I haven't even made my first payment on my HCH II, and the weatherman announced that "potentially baseball sized hail" was on the way. We didn't think anything of it until we saw the direction of the storm. It was right towards Menomonee Falls, WI (20 minutes northwest of Milwaukee). Needless to say I was terrified. We have a 1 car garage. My girlfriend's HCH II (brand new also) had the garage spot for the night.

We decided to be creative... She parked her car as far forward as possible, and I parked mine behind hers (we left the garage open). We then proceeded to cover the back end of my car with blankets (only the back window and trunk were exposed).

We then stood and watched as the hail started to pellet my car. We slowly started to notice the hail getting bigger and bigger. We ran back upstairs to get more blankets. Watching for a bit longer convinced us to take drastic action... we covered the back end with pillows.

http://www.greenhybrid.com/share/image1171.html

The hail continued for what seemed like forever (probably like 15 minutes). After the rain had finished we walked around the driveway and found some pretty big sized hail.

http://www.greenhybrid.com/share/image1172.html

After inspecting my car as well as I could in the dark(at 10:45 pm), I only saw 1 spot we neglected to cover. It is a very small dent and barely visible. It looks like I got out lucky.

Ok... maybe I'm being a bit wierd about protecting my car... but I'm sure at least 1 other person out there would've tried the same thing .

Dan

Remember one morning of being helpless seeing my relatively new 1988 CRX HF get pelted by a hail storm.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

Best Run >
www.cleanmpg.com

"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

That is some big hail. Don't know that I've ever seen anything like it in Phoenix.

About 2 weeks after I got my '04 HCH, we had a huge storm, thought nothing of it, until I went outside and found a tree on my brand new car. Luckily, no dents but a fair amount of scratches (they did come out with a little buffing, thank goodness).

Yes. I would call that Hail with a captial H.

geeckk

Well done, your initiative was rewarded! Were you ever a Boy Scout? What a frightening story.

Wow
Amazing!

Sorry this happened, but thanks for the pics.
I'd really be stressing out!

Need fewer troops to support.
Drive a hybrid.
Best tank 71.65 MPG.

Before this car I spent two years learning hypermiling on my 2004 HCH1.

Ouch... It's not a good feeling just watching. The neighbor had a Cadillac and I just watched it get hit over and over again. I can just imagine if I had to watch mine (without protection).

A tree? I definately need to get a 2 car garage!

No boy scouting... I do have to give credit to my girlfriend for the blanket idea though. After the hail was finished, I realized I could've used a blanket, then cardboard, then a blanket (to keep the cardboard from scratching the car).

My neighbor walked out after the hail and just laughed at the pile of blankets we had on my car (but I'm the one with 1-2 dents - tiny and not visible).

When I was home for the weekend one time I had parked next to/under one of the palm trees that is on either side of our drive way, it looked fine at the time, but while I was out with my boyfriend (in his car) my mom called and said one of the palm fronds was about to fall on my car. I didn't have an extra set of keys at the house so they rolled some carpet padding over my car and leaned a big sheet of plywood against it to deflect the frond if it fell. Those things can be real killers. By the time I got back it hadn't fallen, so I moved my car. I didn't think to get any pictures of it all covered up.
Here is a picture from when hurricane Frances hit.

That's my old car seeking shelter from the storm. She survived unscathed, but really dirty. You can see one of the giant palms we have next to our driveway on the left, and how big the fronds are, actually that probably isn't one of the big ones... That car had taken one before, right behind the wind shield. Ouch.
This one is one of our neighbors, they weren't so lucky.

My dad has created a bubble wrap cocoon for his 2005 Ford Mustang GT. He slips in on, then a car cover, and prays for the best. His 1999 Chevy Camaro got heavily abused by a Texas hail storm while sitting in the driveway, so he doesn't take any chances now... but I'm sure he gets goofy looks. All I know is it required *A LOT* of bubble wrap.

- Shannon (Geeky, Wild Texan)

I was driving my 06 the other day when it started hailing marble sized hail. It occured to me that the near horizontal windshield has advantages with road debris and stones, as they glance off more easily, but it would be more suceptable to hail damage.