Cracked windshield on M3.
 

I had read and heard first hand about BMW using softer glass that seems more chip-prone.

Not long after driving the car in the US, I noticed that I too had a few tiny chips. Nothing bad, but more than I should have for the low miles. I considered it bad luck and resolved to leave (a lot of) space behind the car in front of me when in the highway.

As I was detailing the car two weekends ago, I notice a pretty large chip on the glass but it happened to be right over the inspection sticker, so it had gone undetected. Nevertheless, I felt I could probably keep driving it until I was compelled to change it (perhaps from a failed inspection?).

Well, yesterday I noticed I now have a ~15"-long crack - 10" in one direction from the chip and 5" in the other direction. So that is that. I have until the end of August to replace it because that is when my inspection expires.

I never worried about this before, but with all the sensors and things that work off the glass (HUD, rain, etc), I wonder how that gets handled. Will they use OEM? Is there an aftermarket that will work well with all those systems?

A quick search yields a lot of paranoid people insisting on OEM (there are always those), and claiming quotes from dealers of up to $1,800, the need for special kits, etc.

I just changed insurance last fall from Liberty Mutual (had them since college) to Progressive. I called them and I have a $100 deductible but they claim there is no maximum. I recall many years ago Liberty Mutual claiming they had a $500 maximum.

We'll see. In the meantime, I'm also a bit bummed out because I have my souvenir Swiss and Austrian vignettes that I imagine will be nearly impossible to rescue without getting destroyed.

There was an article somewhere about this, noting that the profusion of sensors made it harder to replace window glass, because the thickness and refraction of the glass was incredibly important.

I've had progressive for years and have replaced at least one windshield through them, and I don't recall there being any upper limit.

Good to know.

I just had the windshield replaced on the RX-8 (tornado damage - a tree fell on the car). I talked with the glass guy at length. He has been doing auto glass for 20 years. He said that newer BMW, Mercedes and Lexus are the worst to do windshields on. Lots of electrical connections, very expensive glass that is hard to install, trim that is hard to install. Sensors, heating elements, antennas. It took him 30 minutes start to finish to do the RX-8. He said he spent three hours on a BMW the day before.

:ack:

I know the new windshield in my Miata was a breeze. Total cost was $180. Zero for me, but that was the charge to the insurance.

I've never had insurance that offered free windshield replacement. It seems I am the only person on the planet who does not have this coverage.

Either way the RX-8 only has insurance against theft, and accident / theft / loss while at events or traveling to events so this was always going to be out of pocket. It wasn't expensive. Fixing the roof and hood is going to be another matter.

Wait, they got damaged too? Arg. How bad is it?

Uh, what he said.

And SM. Does it really need fixing beyond what you can do yourself with a hammer and dolly?

Thankfully, no injury to the Big Wang.

The roof is pretty bad. The hood isn't great but not horrible. It makes me sad because the car was pretty clean when I got it.

It may be PDR-able. Just not sure I want to spend the money on that right now. It does not affect performance of the car so it'll probably stay damaged for a while.

That sucks!

As for the no deductible thing, I am certain it was a long-standing Massachusetts law that all cars have zero-deductible windshield coverage. MA has always been weird about car insurance. A few years ago there were many changes, which allowed many other car companies to offer insurance. Geico, Progressive, etc, were not available in MA for a long time (Mass told them what to charge so only a few companies did business). Maybe when they relaxed the windshield coverage policies somewhat so that now there is a $100 deductible. I'm guessing, though.

EDIT: Here is a reasonably good explanation.

https://www.carinsurance.com/windshi...achusetts.aspx

Sounds like that's pretty high on the list of Team WTF?! moments. Should I get Mike to make some decals?

Man, that really sucks. Sorry to hear. Those storms last week were wicked in south east PA too. Any damage to other parts of your property? Any chance homeowners could cover it?

I have $0 deductible windshield replacement and if I remember right (and I'm not sure I do), I got it right after I bought a car and was adding it to my policy. It might have been the Armada, which would be 2006. The agent said, "I see you don't have $0 deductible windshield replacement. Would you like to add it to your policy? There's no additional cost and it does not prevent or reduce any discounts. Claims made on it will not affect your future rates or reduce and future discounts." And I added it.

:dunno:

That's great. I know I always had zero deductible until Progressive. But I can deal with $100. This will be the 3rd windshield in 20 years for me (us).

Several times I had to do a windshield (and one time door glass), they were always out of comprehensive and I had to pay the deductible. I've never been offered "free" glass coverage, wouldn't that be nice? Generally depending on the cost and our deductible, we sometimes go out of pocket, the GTI wasn't too expensive even with OEM parts and the rain sensor (just a plug-in version of the glass).

We have our auto insurance deductibles set very high. I've always viewed insurance as something that is there for major events that would be financially painful to address out of pocket.

I don't even have comprehensive or collision coverage on the Mazdaspeed, which is what I drive every day. That car is worth maybe $5k.

After my windshield and other (long time ago) break-in experiences, I've set comprehensive to $250 and collision to $1000 on all cars. It was only a few dollars to lower the comp deductible from 500 or 1000 and the difference really helps in this windscreen scenario where it costs you $250 no matter how expensive.

Knowing my glass deductible was always zero (or now $100), I've always had $500 for comprehensive and $1000 for collision.

That's how I've had my insurance for as long as I can remember, $0/500/1000.

Ditto

NJ doesn't have a glass deductible, it's part of comp.

We carry separate glass coverage (no deductible), Used it 6-7 times in AZ over the years on 5-6 cars — just too many small stones that get thrown on the highway that chips are inevitable, and bigger cracks eventually. The worst was in the first Tesla, I had a few chips then got a huge one, so I replaced the windshield. Just a few weeks later I got chip in the new one, fortunately not huge and not in my line of sight as a driver. I eventually had that windshield replaced a second time. Only two uses of the coverage was a fill, not a replace...

Update: All better now. Had dropped off the car last weekend and the Safelite guy said that he felt it was wrong to install an non-OEM glass (that is what had been ordered) on such a new car and that they would fight to have Progressive pay for an OEM glass.

They put in a brand new BMW windshield today. All is well. Just paid the $100 deductible.

Great outcome. As I was reading this, my spouse called to say she got a rock chip in the X5 windshield. Sigh.

Bummer.

Glad it worked out.

I'm still trying to figure out whether a windshield claim impacts your premiums moving forward. When I cracked the E46 windshield 2 years ago I paid out of pocket. It was only a couple hundred bucks and having the rates on 4 cars go up was too risky to file a claim.

I hate car insurance companies. I've been paying car insurance for 25 years, never filed a claim, and my rates just keep going up. The law requires me to pay for every other idiot's accident for all these years, and to pay for the insurance company executives to get rich.

/rant.

Agreed. I have been all about covering out-of-pocket small issues, so I don't get screwed longterm on coverage premiums.

Idk. My feeling is that I kind of don’t understand how car insurance companies make money. I’ve made a total of...$40K in claims? And yet my premiums are seemingly unaffected.

Thanks rumatt for subsidizing my insurance! And kids.

:lol:

I think you know i’m an insurance broker so here is my 2 cents. A glass claim is not going to get you non renewed but put in enough claims and they will count it against you. So in other words if you put in a glass claim and then another claim occurs when it comes time to renew they might tell you that you have 2 claims in the past x number of years and they do not want to renew.

Insurance is for big losses that really hurt your pocket so I think your smart paying out of pocket for the windshield.


It sounds like you are talking about a physical damage claim(s) and believe me that is not where the huge cost comes in for insurance companies, the Liability coverage is where the big spending for insurance companies comes in.

Under the liability section there is the cost of medical bills, lawsuits, damage to all the property the at fault party caused, etc.
The legal costs alone to fight a lawsuit can get to be ridiculously high and we all know what a hospital bill can climb to.

We got nailed this month too but even worse then you ... 3 windshields got hit.

One in the A4, one in the 340 and one in the 540 plus the A4 and 340 needed a tire each from hitting potholes ... kids :ack:

It is a very expensive month ... yes I have full glass insurance but I’m not putting in 3 claims in a month so it looks like i’ll be paying for it :mad2:

Thanks AF. I wasn't even thinking about not being renewed. Yikes. I was thinking about a premium increase. Could that happen even after 1 claim?

Also, I assume this would be different for every insurance provider, right? And there's no way for me to know?

Lord.