Just tried esure for a quote. Two accident claims mean no quote. One accident claim and one windscreen delivers a quote about £150 LESS than I currently pay Direct Line.
So I guess have answered my own question!
ie NO IMPACT (no pun intended)
clariman
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Be carefull with whom you use to change your windscreens. A brick on the M25 hit mine whilst I was doing about 85mph so I took it to the local M.B. dealer who showed me the effect of having an independent trying to fit a windscreen to a new E-Class identical to mine.
The results were not pretty.
The roof lining was damaged, the metal frame work underneath the glass was all damaged which apparently would have rusted over time and the windscreen was not one that mercedes approve.
I got the dealer to fit mine and it was all fine but it just shows you that the window fitters really don\'t give a monkeys.
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Funny you should write this as only last week I watched a major brand windscreen company replacing a Mercedes windscreen in our office car park. I remember when bonded windscreens had to be cured at the right temperature indoors. Here was a fitter bonding in the screen outside. It was interesting to watch him attacking the old screen with a metal chisel about 6 inches wide (the sort I would cut bricks with) inserted down between the dashboard vents and the screen and smacked with a hammer then levered hard to break the bond between the glass and frame. It must have damaged the soft trim. How can bonded windscreens be replaced without taking off the paint and causing rust?
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Update
Autoglass just phoned. The windscreen they sourced was cracked so they will come tomorrow instead.
Disappointing, but they did at least tell me now instead of me waiting till 5pm and nobody showing up. Very efficient.
I wonder if these windscreens seem to break on little impact, since the stone chip I heard hit the screen wasn't that loud.
Are some manufacturer's windscreens much weaker than others or are they pretty much the same?
c
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I took my old Mercedes 190E to one of the well know chains to get the windscreen replaced under my insurance following a stone chip. They assured me it would be an MB screen. When I got the car back the new glass was made by a brand I had never heard of. Tint matched though. If I'd had to pay the c£350 to buy it myself I wouldn't have been too happy.
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C,
Sometimes its not a matter of the windscreen being weaker, its a matter of how much stress is placed on it by the car.
All modern cars have the windscreen bonded in place. The windscreen becomes an integral part of the cars structure. Ie its part of the shell, and provides rigidity. Some cars rely more on the windscreen than others, a small stone chip becomes a focus point of enormous strain and weakness, hence a crack.
So not the screen, the car.
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I should add that I have one of those tamperproof tax disc wotsits whereby the tax disc is sealed and attached by sticky-stuff to the windscreen.
Can autoglass remove this without ruining my tax disc so the tax disc goes on the new windscreen?
c
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C
Autoglass came to my home on a Sunday last winter to replace a screen. When they arrived it was the wrong one - which they only found out after removing the old one and trying to bond the new one. So they phoned around, located a depot with the right screen and sent someone to fetch it while the original fitter removed the replacement screen. Evidently my year's Grand Cherokee has two possibilities and they guessed at the wrong one.
All in all, a five hour job which should have taken just over one hour!
So I'd say apart from the original confusion I got pretty good service from them too.
There seems little that they can't remove from the windscreen to put onto the new one. In fact, if you're squeamish don't watch them doing the swap - the amount of stuff they have to strip off the car is frightening!
Terry
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I vote for Autoglass service as well. Got the drivers side window smashed by a druggie in Amsterdam, phoned autoglass in Amsterdam, they didnt have a side glass in stock, so they cut an instant perspex one on a computer machine, glued it in, emailed autoglass in Kingston, so when i got home, they phoned two days later when the glass had arrived in stock. The fitter even took the electric windows switch out to get the bits of broken glass in it that had jammed it up. They made the whole episode as painless as possible. Service in my book.
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Nobody has commented on this yet:
I should add that I have one of those tamperproof tax disc wotsits whereby the tax disc is sealed and attached by sticky-stuff to the windscreen. Can autoglass remove this without ruining my tax disc so the tax disc goes on the new windscreen? c
c
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