'Hail sale' in Des Plaines might benefit auto buyers

Hailstorms Monday night could translate into savings for shoppers this weekend after storms damaged nearly 600 cars on the lots of O'Hare Honda and Hyundai in Des Plaines.

Since Tuesday, the dealership at River Road and Oakton Street has been assessing how much damage was done to their inventory, and management concluded that it would take too much time to repair every single car.

Instead, they will liquidate their inventory in a "hail sale" that began Thursday morning.

"Our loss is the customer's gain," said general manager Steve Foresta. "We've been here since 1932, but we've never had an incident like this."

Baseball-sized hail was recorded in the Des Plaines area during Monday's storms, and winds reached as high as 70 mph in areas. One-inch hail was recorded in Elgin, Hoffman Estates, Hanover Park and Schaumburg.

Foresta predicts that they will sell their entire inventory by the end of the month. The typical savings for a consumer will be around $500 to $1000, depending on how much damage there is on the car.

"If you leave the car out in the sun on a warm day in June or July, many of the dents will pop right out," Foresta added.

On lighter colored cars, the hail dings were nearly invisible. Dark-colored or black cars showed the circular dents better, but the light rain falling Thursday made it difficult to tell if any of the cars were even damaged.

Costs for dent repair are not fixed, and can vary from location to location, the difficulty of repairing the dents, and how busy the location currently is.

Even though the dealership had insurance, they must pay a deductible for every single car, which adds up quickly when there are almost 600 damaged vehicles, Foresta said.