Following a hailstorm, automotive dealerships can turn lemons into lemonade--that is, storm damage into sales.

In a recent example, Woodhouse Auto Family in Blair, Neb., was swamped with customers last week for a "hail sale" on around 4,400 vehicles that were damaged by hail, Automotive News reported.

These sales drawn in new customers because the customers feel that they have an advantage over the dealership, Tim Olson, president of Dent Terminator, a paintless dent repair company in Tulsa, Okla., told Automotive News.

"It's like blood in the water," Olson said. "People sense that [dealerships] are at a disadvantage, bringing people into the marketplace that weren't there before."

At the Woodhouse hail sale, damaged vehicles were marked down between $1,000 and $15,000. The dealership is the top spot in the country for Ford F-Series pickup truck sales, and 2,500 pickups were damaged in the storm.

Over the weekend, more than 150 customers were waiting to talk to a salesperson, Lisa Cole, Woodhouse Family Auto marketing director, told Automotive News by email.

Peak Kia in Littleton, Colo., has been offering hail sale deals following two storms in late May that damaged 425 vehicles for about $6,000 in damage on average for each car. Around a third of the damaged vehicles were snapped up by customers the weekend after the storm, owner Bill Byerly told Automotive News.

"We want to try to retail everything," Byerly said. "We may sell them all in a month or six weeks from now."

Customers can score with hail sale discounts, but they should be aware that hail damage can affect future insurance coverage, Olson of Dent Terminator told Automotive News.

"There are benefits for consumers, but also 'gotchas,'" Olson said. "...When [an insurance company] looks at a car and sees hail damage, they figure what that would have cost and deduct it from the current cost of the accident."

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