Auto shops backed up for months from hail damage

Thousands of cars damaged by Monday’s hail storm won’t be able to get their damages repaired as quickly as they’d like.

Auto shops across the area are backed up for months still fixing cars from the hail storm in June. The Phil Long Collision Center said they’re booked until February for the first storm and with this new event, could extend that farther.

Duane Meszler, the General Manager said, “this most recent storm is just going to piggyback onto the last storm starting in February and schedule from then on and the bad thing about these storms is the length of repair time for each vehicle that can be upwards of four to six weeks.”

The easiest and quickest repairs are the windshields. They usually take 24 hours to get replaced. Other damages like dents from the hail can take four to six weeks.

In most cases, people without vehicles could just rent a car, but even that has a severe shortage after the hail storms. U-Save Car and Truck Rental employee Joyce Krivda say, “we bought more cars and we’re still sold out.”

Now, some of their fleet is coming back from customers with hail damage.