Bargain-hunters queue here: Canberra's hail-damaged cars are going under the hammer

At a time when new vehicle sales nationally are plummetting to their lowest level in decades, the ACT was the only state or territory to finish February in positive territory with 2256 cars sold. In neighbouring NSW, new car sales fell by 11.3 per cent last month, compared with February last year.

The cost and severity of Canberra's brief but intensely damaging January 20 hailstorm also has been revealed with insurance giant Suncorp writing off 46 per cent of its assessed vehicles.

Suncorp, which sells policies under the brands of AAMI, Apia, Shannons and Bingle, has described this write-off rate as around "double the proportion of written-off vehicles which we would typically see from this type of event".

Its major rival, Insurance Australia Group, which markets under the brands of NRMA and CGU, will write off around 40 per cent of its customers' damaged vehicles.

Side mirrors were broken off and windows smashed from the ferocity of the storm which has sparked a frenzy of activity in specialised car transportation and the online vehicle auction sites.

Thousands of hail-damaged cars are now officially "out to pasture" across Canberra, the growing numbers now part of the daily visual landscape for people driving into the ACT from either the north or south.

The exact number of cars damaged, from minor dimples to full statutory write-offs, in the half-hour storm is yet to be fully determined but could be around 30,000.

Industry observers regard it as the single most damaging hailstorm seen in the ACT in more than a decade but it still pales by comparison with a hailstorm in Sydney's north in December 2018 which resulted in 143,000 claims and a damage bill of $1.36 billion.

At Hume in Canberra's south, Insurance Australia Group (IAG) is working with Pickles Auctions on written-off vehicle processing, while in the north alongside the Majura Parkway, hectares of vehicles are being processed by Sydney auction house Manheim on behalf of Suncorp and others.

Suncorp has assessed around 85 per cent of its insured Canberra and Queanbeyan vehicles while IAG, which has a larger proportion of the Canberra market through its NRMA car insurance brand, has "triaged" around 70 per cent of its customers' damaged vehicles.

IAG expects to operate its "pop-up" assessment centres for at least another two weeks but the sheer volume of damaged cars means the auctions will be running for weeks and months to come.

The Insurance Council of Australia's latest data has revealed 87,500 claims in total and $805 million in damages claims resulted from the January hailstorm which started in Victoria, passed through Canberra and into NSW.

Of those claims, 57 per cent were from within the ACT.

Pickles Auctions had an online auction of several hundred premium vehicles, some deemed repairable write-offs and others as full (statutory) write-offs, on the weekend. Manheims has an auction of around 500 local cars tentatively scheduled for March 13.

Pickles still has about 7500 vehicles in its current inventory while Manheims has around 5000.

"Many of the premium brand hail-damaged cars which are statutory write-offs can't be re-registered so they will be shipped off to overseas right hand drive markets like New Zealand and South Africa where they will be repaired and put back on the road," Pickles' national business development manager Pedro Alvarez said.

"From our perspective, it makes no sense to lose late-mode, hail-damaged cars from our market when most have only cosmetic damage. They would easily serve as safe and reliable transport for uni students or people who can't otherwise afford a newer model car."

Write-offs previously registered in the ACT can be re-registered after inspection but NSW has much stricter transport regulations.

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Among the damaged cars are some genuine jewels and potential bargains. Parked at Majura among the thousands of Toyotas, Mazdas, Fords and Subarus was a Citroen SM, a stylish and rare French import from the early 1970s which featured a Maserati V6 engine.

Parked just a few metres away was a near-new AMG Mercedes coupe which just weeks ago would have sold for well over $100,000. Some light hail damage later, it's now worth only a tenth that price at auction.

"Pop-up" hail-damage assessment and repair centres have been operating in Mitchell, Hume, and Fyshwick, as well as others across the border in Queanbeyan, for around five weeks.

Some customers who had damaged glass and were willing to wait for an assessment had windscreens replaced on the spot, and asked to return a few weeks later.

Paintless dent repair, in which specialised tools are used to "pop" out hail dents without the expense of removing and repainting panels, is on site at most insurance assessment centres.

Suncorp has revealed that 22 per cent of damaged vehicles from the event are repaired using "conventional panel shop methods". This would usually require replacing panels and re-spraying of the affected areas.

A further 16 per cent of car received paintless dent repair on site, and 15 per cent were repaired using both techniques.