hail damaged sale

[streamfisher]

Hi,
My wife and I have been looking at a used 2002 sport 4wd that around here seems to be a good price with 50,000 miles but there is also a new 2007 SR5 with hail damage for around $26,000. I was wondering if anybody has ever bought a hail damaged vehicle? I thought that the price was good and with the 0.9% deal going on it would be in our price range. My truck (2004 Silverado) is about $3500 to fix all the damage from the storm so I would assume the 4runner would be simmilar in price if not more. The damage is the hood, driver fender, some on roof, top of doors and near the hatch. I was thinking of getting the good deal on the truck now and saving up money to fix it later on.
The truck is a SR5 with sunroof.
Anybody have any opinions?
Thanks in advance,
neil.

 

[Bill3508]

$26000 for a vehicle with hail damage. That doesn't sound right. My 06 Sport only cost $28000 so the SR5 new should not be much more than $26000. I would not pay more than $20000 for a damaged vehicle like the one you are looking at.

Bill3508

 

[pmdata]

I'm no expert on dealers or pricing, but I just picked up a SR5 (8664A) with moonroof for just over that price, brand new. It was off the lot at the end of the month.

If you go in with your research on exactly what you want and know what you are willing to pay, you will do fine.

If it were me, I wouldn't get the hail damaged 4Runner.

hth

 

[4Runner168]

I wouldn't get a hail damage 4Runner, especially not at that price. But if you really are thinking about it, see if the dealer will allow you to bring in an appraiser and have them appraise the cost to fix the damages and then decide.

 

[streamfisher]

After thinking a lot about it I see that it is not worth it. I also thought that if a person purchased a damaged vehicle it will show up on a car-fax report and hurt the resale.
Thanks for the advice, I think I am better off looking at the used one instead (2002 w/50,000 miles).
Thanks a lot.
neil.

 

[Neil]

You may want to do a search for hail damage because I posted a couple pics of my 4runner with hail damage and the total came out to be about $14k. I don't think the damage info is available via carfax last time I checked, but maybe it takes a while to find out. It also took about 2 months to get all the work done. I do have to say that I haven't had any issues about water leaking in or strange creaks so they must have done a good job. Also, the paint and body work is guaranteed forever through state farm so I plan on keeping it forever. So far we have over 72k on the odometer and the damage occured around 35K.