever seen. Are you sure it wasn't hailing ball bearings ?

Mad Dog
 
Thanks guys -
Yes , it will definately suck , dealing with the insurance company .

Smokin Joe - That's easy to say , standin' on the outside (and I've said it before too) . Unfortunately , having dealt with this this crap before only a couple years ago , they NEVER give you enough cabbage to replace the car with another car like you have . I'll be lucky to get 2/3 of the replacement cost of a car like this , even as a 10-year-old car . The problem also lies with the fact that this is not just your normal Mazda6 wagon - it's an "S Sport Wagon" (with the ground-effects , spoiler , body-colored trim) , and loaded at that (heated leather , Bose audio w/factory sub , curtain airbags , traction control ... and so on) . The insurance co. and their blue book value will undoubtedly hang me out to dry , figuring I'll settle for a base model replacement , which is all I seem find online - not that they care . I will not settle for their first offer , should they total it . I would rather have it fixed , since I know the history of this car , and I know the guy who's had it all this time has taken extraordinary good care of it (re: me :) ) . Also a bummer is that I just put new tires on it a couple months ago , new rotors/pads on it last week , and just got it inspected less than 48 hours before this happened , and we're leaving for Georia to visit my pop in a month , and we always take the wagon . I don't have the money for a new car , and don't have the time to build up confidence to drive a "new-to-me" car on a 1500 mile round trip down to Georgia . Long story short (too late , LOL) , we've had this car a while now , and both love it . I'd be fine having it fixed back up . I have a local body shop that's really good , and I feel it'll be as good as it was before .

(Smokin Joe - that was NOT a rant at you ... it's all good . I'm just wound up a bit , being a car guy facing losing his ride .)
 
That sucks Allen! Thankfully the car wasn't damaged structurally or mechanically, get it back to looking good and get some pics for us to enjoy!

Smokinjoe: Why would you WANT an insurance company to total a vehicle you already own that is mechanically sound because of cosmetic damage? Market value on that car is probably not that great, but if it runs and drives well and you own it, letting it get totaled over aesthetics is going to cost a ton of money in the long run.
 
ive got to think theyll total it. whats a mazda6 wagon go for now, 8k? to repair all of the panels (replace?), repaint as needed, replace window seals, windshield. I dont even know what theyd do about the roof.

whichever way it goes, good luck. If they total it, and give you a price you dont think is good enough to replace the car, get on auto trader or similar, look for mazda6 wagons around the same mileage as yours in as good of condition as yours and print the listings. Show the insurance look, I cant replace the car for the money you gave me, theyre selling for *this* amount.
 
Take it to dent tech.

See if they can fix it without the insurance totaling it. I mean, they can certainly fix the sheet metal..I guess the question is if the insurance will cover the cost of the repair.

•••• like this makes me cringe. Supposedly it hailed yesterday on Staten Island, but not where I live. The Vette is protected...although it wouldn't dent anyway...but the Impala is on the street. I'd have a stroke.
 
I have a few friends who were impacted by that storm. Said it demolished all of the cars in the area, along with a lot of the siding on the houses. My wife and I discussed that if that were to happen to our cars, we'd just buy them back from the insurance company and pocket the rest because are cars are that sound and have been so well maintained. Perfect chance to make it a modern day rat rod I guess.

Sorry to see that happen to your car though. Good luck!
 
The Dent Tech guys would fall over till they removed all those dents , LOL !! Some on the hood actually creased/cracked the paint . I'm going to see what they offer me , then argue about it , then make my decision . It's structurally sound and runs well , just beat to heck :( . It'll certainly go screaming towards the "total number" once they start adding it up , no doubt . I'd hate to see her get totalled , but I'd really have a hard time driving it all jacked-up . I really like to keep my cars nice & it would bug the heck out of me having to look at it like that all the time . If they offer me a price that will replace it (or close) , I guess I'll move on . We'll see ...
 
I really like to keep my cars nice & it would bug the heck out of me having to look at it like that all the time . If they offer me a price that will replace it (or close) , I guess I'll move on . We'll see ...

I would agree. That's all I was getting at. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
 
I would agree. That's all I was getting at. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

No problem , my friend - like I said , my crazy-man rant wasn't aimed at ya . If the body shop can make the car look as good as before , I'm all about keeping my ride . The right side of the car was repainted before , when my wife was run off the road by an on-coming car in her lane , coming over a rise . Scary stuff - she took it into the armco along the side of the road , rather than taking it in the grille . The body shop fixed it as good as new , even with the weird pearl/flip paint color . If the ins. co. decides to appease me & actually fix the car , it will certainly go back there . That's a mighty big IF .
 
I'm sorry Allen. If you remember, this exact same thing happened to my SVT about a month after I got it. Freak hail storm in Lititz PA with dime sized hail. Not as bad as yours but I was within a few hundred dollars of it being a total loss. I'd be surprised if it isn't a total loss.

Did you see about the Berkshire mall? I had a friend who was there when the skylight fell in.
 
Yikes. That is some major damage done to it. Sometimes, as painful as it is, it is just best to move on. If you don't mind a dented to hell car with a salvaged title, keep it and pocket the money. Just remember, if you want to trade it in or sell it, you will have a tough time doing so.
 
Figured I'd throw a couple update pics up here . Here's a few from the fateful day that the came & took my poor Mazda away :( . I fought long & hard with the insurance company to actually get a half decent amount for the car - got 'em to come up a couple grand , so it was worth it .





 
And after a LOT of hard searching (and after being shot-down on a ride I was hoping to score ;) ) , I picked this up just a few hours ago ...



drumroll please ...


the suspense is killin' ya , isn't it ???

Here it is while rolling home ...



Yup , I managed to find another '04 Mazda6 SportWagon !! Different color combo , and not quite as nice as our old one , but not bad . With my search , I came to realize , that almost noone is as anal about keeping a nice car as I am (read:disappointment with every car I looked at) . This is a one owner car out of Virginia with a great Carfax report , so I pulled the trigger . I hope it was a good choice , lol !!

A couple more pics :













 
Sorry and congratulations all at once man! Very nice looking new ride!


Dave

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