Windscreens

[mat_the_cat]

Is it just my bad luck, or is it normal to need a windscreen every year or so? We've lived here for 9 years and in that time have needed 9 screens replaced - 3 on the van (although it does less miles it's very upright and close to the front) and as of today, the one on the Kangoo needs doing after a huge rock flew up. I do about 25k miles a year, I don't tailgate and all bar one of the incidents was done to vehicles coming the other way.

 

Just wondered if this is typical?!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I've been driving for 20 years and never broken one while out driving!!! Bizarre innit.

[vulgalour]

You need to get some riot shields or something.  A windscreen a year sounds pretty financially painful.

[mat_the_cat]

 A windscreen a year sounds pretty financially painful.

 

Tell me about it! The last one, on the (departed) Focus I did through insurance though, as it struck me it might be a wise idea to go fully comp...

 

The really gutting thing is that on both the Focus and the Disco before it, both were chipped again after replacement on the very first drive. But fortunately not enough to create a crack, although enough to make me swear.

[Micrashed]

Ive had one windscreen in 27 years driving.

 

And that was entirely my fault trying to remove a mirror I had glued in the wrong place.

[dollywobbler]

Not typical. I've only had one windscreen replaced due to serious stone chips, and one repaired. Granted that repair was mere weeks after I'd had a screen replaced on that car! 2CV picked up a small chip in Wales the day after it was fully restored with a new screen. Not had another in seven years.

[spike60]

In 35 years I had one screen fitted, that was one I cracked fitting an A pillar trim on a Merc. About 10k miles a year now, used to be more.

[danthecapriman]

All my cars have been fine, but my work Sprinter van, which is 4yrs old and done 35K has had 5 new windscreens now! One of them was fitted almost a week before a rock hit it and cracked it!

 

The last time it was changed, it was through a different company though and the fitter said the previous screen was fitted with too little bonding adhesive, and that's possibly why they kept breaking. Fortunately it's a lex fleet van so I don't have to pay!

[Pillock]

I had two in 18 months on the focus, plus two repairs (one of which was a bit too big to repair, but I fibbed a little about the size when I booked it in and he did it anyway). 54,000 miles.

[chaseracer]

Something of an occupational hazard here in the Mid Lands, given how UTTERLY SHIT the roads are.

 

Blingo's on its third screen, 205 has a nice chip - fortunately outside the fail area - and Domestic Management's year-old C3 has just had its panoramic (ie. most of the top of the car) screen replaced.  That was a buttock-clenching moment, I can tell you; yay for fully-comp insurance.

[Asimo]

I think you need to feel quite paranoid; in forty years I have had one screen due to road damage and one due to reverse parking with a long plank sticking out of the tailgate  .

 

Are windscreens thinner than before perhaps?

As the style of cars has changed, the windscreens have got bigger (but the cars are harder to see out of).

Are "replacement" windscreens as thick as originals?

[twosmoke300]

our old audi 80 was a stone magnet for some reason

[chaseracer]

As the style of cars has changed, the windscreens have got bigger (but the cars are harder to see out of)

 

True.  The distaff C3 has outstanding visibility directly upward; not so great beyond about 30deg from the straight-ahead.

[greengartside]

I've had two go in the space of a month. Not impressed!

[xtriple]

I bought my Merc SL500 and two days later, proudly posing around a lorry came the other way and chucked up a load of gravel/pebbles - the front of the car looked like it had been blasted! Stone chips on the bonnet and three big chips in the 'screen, I was gutted but I suppose serves me right for being a poseur!

 

Autoglass (yes really) were who my insurer used and the guy came out and did the job superbly, apparently, they are not the easiest thing in the world but he'd been sent out to do it as he'd had to do one the previous week. That, so far, is the only car screen I've had in all the years of driving.

 

But...

 

I borrowed one of the works vans (a Mazda 200 petrol van - great fun in the wet!) to get a load of timber to build decking, had it cut to length, laid it across the top of the passenger seats and when I shut the tailgate it went straight through the screen! I was not a popular chappie!

[brickwall]

Only ever one windscreen. Coming up the M74 on a friday evening and a rock got flipped up and came through and embedded itself in the rear seat gaps. mAde a 10p sized hole.

[Stanky]

I've had several done in my years of motoring, like you I (like to think I) don't tailgate, but have been peppered by gravel from oncoming traffic, had things drop out of trees onto me and had things fall off lorries ahead of me, all of which damage my screen. Up til now I've just sucked it up, though both the Nissan and Kia have chips now.

 

The nissan screen is original, though its age is starting to show, with myriad filled chips and scrapes across the glass from someone having fitted what I can only presume were diamond-edged wiper blades at some point in the past. I might treat it to a new screen if it passes its next MOT at the end of the year, but I'm damned if I'm paying another £75 excess when there is a very good chance it will be condemned at the next test.

 

I did mention to the chip repair herbert that the screen was looking peaky the last time I had them gluing up the chips and he said to hold out as long as possible because pattern replacements were never as good as OEM screens, and the change of getting hold of a brand new Nissan screen for a 1996 almera was somewhat remote.

 

A guy at a company I used to work for had a JDM Honda Integra, when that needed a new screen it cost him £475 as he didn't have glass cover, or it was excluded from the policy or something. That must have hurt!

[Richard]

For a laugh I phoned Autoglass about my 940 screen. They wanted nearly £600, which they brought down to about £350 with various 'it's your lucky day' discounts and promotions.

 

I phoned a local guy who quoted £160 and confirmed that it would be the same screen as it was the only kind available.

[Spiny Norman]

I've had one screen in 30 years driving, and that was only because I fell for the Autoglass scam where they tell you they'll fix a chip for free before it becomes a OMGCRACKEDSCREENLITTENSWILLDIE nightmare.
I had a chip, they came out and broke the screen so they could fit a new one at my insurer's expense....

 

9 screens is pretty ridiculous I'd say, where do you live?

[mat_the_cat]

North Wales. Glad to hear that it doesn't seem the norm, which means my luck should change soon! Prior to moving up here most of my mileage was motorway stuff, and did over 150k miles in 7 years with no screens needed. Now, it's mainly fast A roads although I drive like a nun with a cargo of injured kittens if they've just 'resurfaced' the road with chippings. Consequently I've never had one go *there*, just when I least expect it...

 

Really hoping the Stellar doesn't get hit, as although I do have windscreen cover, there are no more screens left.

[Six-cylinder]

Yesterday I had the windscreen changed on my wife's 1999 Volvo V70, a couple of stone chips needed sorting but my wife insisted it was replaced because it was generally scratched and caused her a problem with night driving. It turns out it was the original screen with no rust under the glass. I guess after 190,000 miles it was fair it needed to be replaced.

[overrun]

One screen fitted in 12 years of driving and I do a lot of miles.

 

It was replaced on my current Mondeo - which I bought, cracked.

 

Sounds like you are pretty unlucky, Mat!