RangerM Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 Ouch. Hail storm takes a toll of $175 million in Louisville; thousands of new Ford Escapes damaged Nearly a month after the worst hail storm to hit Jefferson County in several years bashed cars and homes with hail as large as baseballs, the resulting cost is climbing past $175 million. The massive damage has swamped insurance adjusters, body shops and roofing businesses, as Kentuckians file claims and try to fix their dinged-up cars and battered shingles. The PCS unit of Verisk Analytics said the $175 million estimate applies only to insured losses. The amount of losses of the uninsured would likely add many millions of dollars to the total cost of the storm. Ford Motor Co. was hit particularly hard, with about 3,500 new 2013 Escapes damaged as they awaited shipment to dealers. The new line is expected to be one of Ford’s strongest products, and the company has retooled its plant on Fern Valley Road to ramp up production. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 I hope this gets MAX DIST to anyone who is ordering an Escape. Then, they can understand if there's going to be a delay. Personal example: My Fiesta was delayed twice after a Build 2 which approved the moonroof builds. It was the seat issue on the line and the weather damage to the rail tracks. I remember a person on FB moan and gripe how long it was taking for them to take possession of their Fiesta. Even after pointing out these facts didn't ease that persons rant but it helped others. Sometimes, knowledge is power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkisler Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 Ouch. Hail storm takes a toll of $175 million in Louisville; thousands of new Ford Escapes damaged Yes, heard about this. Mine was built the second week of April and has been sitting in Louisville, so I'm expecting the worst. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bifs66 Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 I had a red 91 Escort GT that sustained hail damage not long after we purchased it. The insurance paid for the fix; but the repair/paint was never equal to factory finish. After a few years, the paint faded differently on each panel; and the car is mostly pink now. We bought a new Mustang in 2008; and the one night it sat outside of the garage, it was dinged by an unexpected hail storm. This time, I searched around for an expert in "paintless" dent removal. Some of them wouldn't take the job as the car was only a couple of weeks old. I finally found a guy and he did a remarkable job; even fixed a few factory issues leaving the car absolutely perfect. I wonder what form of repair Ford will apply to those Escapes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jr.f Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 (edited) None of the 3800 will be sold to the public. Going to fleet sales and Test vehicles. We are working OT to make up the vehicles Edited May 30, 2012 by Jr.f Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoonerLS Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 (edited) This time, I searched around for an expert in "paintless" dent removal. Not long after my boss got his '10(?) Camaro SS, it got a door ding in the crease that runs along the side about halfway up (all I can say is that the Camaro's doorskins appear to be made of tracing paper...). Fortunately, he bought the no-deductible dent repair insurance, so they sent a paintless dent repairman, and he did an amazing job--not quite two years later, and you still can't tell that anything ever happened. Edited May 30, 2012 by SoonerLS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 so they sent a painless dent repairman All of my repairs have been painless... :bag: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoonerLS Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 All of my repairs have been painless... :bag: Alas, using an iPad to post messages is most assuredly not painless--between autocowrecks and the keyboard not registering key presses, it can be quite painful... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mettech Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 Buy a Used 2013 Ford Escape? Northern Kentucky was hit by a storm with damaging hail April 28, and Ford is still confirming how many vehicles were affected. Nissen said the automaker is still assessing the damage and could not confirm reports in the Louisville Courier-Journal that about 3,500 Escapes were hit by hail. The utility vehicles will all be assessed to see whether they can be repaired and sold as used vehicles, Nissen said. But none will be sold as a new vehicle. http://www.freep.com/article/20120530/BUSINESS0102/205300318/Hailstorm-Kentucky-won-t-affect-launch-new-Ford-Escape Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
97svtgoin05gt Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 It would be interesting to know what the pricing would be on these "used" Escapes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lquidspine Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Not long after my boss got his '10(?) Camaro SS, it got a door ding in the crease that runs along the side about halfway up (all I can say is that the Camaro's doorskins appear to be made of tracing paper...). Fortunately, he bought the no-deductible dent repair insurance, so they sent a paintless dent repairman, and he did an amazing job--not quite two years later, and you still can't tell that anything ever happened. I know Unique Concepts had their PDR guy there recently, I am sure Grover will help out alot if the damaged units are fixable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 (edited) Great opportunity to repair lightly damaged units and offer them to dealers as demonstrators. When you have misfortune like this, the best thing to do is make lemonade out of lemons.. Tell buyers what has happened to their vehicles, offer them a choice of a replacement vehicle or keep the original vehicle repaired before delivery and discounted Edited May 31, 2012 by jpd80 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasonj80 Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 It would be interesting to know what the pricing would be on these "used" Escapes. The Escapes will be fixed and diverted to rental fleets, test, press, and fleet customers where they will be used and then sold on the used car market. Also vehicles are damaged in transit all the time and are sold as new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordBuyer Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 It would be interesting to know what the pricing would be on these "used" Escapes. That is a very bad break for Ford, but a very good break for who buys one on the secondary market. I do wonder about who gets first crack at them. I would assume a 10%-20% price reduction off of invoice price, but at any rate I would bet it will be a great deal for the lucky few. I've seen the dingless repair guys in action and poof, it's as good as new assuming no paint damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkisler Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 That is a very bad break for Ford, but a very good break for who buys one on the secondary market. I do wonder about who gets first crack at them. I would assume a 10%-20% price reduction off of invoice price, but at any rate I would bet it will be a great deal for the lucky few. I've seen the dingless repair guys in action and poof, it's as good as new assuming no paint damage. I've mentioned before that the early production units are also directed to company lease vehicles. We get the early ones in part because the company wants to put units in company employee hands so any issues can be reported quickly. If there are any early production glitches, however, shipping can be delayed as the concentration shifts to customer/dealer orders and repairs become lower priority. Much better for a company employee to get stiffed than an outside customer. This really sucks. My Escape was built in early April and has been sitting in Louisville awaiting OK to Ship. I just got a note this morning from Ford indicating that all lease Escapes would have to be inspected and repaired and the delivery could be delayed by weeks, or even months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 I've mentioned before that the early production units are also directed to company lease vehicles. We get the early ones in part because the company wants to put units in company employee hands so any issues can be reported quickly. If there are any early production glitches, however, shipping can be delayed as the concentration shifts to customer/dealer orders and repairs become lower priority. Much better for a company employee to get stiffed than an outside customer. This really sucks. My Escape was built in early April and has been sitting in Louisville awaiting OK to Ship. I just got a note this morning from Ford indicating that all lease Escapes would have to be inspected and repaired and the delivery could be delayed by weeks, or even months. Aww, that's so bad to hear Austin. I hope they do a good job of the repair. I was thinking about the amount of Escapes damaged versus the production volume required to keep up with the current 23,000 odd sales, Seems like a storm in a tea cup unless you are one of the unlucky owners to have a vehicle damaged before delivery.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edstock Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 That is a very bad break for Ford Meh. A bad break, yes, a very bad break, probably not. IMHO, a very bad break would be having a major factory fire, or losing a critical supplier: those are very bad breaks. The Escape damage is merely an inconvenience. They might even have it covered by insurance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tankmt Posted August 3, 2012 Share Posted August 3, 2012 Well guys, I'm happy to be here. I've been looking around for a new vehicle for my wife. I've whittled things down to 3 vehicles, all are 2013 models. I went to my local dealer here in Albany, GA to see if the new Fusions had arrived. No 2013 Fusions yet. The dealer had 3 2013 Escapes in inventory and I gave the one in the showroom a looking over. I have found a hail damaged Escape waiting to be sold as new. Hard to tell on the hood but, the roof did indeed have numerous small dents. Looks like the UAW guys just ran it back through the paint booth. Please, check the 2013 Escapes over good before buying. You may get a good deal on one if you catch them selling it as new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordBuyer Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 Aww, that's so bad to hear Austin. I hope they do a good job of the repair. I was thinking about the amount of Escapes damaged versus the production volume required to keep up with the current 23,000 odd sales, Seems like a storm in a tea cup unless you are one of the unlucky owners to have a vehicle damaged before delivery.. I read that the VW plant in TN is erecting a tent like canopy over its holding lots to protect its new cars from hail damage that is very prevalent in that area of TN. Seems VW plant has had hail damage four times so far this year. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BORG Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 (edited) It was my understanding that the hail damaged Escape were never to be sold, infact almost all of them are in Dearbon right now in a huge parking lot. None of them were dumped on rental agencies either or repaired in anyway. I'm not sure what Ford will do with them but they are not to go to customers. Edited August 4, 2012 by BORG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildosvt Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 Well guys, I'm happy to be here. I've been looking around for a new vehicle for my wife. I've whittled things down to 3 vehicles, all are 2013 models. I went to my local dealer here in Albany, GA to see if the new Fusions had arrived. No 2013 Fusions yet. The dealer had 3 2013 Escapes in inventory and I gave the one in the showroom a looking over. I have found a hail damaged Escape waiting to be sold as new. Hard to tell on the hood but, the roof did indeed have numerous small dents. Looks like the UAW guys just ran it back through the paint booth. Please, check the 2013 Escapes over good before buying. You may get a good deal on one if you catch them selling it as new. Great first post TROLL. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordBuyer Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 It was my understanding that the hail damaged Escape were never to be sold, infact almost all of them are in Dearbon right now in a huge parking lot. None of them were dumped on rental agencies either or repaired in anyway. I'm not sure what Ford will do with them but they are not to go to customers. Those paintless ding repair places can work magic. I had kind of a double ding on my front wheel opening lip and watched ding repair guy rub his tool behind fender and the dings COMPLETELY disappeared as if new. He had about 10 specialized rods for just about every kind of ding you can think of no matter where located. He can even take out some creases, although that is much harder. Let's say new Escape has a couple minor dings from hail, they could be taken out to look and really be new again. I personally would have no problem with that. Impossible to tell from what I've seen and experienced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoonerLS Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 It was my understanding that the hail damaged Escape were never to be sold, That's what it says in post #5 of this thread. It's entirely possible that there is a hail-damaged Escape on a dealer's lot (it's not like it has never hailed anywhere other than the Louisville lot), but it's highly unlikely that it came from that batch. It could, AFAIK, still be sold as new, but it should be discounted due to the near-certain insurance pay-out. I know we have a few dealers advertising "hail sales," trying to clear out the damaged cars left over from a big hail storm more than a month ago--one advertised a new "lightly hail-damaged" SHO for $32K that had me sorely tempted... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
probowler Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 Maybe if the new escape wasn't so girly it would have handled the hail a little better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tankmt Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 (edited) I'm telling you this is one of the bunch damaged by the hail storm. At the very least, there were 30 small dents in the roof. They are easy to see at eye level. The Escape, being black and in the dimly lit showroom made it difficult to spot damage to the hood. Go to down to your local dealers and take a look at the Escapes on their lots. I interested to find out how many of the the hail damaged group have made it to dealerships. The Escapes at the dealerships now would be the ones that were in the hail storm. It shouldn't take long for this batch to be sold off. wildosvt, troll, i think not. Previous owner of 77 Pinto and 91 Ranger Supercab. Ranger was best small truck in the market. My new car will be purchased on Nov.7, the day after Barack Hussein Obama is defeated. I've narrowed the picks down to a 2013 Fusion, a 2013 Hyundai Sonata and a 2013 Escape. Edited August 4, 2012 by tankmt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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