I was behind a truck on the highway, pretty far behind and WAM...big chip just above the passenger wiper of my '04 MC....the starring is about the size of my thumbnail.

my insurance here in Massachusetts will cover it, but not sure what brand they will use...I called the dealer and I can pay in full for them to replace it with OEM glass and then get reimbursed in full (hopefully) by my ins company, or I can pay nothing up front and let my ins company put in what they want to.

question: lots of windshield threads out there, but anyone out there have thoughts on what brand of windshield is the best...choice of OEM, Safelite, PPG, other?

 

People here seem to swear by the PPG brand.

Question? How big is the chip?

In most cases the chip can be repaired, thus saving your original factory seal and glass.

Always consider repair over replacement whenever possible.

www.safelite.com

 

If it isnt cracked id try to repair it.

 

The local windshield repair place says they can fill most chips less than a quarter in size. I had a big star filled on mine (friggin kids using it as target practice ) even though it's on the driver's side. If it's passenger side, and you can deal with seeing the repair (they say they can make them disappear, mine definitely didn't), repair now and replace when you must.

 

i just got a huge nasty chip when a truck passed me and cut in front of me, it immediately had mini spidering out in 5 direction, non of those crack though have expanded.

as luck would have it though it seems i just got a stress crack that took advantage of the bitter cold on the opposite side of the windshield. it stemmed out from the bottom of the windshield under the chrome trim where there is no evidence of a rock hitting it to cause this crack.
anyone no if this is grounds for having the dealer replace it, cause that crack has nothing to do with rocks?

 

my chip is itself is small, you can barely feel it, but there are about 6 or 7 cracks is a star pattern about 3/4 inch in diameter...I would rather replace the windshield, esp as my insurance will cover in full. My thinking is I would rather have the dealer put in the glass since the dealer would be aware of all the issues of stress cracks out there (my car has been immune to stress cracks...so far)....

I am assuming that your local neighborhood windshield replacement company, even though this is all they do all day, they might not know the ins and outs of the MINI and it might not come out as nice looking as the dealer would do or might end up with a little stress which the MINI apparantly cannot deal with...does this make sense?.....although given the choice, I would have the dealer replace it with the PPG glass but they obviously only would use OEM

 

I personally wouldn't pay a dealer's ransom for glass. My wife's '05 MCS got a rock throw from a truck going in the other direction. The rock hit about 6 inches down from the roof line and about 6 inches to the left of the inside mirror. It left a star about the size of a quarter that was very annoying - we had a repair done on it since the insurance would cover it. The glass place told us that it would make 95% of the star disapper - boy was that optimistic! While it made the star look better, it was still visually annoying - I could have lived with it if the damage had been done on the passenger half of the windshield. I had the glass replaced by an authorized PPG glass installer and was very pleased with the results. The cost was just under $350 (including the NJ 6% sales tax at the time). A good glass place can do a proper install on a MINI so don't feel that you have to go to the dealer for this.

 

FWIW, I believe most dealers outsource windshield replacement, like they do body work. You might want to ask your SA if a MINI tech does the replacement or they use a contractor (and if your SA is friendly, ask who they use, so you can go there!)

 

I second the response above. I asked my dealer who they use and the dealer advised me to go directly to the glass company. They did a great job too.