The best and most obvious way to protect your car from hail damage is to keep it in a garage when you’re not driving. Unfortunately, not everyone has that option. Some people live in apartment buildings where they have to keep their cars in a parking lot, while others have the bad luck of being away from home when a hail storm hits. If this is similar to your situation, here are some tips that might help to avoid hail damage.

Head for Cover

If you’re on the road and it starts hailing, try to get your car under some kind of cover. Stop under an overpass or a gas station with a canopy, or head to a parking ramp if you don’t have to pay for it. You’ll be hit by some hailstones, but it’s better than leaving it at the mercy of a storm.

Shop at Places with Parking Ramps

If you must run errands when you think you’re going to be hit by a storm, try to stick to shopping malls and other places that have parking ramps. They are the next best thing to parking in a garage, even if they don’t offer quite as much protection.

Get a Car Cover

A car cover won’t always protect your car from heavy hailstones, but it will provide some cover while you’re away from home. Keep it in your car’s trunk at all times, and be prepared to use it when you think a storm is headed your way. These are just a few of the things that you can do to avoid hail damage on your car. Since some damage is unavoidable, you may need to contact an auto body shop near you to make repairs if you can’t get away from a storm quickly enough. Just Google “hail damage repair Lakewood CO” to find a good shop that offers this service.