...hit my windscreen this morning.



I didn't see it coming. I had no inkling. I was motoring along this morning, on my way to work, when all of a sudden WHAM!!!!!

Whatever it was was large enough and travelling at a high enough rate of speed that it blew through my windscreen! Not a hole, per se, but my dash is littered with little chunks of safety glass where the interior of the glass (about the circumference of a silver dollar) blew inward. It's at the very bottom of the windscreen, where the black shading is--or, in this case, was. It just missed my stationary windshield wiper.

Argh! There's another windscreen!

I cannot for the lfe of me figure out what on earth it was--I never saw anything, and usually, you know, when something that big is flying at you you have just enough time to cringe as you watch it hurtling through the air toward your glass. Of course, of all the giant debris that's made me cringe nothing has ever actually blown through my windscreen. That's a first. I was just clearing an overpass (which has been heavily fortified with netting, and even a platform beneath it, to prevent damage as it continues to fall apart) so I suppose that was the culprit...

Weirdness.

I'm almost distrssingly sound of mind considering I get to replace another windscreen this Saturday...

_________________

 

There haven't been any highway shootings in your area, have there?

 

How many windshields have you had?

My recommendation is PPG for windshield replacement.

 

Wow, that really sucks!!! I wonder if it would be any use complaining to the town or the state or whoever's responsible for the overpass, to try to recoup your expenses. Surely you must be emboldened after your successful thwarting of the parking ticket!

 

meteorite!

 

I too suggest the aftermarket PPG glass. It is actually thicker than the MINI OEM crummy version, and you get the satisfaction of not giving MINI any more money for their poor quality windshield design.

 

BTW, if you've had your windshield replaced a lot, you may want to try to get them to replace your A-pillar trim as well this time. Those plastic clips fatigue over time (from being removed/replaced with each installation), and eventually the trim will fly off the car - it took 5 windshields before it happened to me, but both original A-pillar trim pieces have flown off my MINI.

 

Chow!

Donna

 

It was PPG glass--well, it still is, it's just that some of it has migrated to the inside of my car... Or crappy windscreen karma, for that matter.

There haven't been any shootings that I'm aware of, but that was my first though as I have NEVER seen a rock bust on through a windshield like that! In hindsight, however, I do think it was some alarmingly large piece of debris from that overpass--though I'm not sure how it got through netting and past the platform.

I plan on writing a perfectly scathing letter (once I find out to whom it should be addressed), though I'm not entirely sure that anyone at PennDOT will care, seeing as how I have no proof.

 

Could it not have been someone throwing something off of the overpass? This has become enormously popular with kids now. A few people have been killed.

 

This was my first thought too.

A friend of mine knew a woman that was killed when somebody threw a bag of frozen newspapers off of an overpass onto a highway. It went right through the windshield and into her chest.

Anyway, whatever the culprit, my condolences, Toast.

 

You think the dealer might think it’s a stress crack?

 

As absurd as it might seem to many of us, there is a growing market for armored luxury cars. The forces that drive this are real. Knowing that the gap between rich and poor is growing and that shooting at cars and dropping rocks on them from overpasses is not going to subside, people with the means are willing to spend an extra $100K for some reassurance. Eventually, cars like the MINI will become completely impractical since anyone with a job to which it's worth driving will need protection. We should enjoy our cars while we can.

 

^ Thanks MCS for that cheery bit of social forecasting

(Sorry about the windscreen, Toast. Stay away from that bridge, and enjoy the clear view through the new glass)

 

Well, we are in this topic because OmToast's winshield got hit, though we don't know why it was hit. However, it's a fact that there is a budding market for armored luxury vehicles, and it's also a fact that, taken altogether, random shootings at cars and the throwing of junk off of overpasses has generally increased, not decreased. These facts aren't indicative of some misplaced paranoia; they're just the way things are. That being said, I'm sure it will be many more years of the average schmo playing the odds before armored vehicles start to seem necessary for general safety to the point that that concern trumps driving enjoyment.

Good luck with your outlets.

 

>>As absurd as it might seem to many of us, there is a growing market for armored luxury cars. The forces that drive this are real. Knowing that the gap between rich and poor is growing and that shooting at cars and dropping rocks on them from overpasses is not going to subside, people with the means are willing to spend an extra $100K for some reassurance. Eventually, cars like the MINI will become completely impractical since anyone with a job to which it's worth driving will need protection. We should enjoy our cars while we can.

Armored cars??
Well I guess I need something to carry my flamethrower.

 

>>Armored cars??

 

yeah, but make sure you keep fresh napalm, once that stuff goes stale, geez it stinks.

 

>>Eventually, cars like the MINI will become completely impractical since anyone with a job to which it's worth driving will need protection. We should enjoy our cars while we can.

Driving should still be safe in the West since all of those jobs will be in China anyhow.

 

Or India.

 

Geeeezzz toastie...that blows. Thank heaven you weren't hurt. My guess is that it was just random junk, as Pgh. streets start to crumble right about now. Good luck with that letter to PennDOT....my guess is, they'll just round file it, the bastids.

 

bright side: at least it didn't put that same hole in your hood.

 

^^ Yes!!! Oh cripes... then I'd definitely be hysterical.... although.... I do have a wicked gash on the bonnet and a hole there would necessitate a hood repaint that I cannot otherwise justify.... (if you're there, god, I'm just kidding)


I was also contemplating the "it's a stress crack" route as, when I had an ACTUAL stress crack they refused to admit it. Now that there's a hole with a bit of rock stuck in it, perhaps they'd see it as a stress crack...

Could have been a jagoff kid on the overpass. Good thing that I didn't see him cause then we'd be referring to him in the past tense. I have three rivers to choose from for "disposal" purposes

KT... I would trade the condition of these stinkin' roads for a little beltway traffic right now. And that's not something I ever thought I'd say!