Slinger car dealership hosts "hail sale" after nasty storm damages inventory

SLINGER -- It could be a car owner's worst nightmare -- getting caught in a nasty storm. But what if you owned several hundred cars and there's no way to escape Mother Nature?

The sales staff at Uptown Motors say there's a new meaning to, "the price of doing business." They learned it the hard way.

Josh Schumacher is the new car manager at Upton Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-RAM in Slinger. On Monday, April 25th Schumacher watched a spring storm roll in.

"I figured why not record it," said Schumacher.

Schumacher hit record as his inventory of cars were pummeled by golf ball sized hail. The sound made him sick.

"Like thousands of people were banging on your door at the same time. That's the best way I can describe it," Schumacher said.

Schumacher couldn't do anything about it.

"It was a horrible feeling," said Schumacher.

Hardly a hood was spared except for a few showroom models, and cars in the shop.

More than 300 inventory cars and trucks were peppered by a storm that came and went, and left thousands of dollars in damage.

"In our 70 years, this is only the second time we've had to deal with it," said Schumacher.

So for the first time in Schumacher's career, he's orchestrating a "hail sale" -- offering discounts on the dinged-up cars.

Even with deep discounts, selling cars with hail damage is no easy pitch.

Schumacher and the entire dealership hopes they'll be able to put this storm behind them.