Hailstorm damages several thousand new VWs in Wolfsburg

"Klaus Schmoll" (klausschmoll)
08/09/2013 at 10:01 • Filed to: Beigekrieg

VWs Beigekrieg got slowed down a bit by the German weather. A VW spokesperson said that a hailstorm damaged several thousand brand new vehicles in their Wolfsburg plant last week. This may delay deliveries for European customers as all cars in stock will have to be checked in the light tunnel again, and then repaired if necessary.

Customers whose cars were damaged have two options. They can get their fully repaired vehicle at a discount, or they can have another one built to their specs which they would have to wait for much longer then though.

Although VWs insurance estimates that they will have to deal with no less than 10000 damaged cars in the area, this isn't the biggest hail damage in VWs history. In 2008 a hailstorm damaged 30000 cars at a VW plant in Emden.

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DISCUSSION (48)

For Sweden > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 10:08

Kinja'd!!!

You didn't see anything.

Hermann > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 10:23

We hired a company to force a severe Hailstorm. This was a test to see how the cars handle a hailstorm and the results weren't good enough. Many people will be fired, there will me no mercy with bad engineers. All cars were damaged, except that one! That one over there you financial experts called a failure! And you see what it is? See what's standing there, undamaged? The Phaeton.

VW Group

POD > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 10:42

Ugh... This hurts me to see. We had a hail storm with golf-ball sized hail 3 or 4 weeks back. I've got over $6000 in damage to my MS3 and my GF has over $8000 in damages to her Tuscon. =(

It was a sad day.

ttyymmnn > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 10:44

Can I have one? Here in TX, hail-damaged cars are commonplace. Nobody will notice.

ScreenShot > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 10:46

Screw the light tunnel. I say we send them straight to the heavy tunnel and be done with the whole lot...

EVN99 > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 10:47

What exactly does "repair" mean here? You mean I get to to drive a brand new Bondo bug?

BrtStlnd > For Sweden
08/09/2013 at 10:48

The Weather Dominator he bought from Destro is fully operational.

PilotMan > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 10:50

Can cars go through an assembly plant backwards? That might work.

Dolemite > POD
08/09/2013 at 10:56

We rarely get large hail here, but it's always a worry of mine when severe thunderstorms are called for.

05STi > EVN99
08/09/2013 at 10:59

Yeah I feel like there should be a little sticker on any car that is sold pre-damaged.

arrR32 - now with more fiber > POD
08/09/2013 at 11:00

Golf ball sized you say?

Klaus Schmoll > EVN99
08/09/2013 at 11:03

Kinja'd!!!

Nope, paintless dent repair, AND a discount on the vehicle.

DoctorNine > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 11:08

This is obviously a marketing ploy. VW have a long tradition of naming cars after the winds or ocean currents. They have 'Polo', 'Bora', 'Scirocco', 'Passat', 'Golf', and 'Jetta' . Clearly, what we have here is the intro for a new model line, called the 'Oh Hail' .

Kinja'd!!!

imwithadd > ttyymmnn
08/09/2013 at 11:12

it hails a lot in texas?

POD > arrR32 - now with more fiber
08/09/2013 at 11:13

Yup. 1.5 - 3 cm in diameter.

dogisbadob > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 11:14

Ours are Mexican anyway, so we are not affected. Do we even get any German VW's anymore? Can't they just import them from Mexico?

POD > Dolemite
08/09/2013 at 11:16

We rarely get it as well. The largest hail hit a very small sliver on the city. Basically right where I live.

Klaus Schmoll > dogisbadob
08/09/2013 at 11:17

Isn't the US Golf German?

Importing them from Mexico might take about as long as building new ones in Wolfsburg, plus the Mexican ones would probably have the wrong emissions systems, wrong safety test stickers on lamps and windows and stuff like that.

ttyymmnn > imwithadd
08/09/2013 at 11:19

Yes it does.

Dragon__Brain > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 11:20

Wow, this will really hurt the German auto and insurance industry in the short term. What did those poor Germans ever do to deserve this?

dogisbadob > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 11:21

It might be, but the next one coming out next year or whenever is going back to Mexico.

PogosRevenge > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 11:26

VW planned the hail storm. It's their new way to try to make more profit on replacement part sales. Someone should tell them they can't profit selling parts to themselves.

Meatcoma > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 11:35

Depending on where the damage is and how bad. PDR will not work where there are creases. So, while most will be fixed with paintless dent repair, there may be some that will have conventional.

Grogey > dogisbadob
08/09/2013 at 11:46

My State bought 2011 GTI was Germany sourced.

dogisbadob > Grogey
08/09/2013 at 11:47

cool

MAGNVM > dogisbadob
08/09/2013 at 11:47

Yes, the 2010 - 2013 Golf are made in Germany (I have a 2012 Golf TDI). And yes, the Mk VII will be made in Mexico. That was one of the main reasons I went after a 2012 model. It is sickening to think of all those battered Vdubs:( Can we have a moment of silence...

JoeLiebig > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 11:48

no, just the GTI

Werkz > dogisbadob
08/09/2013 at 11:51

This used to be the case but most VW's nowadays are built and shipped over from Germany. Edit: Reading 2013-14 are made in Mexico... bleh.

vr6geek > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 11:56

You'd think instead of paying several thousand dollars to fix the damage (even with insurance I feel like they have to get hit financially somehow, right?), they would just shell out for thick blankets to cover exposed vehicles with. Or a giant roof. Seeing as this also happened in 2008 to even more vehicles, I'd think this would be a nice long-term form of security. I'm probably missing something though. In any case, hail has always scared the crap out of me. I know it would only cost me $50 for the deductible, but the thought of my car being hammered on like that just freaks me out.

The-Gray-Adder > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 11:58

Not to mention the crappier components they sell only to Americans.

Ad_absurdum_per_aspera > arrR32 - now with more fiber
08/09/2013 at 11:59

Golf ball sized hail is unusual, but not at all unheard-of in parts of the US (and presumably other places) that get vigorous thunderstorms. Here are some extremes:

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhi…

You do not want to get conked on the head by one of those! Fortunately they're rare.

Every few years there's a hailstorm of sheet-metal-dimpling proportions or close to it somewhere in my sphere of awareness, followed shortly by itinerant technicians who set up tents (often at a car dealership) offering more-or-less erasure of hail dents. I think one of these arrangements became permanent. If the hailstones are large enough, the windshield repair places get in on it too.

Sometimes you can also get good deals on cars that have golf ball type dimples all over 'em. Some people just drive around like that, either because they weren't insured or they just cashed the insurance check and figured that the aesthetics were still tolerable.

A friend who was teaching at Texas Tech had such a storm come over his house. The insurance company advised him to get a new roof, their treat (minus deductible), without even taking a very close look — just a brief visit to verify that, yup, there'd been a hailstorm. The shingles looked okay from the curb or even from the lawn, but experience made the claims adjuster know that they'd been pretty thoroughly tenderized and the roof *was* going to leak.

Some fun stuff (note, it's a commercial):

I thought of that commercial when this happened:
http://www.weather.com/news/two-feet-…

I caught the tail end of that storm before changing direction toward my destination at Clines Corners, which had a mere three or four inches of hail. Naturally a couple of people found themselves unable to drive in this without hitting each other, a few more pulled over as a precaution, and from the looks of it, a family pulled over just to let the kids build hailmen and throw hailballs at each other.

AZRCD > dogisbadob
08/09/2013 at 12:16

I'm a VW parts guy: Golf/GTI/R, CC (it's the German Passat chassis still), Tiguan, Touareg, Eos are all cars currently in production for the US market that have Germany as final assembly (AKA "made in"). Also, any previous models that have "W" as the first character in the VIN.

Slothkins > dogisbadob
08/09/2013 at 12:23

Only the Jetta and Beetle are made in Mexico. The Tiguan, Touareg, CC, Golf, and GTI all still come from Germany.

shortyoh > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 12:31

Meh...

Call it a fuel efficiency improvement and sell as-is. :)

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/22/myt…

POD > Ad_absurdum_per_aspera
08/09/2013 at 12:59

That video was great! @2:13 - That's pretty much exactly what my hood looks like. It's black too.

My windshield was spidered from the hair as well. The adjuster estimated about 200-250 individual dents on my car over the hood, roof, hatch, driver's side door, driver's side quarter panel, driver's side rear quarter panel, driver's side passenger door, and the roof belt line on the drivers side and passenger side. Ranging from a few milimeters deep to almost a centemeter deep on some of them. It was a freak storm. In the 10 years I've lived in Alberta, this is the only time I've seen hail like this. The storm only lasted for 2-3 minutes too.

Fortunatly I'm covered for it (on both cars). I'm pretty sure I'm going to get the Speed3 fixed becasue, well, I really like the car and I want it too look good. I may take a payout of the Tuscon though. It's only a Hyundai after all. I have a full year to decide/make the repairs. So I'm taking my time in choosing a body shop.

nmalinoski > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 13:02

I thought the Wolfsburg plant had that neato automated tower that stored peoples' cars until they were ready to be picked up. Does one or two of those just not have the capacity for their throughput?

axiomatik > arrR32 - now with more fiber
08/09/2013 at 13:11

When I lived in Iowa, a major storm came through one night. It spawned a couple tornadoes, thankfully not near my house, but we got major hail at my house, about racquetball-sized. Here's a pic of a couple hailstones I picked up in my backyard. Thankfully, I had a 3-car garage, so my 3 cars were all safe.

Kinja'd!!!

dogisbadob > AZRCD
08/09/2013 at 13:37

Well, actually the Touareg is made in Slovakia, but it is still allowed to have German VIN number. That practice needs to end.

David E. Davis > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 13:41

Extra Extra! Read all about it. Gold ball hail damages Golfs!

arrR32 - now with more fiber > axiomatik
08/09/2013 at 13:47

Golf ball sized is about all the larger we've had in South Central PA. Most times when we get hail they are the size of .25 cal pellets but holy crap those are huge

chrisbattle > ttyymmnn
08/09/2013 at 14:18

That is exactly what I was thinking. Here in Texas it is practically Murphy's Law that if you get enough shiny things in a tight enough grouping, mother nature will bitch slap you

AZRCD > dogisbadob
08/09/2013 at 14:31

Ha, well there you go. I know the motors come from all over like the 2.0 from Hungary and the I think the trans used in the new Passat are from Argentina.

Tim Tom > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 14:39

We had hailstorm just few minutes ago here in Slovakia and it was the biggest one I ever saw. I am lucky I listened to my inner voice when I cancelled a dinner and movie evening with my friends because I didn't want to drive in storm just to see Matt Damon in Matrix or how is it called.

Yeah, couple of hundred users who custom ordered the car will learn that their car was damaged. But VW does not sell many cars on custom order in Europe. I mean most of them are "custom" ordered by dealers, and a portion is made by VW itself for the lot that they later try to move to dealers, but unless a customer specifically ordered his car, he will never know. I refused to take a new Seat Altea 2 years ago from the dealer, because I found out it was repainted (the paint was more than 200 micrometers thick, I had already one similar problem before so I always measure the paint thickness, new car or used) and It took me 4 weeks and a good lawyer until they gave me a different one.

My friend's husband has a company who specifies on repairing hailstorm damages, they travel all over the world for months to work on exactly such cases - thousands of cars at one place damaged, and he told me that cars, which were able to be repaired without repainting the part or dissasembling (roofs are tricky) are never disclosed to the owner as repaired.

BrianMadigan > POD
08/09/2013 at 15:22

I have aluminum lid and hood. It doesn't take golf ball sized hail to dent that. I'd say a good shooter marble size will do.

M54B30 > Klaus Schmoll
08/09/2013 at 15:49

I'd take a dented one, screw it. Money in my pocket works for me.

POD > BrianMadigan
08/09/2013 at 20:10

Shooters were the average size. 1.5 - 3.0 cm.

TheFurryCarGuy > DoctorNine
08/09/2013 at 23:08

Not the Oh Heil ?

SorrybutIhadto

NativeTexan > Klaus Schmoll
03/14/2016 at 14:29

Market then as Golf ASD (Aerodynamic Speed Dimples) inspired by actual golf balls. Keep talking about the reduced drag and improved fuel efficiency. Boom deselgate solved! Just have Hans take a ballpin hammer to all the and German engineer the shit out of all the TDIs.