Heavy Texas Hail Tests Repairers

May 2, 2016

May 2, 2016—After an additional run of hailstorms, including the costliest hailstorm in state history, Texas auto body repairers have even more work to do to repair the almost $3 billion in property damage from storms so far this year, according to a report from Automotive News.

An April 25 storm caused more than $560 million in damage to more than 110,000 vehicles in the San Antonio area, according to the Insurance Council of Texas. Three hailstorms from mid-March to mid-April added up to damages comparable to all of last year, Mark Hanna, a spokesman for the insurance council, said. 

"I've been in San Antonio all my life and I haven't seen one this bad," said Tim Cliver, chief operating officer at Red McCombs Automotive in San Antonio. "Some stores didn't get hit and some stores did." 

The storms have left rental cars and loaners in short supply. 

"As the hail was coming down and we had customers in the showroom, I thought, ‘Oh my God, not another disaster,'" Islam Hindash, general manager of Mission Mitsubishi in San Antonio, said. "Everyone is in hail mode right now." 

Hindash watched hail fall on his 850-car lot causing around $6,500 in damager per vehicle. 

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