Cracked Windshield Club

[guarnibl]

By far and away the JL windshields are the most fragile. I have owned a TJ, JK, JLR and soon to be another JLR. Drove the TJ for over 200K miles on the original windshield. No issues with the JK glass either. had 3 of them for JLR in less than 2 years.

I have owned a lot of very low sports cars also and very-very few windshields.

It sucks to know the Gorilla is not much better. Especially when it cost a more money as a option. Additional insult to injury is it will most certainly cost more to replace when it does break so we will get taxed twice.

Depends on the warranty applying or not as far as cost being worthwhile. I didn't buy it because I thought it would be stronger, I thought I might be able to use the warranty. However, it's loosely worded, and we'll see if they actually replace it when I crack mine.

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[RoadiJeff]

If any of you have front dash cameras and the vehicle in front of you flung something up that cracked your windshield, be sure and get the license number. I was told by my agent that they are responsible for whatever it costs to fix or replace your windshield. You just have to prove that they did it and a video of the incident would be all that's needed.

 

[guarnibl]

If any of you have front dash cameras and the vehicle in front of you flung something up that cracked your windshield, be sure and get the license number. I was told by my agent that they are responsible for whatever it costs to fix or replace your windshield. You just have to prove that they did it and a video of the incident would be all that's needed.

I don't know how they would enforce that.

 

[roaniecowpony]

By far and away the JL windshields are the most fragile. I have owned a TJ, JK, JLR and soon to be another JLR. Drove the TJ for over 200K miles on the original windshield. No issues with the JK glass either. had 3 of them for JLR in less than 2 years.

I have owned a lot of very low sports cars also and very-very few windshields.

It sucks to know the Gorilla is not much better. Especially when it cost a more money as a option. Additional insult to injury is it will most certainly cost more to replace when it does break so we will get taxed twice.

I went and looked at my el cheapo. It's a PGW (Pittsburg Glass Works, from what I can gather), marked "accoustic". It has an extra antenna in the top center that my JL doesn't use, but I have long forgotten about that. It was $179 installed at a time when $500 was common and rarely were aftermarket windshields found. It's taken some good hits. I don't know if it's different than a OEM in any way, but maybe.

 

[RoadiJeff]

I don't know how they would enforce that.

Why not? There would be proof right on the video that the vehicle caused the damage. All the owner has to do is provide the video to the police or their insurance and the rest is up to them.

 

[guarnibl]

Why not? There would be proof right on the video that the vehicle caused the damage. All the owner has to do is provide the video to the police or their insurance and the rest is up to them.

And what would insurance do? Police would laugh at you. And even if they didn’t just laugh it off — again, what would they do ? You say “the rest is up to them” - what is that exactly?

 

[RubiJR]

I had a TJ , JK, JLR and by far the JL glass is the most fragile.

I saw a really interesting documentary on the company (FUYAO)that makes the Jeep glass. OSHA would have closed the factory when they saw how unprotected workers cleaned up tons of broken glass. Great documentary on the cultural differences between American and Chinese companies.

We can blame China or whoever the OEM is but the buck stops with FCA. FCA spec's the requirements for the glass company. FCA needs to audit QC. The same glass company, Fuyao, makes glass for over 60% of the automotive market. Customers include Porsche, Bentley, and other high end brands.

Corp culture is defiitely different. A good friend is a automotive engineer. He worked for the Freudenberg Group which is one of the largest seal companies in the world. They make seals for everything from automotive water pumps to seals for submarines and aerospace. His clients were the Big-3, Honda, Toyota, etc. Honda and Toyota would spec water pump seals to last twice as long as the Big-3. The cost difference was less than pennies. Honda and Toyota would visit and audit the QC at the factories several times per year after signing contracts. The Big-3 never showed up for any kind of QC audits.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9351980/

https://www.marketplace.org/2019/08/16/american-factory-netflix-documentary-ohio-fuyao/

It was a very interesting documentary

 

[RoadiJeff]

And what would insurance do? Police would laugh at you. And even if they didn’t just laugh it off — again, what would they do ? You say “the rest is up to them” - what is that exactly?

Oh, really? So, if someone leaned out of their passing car window, threw a rock against your Jeep which caused a dent and you had it all on video you think the police would just laugh it off? I don't think so.

 

[guarnibl]

Oh, really? So, if someone leaned out of their passing car window, threw a rock against your Jeep which caused a dent and you had it all on video you think the police would just laugh it off? I don't think so.

That’s not what you posted. Not even close.

 

[RoadiJeff]

That’s not what you posted. Not even close.

Go back and reread it. A vehicle that tosses a piece of debris against your windshield hard enough to damage it as you're driving along is responsible for any repairs to your vehicle. I can give you the phone number of my Allstate agent if you would like to call him tomorrow and verify it.

 

[guarnibl]

Go back and reread it. A vehicle that tosses a piece of debris against your windshield hard enough to damage it as you're driving along is responsible for any repairs to your vehicle. I can give you the phone number of my Allstate agent if you would like to call him tomorrow and verify it.

I did. What you posted before, and what you just posted a few moments ago are very different things.

The way I interpreted your posting was a vehicle kicking up debris on the road that damaged your vehicle. This is starkly different from someone throwing a rock at your vehicle. This is much worse, and assuming they're an adult, could likely be a criminal act.

So if I interpreted your posting correctly, which stated " the vehicle in front of you flung something up that cracked your windshield " -- i.e., a rock that it ran over, the person driving that vehicle that flung up said debris is NOT RESPONSIBLE.

Perhaps your agent was talking about something falling off a vehicle in front of you as opposed to flung up by the vehicle?

 

[RoadiJeff]

I did.

The way I interpreted your posting was a vehicle kicking up debris on the road that damaged your vehicle. This is starkly different from someone throwing a rock at your vehicle. This is much worse, and assuming they're an adult, could likely be a criminal act.

So if I interpreted your posting correctly, which stated " the vehicle in front of you flung something up that cracked your windshield " -- i.e., a rock that it ran over, the person driving that vehicle that flung up said debris is NOT RESPONSIBLE.

Perhaps your agent was talking about something falling off a vehicle in front of you? I.e., a ladder, etc?

I was talking about a vehicle ahead of the one you're in and theirs flinging something up and causing damage to your car.

I'll give you an example of what happened to me about 4 years ago. I was driving my Chrysler on the highway and an SUV in the same lane ahead of me ran over some piece of plywood, maybe about a 2x4 ft chunk. It had not come off the vehicle but when they ran over it the plywood went in the air and struck the front of my car, causing over $1,000 worth of damage.

I did not have a dash cam and I did not get their license number but when I described the story to my agent he said that the other vehicle could have been held liable for the damage to my car.

 

[guarnibl]

I was talking about a vehicle ahead of the one you're in and theirs flinging something up and causing damage to your car.

I'll give you an example of what happened to me about 4 years ago. I was driving my Chrysler on the highway and an SUV in the same lane ahead of me ran over some piece of plywood, maybe about a 2x4 ft chunk. It had not come off the vehicle but when they ran over it the plywood went in the air and struck the front of my car, causing over $1,000 worth of damage.

I did not have a dash cam and I did not get their license number but when I described the story to my agent he said that the other vehicle could have been held liable for the damage to my car.

You can certainly try to go after anyone (i.e., sue them) if you think they were negligent in causing damage to your car (probably tough if not impossible to prove in the scenario you described), but it would be an uphill battle that an insurance company wouldn't bother with unless it was insane circumstances.

That said, road debris is treated as comprehensive if it was flung up. Thus, no fault -- thus the entire concept of holding the other driver accountable is void.

 

[RoadiJeff]

You can certainly try to go after anyone (i.e., sue them) if you think they were negligent in causing damage to your car (probably tough to prove in the scenario you described), but it would be an uphill battle that an insurance company wouldn't bother with unless it was insane circumstances.

That said, road debris is treated as comprehensive if it was flung up. Thus, no fault -- thus the entire concept of holding the other driver accountable is void. So it would be outside of that claim situation.

There's always exceptions -- but that's the general rule of thumb. Perhaps your state is different, but I don't think so.

I remember the agent asked me if the plywood was in the air when it hit my car or if it was on the ground. I replied that it was obviously in the air because it would not have damaged the grill area of my car if it was laying on the ground. I then asked him if the car ahead of me could have been liable for the damage and he said yes. Since I did not get the license # and I did not have a recording of the incident as it happened I just had to pay my deductible and get it fixed.

 

[guarnibl]

I remember the agent asked me if the plywood was in the air when it hit my car or if it was on the ground. I replied that it was obviously in the air because it would not have damaged the grill area of my car if it was laying on the ground. I then asked him if the car ahead of me could have been liable for the damage and he said yes. Since I did not get the license # and I did not have a recording of the incident as it happened I just had to pay my deductible and get it fixed.

Yeah I think he was trying to figure out if it fell off the car (i.e., it was cargo) or not. Maybe he interpreted your response as cargo and thus he responded the way he did. I mean I have no idea. I just know that road debris is treated as comprehensive in the insurance industry which doesn't attach fault (and is listed as such on CLUE report), where as cargo may be treated differently depending on the situation.

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