quote:

Originally posted by Kept Bum:
My insurance co provides complete glass coverage, for about 10 bucks a year, and will replace any glass at their expense in full. Check it out, I know this will not help you now, but it works well I've had 3 windshields done, no charge

Well he should definitely ask. I don’t pay a thing for windshields and it’s not a separate coverage. State Farm (at least in Maryland) covers it under their standard auto policy.

Also, Glass USA / Glass America is FAR better than Safelite in terms of quality.

-Rob

quote:

Originally posted by Kept Bum:
My insurance co provides complete glass coverage, for about 10 bucks a year, and will replace any glass at their expense in full. Check it out, I know this will not help you now, but it works well I've had 3 windshields done, no charge

Unfortunately, that's not available in all states without paying your normal deductible.

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:

Also, Glass USA / Glass America is FAR better than Safelite in terms of quality.

-Rob

We have a local company we use instead of Safelite. Better service and at least equal quality, but way cheaper. Safelite wanted close to $600 for my wife's Tahoe, where Summit Glass quoted nearly $200 less.

You guys are lucky..

We had to replace the windshield on my Porsche GT3 two years ago as the factory glass is very soft and had picked up a bunch of minute chips making night driving nearly impossible.

Safelight said they could replace it with OEM glass for $600 and I said go for it. The guy comes to my office, fumbles around for about half an hour (doesn’t touch anything on the car) and then leaves without a word. I call only to find out that they can’t replace it.WTF!

Call my local Porsche mechanic and he said that they could get the correct glass and it would be $1000 to replace it…I didn’t have any other options so I bit the bullet..

In FL windshield replacement is mandated to a zero deductible so your insurance has to cover it 100%. It's a good program, I've had a couple replaced, the windshield on my F150 HD edition is a special unit, close to $700, if you can find one, just had it done, el zundo out of pocket.

Pays to check your state insurance laws.

Just one piece of advice, based on several replaced windshields, pay the extra dollars for OEM rather than Brand X. It’ll last longer and be much more chip/crack resistant.

I spent just under $500.00 to replace the windshield in my 2012 VW Golf which is just a basic windshield.

That is a great price.

Seems reasonable. Although insurance just paid to have our 2020 Subaru Forester to get repaired, our deductible was $250. With no insurance the cost depending on where it was repaired was $850-$1100.

Just my brief Safelite story:

A few years ago I got a chip on my windshield. Not a big one, but I wanted to get it fixed befoe it got too big to fix.

Called Safelite, got a date/time they'd arrive. The morning they were going to show up, I went outside, looked at the chips, still around 1/4" in diameter.

Walked into the house, shut the door and heard a vehicle stop in front of my house. Watched the Safelite guy walk over to my truck, which was in an area I couldn't see. Then he walked to my door and rang the bell.

Said he couldn't fix it because it was too big. I said no way and went out to look. It was now over a foot long.

It was pretty obvious he went to the truck and smacked the window hard enough to cause the crack to spread all over the place. Then he gave me a quote for a new windshield.

I guess their technician people are commissioned salespeople also.

I no longer do business with them.

^^^^^ Maybe. Or maybe not.

I had a chip recently. Very small.

Parked it in the garage and the next morning it had spread about 18 inches.

When I inquired I was told it was a Stress Crack which started out from the rock chip.

Fit Schappens.
.

^^^^ I've had a chip turn into a giant crack sitting outside with nothing more than a change in temperature.

Why would a Safelite tech give a shit whether he just does a simple repair or whether his employer gets more money for a complete windshield? Seems very unlikely.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
^^^^^ Maybe. Or maybe not.

I had a chip recently. Very small.

Parked it in the garage and the next morning it had spread about 18 inches.

When I inquired I was told it was a Stress Crack which started out from the rock chip.

Fit Schappens.
.

But the difference between when I looked at it and when he looked at it was around 1 minute. It was moderate weather outside and the vehicle hadn't been moved in over 24 hours.

I'm positive he smacked it and only wish my outside camera had been facing that way.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
^^^^ I've had a chip turn into a giant crack sitting outside with nothing more than a change in temperature.

Why would a Safelite tech give a shit whether he just does a simple repair or whether his employer gets more money for a complete windshield? Seems very unlikely.

Because around here technicians are also commissioned salespeople. That's true of A/C, garage door openers, appliances and everything else. There's something in it for them to upsell.

Another case in point: Around 7 years ago an AC tech giving me my annual checkup told me that I had fan that was going to come apart at any minute and I shouldn't run the A/C because of that. Oh, and without going out to the truck, he knew he had a new out out there, quoted me a price and told me that he was currently in First Place in sales among the technicians working for that company.

He obviously wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. I ignored his advise and 6 years later when I had the entire AC replaced I asked the installers how the old fan was. They said it was in good shape, no problems.

It doesn't take much or long for a ding to crack. It's possible it happened while he was starting to fix it, or it just happened to happen right at that time.



Back to the original question, around $300 is the average for a windshield.

The rule of thumb with vehicle glass is, the smaller the glass the more expensive the glass is. So if you ever need to break a window use one of the bigger side windows, don't break the small vent window thinking it'll be cheaper. The big side windows might only be $300-500 whereas the little vent windows can be as high as $2k or more.

Exactly what I recently paid to replace the windshield on an '11 Lexus RX350.