Various things can happen on the road that will have you scratching your head thinking what to do. Some of them come out of nowhere. Some others have a warning, such as the hail storm that recently came down. The problem is that your car can get damaged and you don’t know what to do. Here are some tips on how to handle these rare events:
Deer Collisions
If your drive takes you out to forested areas then you might hit a deer. Besides killing one of nature’s creatures, your main worry will be about the damage to your car. Interestingly enough, deer strikes are becoming more common. There has been an increase in claims in recent years, depending on the part of the country. Currently, you have a 1 in 169 chance of hitting a car in your country drive. If you do hit one, your best option is to handle it like any other accident.
Your insurance should be able to pay for it, as long as you directly hit the animal. This means if you swerved and hit a tree instead, you would be covered by something else in your insurance. Most of the time, the damage will only be to the front of the car so a simple trip to the repair shop should handle it.
Hail Storm
The best advice about dealing with hail is not to deal with it at all. Most of the time, the local weather channel will give you enough warning. If there is a chance of hail, then keep your car in the garage. But hail can come down out of nowhere, too. If that happens, then you’ll have to wait until it stops. When it is all over, you should then look over the damage to your car. The size of the hailstones will determine how bad it can get. The larger the stones, the bigger the damage.
Your windshield might also have taken a battering. Minor hail dent repair service is simple enough since paintless dent repair is a common sight already. Larger dents will need weeks of repairs and may even cost a lot. If the damage is really bad and you don’t have insurance, then you might have to write the car off.
Pot Holes
Many drivers don’t expect the road itself to be a problem that could damage their car. But drivers are spending billions of dollars repairing pothole damage. Careful driving can help a bit but damaged roads are not easy to navigate. Broken axles and blown tires are the usual results of such encounters. Tires are easy to replace, but axle replacements will cost you.
Additionally, this may not be covered by your insurance. Bring your car to the mechanic regularly if you drive through bad roads so that they can check up on the parts of your car prone to damage.
Though it may look pretty bad after the incident, your car should be able to survive. Most of the damage is cosmetic and the internal components of the car should be fine. Good cosmetic repair should handle most of it, though having the mechanic look under the hood should reassure you on whether the car is still road-worthy.
