I can't think of another car with such an outstanding problem with the windshield like this. The point is that the windshields have an inherant problem causing them to fracture with little, or no, impact and that there are instances where they can't show one way or other was the cause but try by digging a pen in a bunch of times and telling you to go to your insurance company. Many of the cracks are even similar car to car (starting near the frame, often under the wipers) and IMHO asking the customer and insurance company to pay knowing this is a problem is not right - especially when the impact is unclear and the windshield is so new.

Just because a Pinto required a car to hit it before it exploded doesn't mean it did not have a built in problem to begin with

 

very good point

 

I'm not debating the fact that there is and always has been a problem with the stress cracks... And that MINI should stop screwing around and needs to own up to the problem.

But let's also be realistic here, it's not fair to expect a warranty to cover an act of god... And that's what a rock strike is.

How do you prevent an object striking a piece of glass from not provoking the crack? What hit your windshield? At what speed? At what angle? Was it a flat spot or an edge that hit your windshield? There's no way to prove what hit your windshield or how it hit your windshield, so there's no way to prove that your damage is related to the known problems with the windshield or if you're just an unlucky sod who got hit with a golden rock...

What are you psychic? Hey what are the winning Virginia Pick 6 numbers while you're at it?

Just because others have had issues with the stress cracks doesn't mean you will, that's the other oddball thing about the windshield problem... See I've been following it since if first cropped up here just like YuccaPatrol, DiD and many others who've been here for a while. While Yucca and DiD were plagued with bad windshields more than 2 years ago my 2003 Cooper with 31k miles on it has been crack free. Yet I know other owners who have 2003 Coopers with the problem...

 

go read the summarys at the NTHSB site, it looks like many people besides me have been having problems with soft, weak windshields, and i'll be damned if i ever go back to classic BMW for parts.



btw......


3 - 10 - 24 - 18 - 26 - 1

 

Don't need to, like I said I've been here a while and seen the posts. (hint do a search)

 

True, but the number of complaints to NHTSA obviously hasn't been enough to spur them into taking some action here, so maybe somebody else gets involved.

Maybe the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (you know the guys who back cars into poles to see how much damage they cause, the guys who do offset crashes and other tests that the Feds don't do) needs to get involved here. Maybe the claims need to start going to the insurance companies, and when they get pissed at paying claims that they shouldn't be, they'll get their legions of well payed lawyers to have a discussion with BMW's army of well payed lawyers and maybe then the problem will get fixed.

While I've been lucky with my '03, I don't know how my soon to be delivered '05 will do. Should it be crack prone and MINI denies the claim, you better believe I'm going to bring it to my insurance company. And I'm going to do it every time it happens, and I'm going to make sure that they know that the problem is related to a manufacturing defect that BMW refuses to own up to...

One of the reasons I pay for insurance is to support that legion of well payed lawyers of theirs, maybe I can spur them into using them...

 

I already have two chips in the windshield of my 05 MCSC. They have been there for a few months and have yet to turn into cracks. Just waiting to get through winter before replacing them.

 

well, it has been brought to the attention of the fine lawyers of Yert Insurance (SAFECO) in Euclid, OH. i think i'm gonna pay for this one (windshield is only 40 over my 250 deductable) but ive told Yert about it and hopefully they can pull some strings and make a few calls here, they usually dont take crap from nobody! its nice to have people like that on my side sometimes!

hopefully, mbabischkin, your 05 wont be plauged with this BS like ours have been.

 

Doh! at 16,500 miles I noticed a glimmer in my windshield this morning which upon parking at my office building garage looks like a stress-fracture forming.

6" horizontal hairline crack which is in the glass, not on the surface. So clearly was not caused by an impact.

Wish me luck as I've heard horror stories with MINI of Sterling arguing over repairs; at least one fellow DCMM member has paid his $500 insurance deductible to get his replaced. I hope I won't have to do the same, I know this was not due to a projectile.

 

do as was suggested earlier in this thread and put some clear tape over the crack to eliminate the possibility of a stone hitting in this area and giving the dreaded pen tester a reason to deny your claim.

 

starting to get a lot of chips on the windshield. I noticed one today and I'm about 80% sure its in the exact same location I had my last chip fixed.

Howard

 

*natural blonde twists hair in confusion...*

pen test?

 

If you have a cracked windshield and take it to a dealer,they will run a ball point pen in the crack,if the pen gets hung up some where along the crack,they will say that the place the pen got hung up is from a rock or something,and is not a warrenty issue.
We own one of the most sophisticated cars on the planet.Runs on computers,drives by wire,and is full of sensors,yet instead of admitting there is a problem,they rely on a .79 cent pen to determine if you have a stress crack or not
Being blonde has nothing to do with it,we are all confused by this
I am confused by why being blonde has anything to do with it:smile:

 

well, i got effed over today. had my new PPG window put in my a guy who said he had never done any work on a mini before, nor had his company. he broke both a pillar covers and after he left, i instected the job only to find he put on the lower windshield moulding clups on backwards, the whole moulding just popped right off!!! gonna be free now, the company is paying to repair eveything and giving me a discount on the windshield.


BEWARE!!! IF YOU DONT GET A BMW/MINI WINDSHIELD, MAKE SURE YOUR PPG DEALER HAS WORKED ON A MINI BEFORE!!!!!!

 

I thought I'd try a new tact, so this morning I sent the following email to sekurit -Saint Gobain, the manufacturer of the now infamous MINI windscreen:



[size=2]To whom it may concern, I am the very disgruntled owner of a june , 2002 build Mini cooper S automobile that came with your windshield installed as original equipment.Since taking ownership of this otherwise delightfull car ,I have been through six windshields.I am a 57 year old man and in my lifetime I have owned close to 40 cars.In all that time I have not had to have that many windshields installed COMBINED .I am used to having sand blast damage and even the occassional pit that occurs from impact with small rocks, but I find that with your glass, any impact at all results in a stress crack which renders the glass unusable.Cracks don't always occur right away, but often take days or even weeks, but 4 of my windshields cracked with no evidence of impact,while the car was parked in my back yard.

I would like to know what your company's remedy will be for this situation going forward, and what kind of relief you can offer owners of MINIs with this problem glass.My next step is to start a campaign to relay this problem to the National Highway Transportation Safety Commission through the members of www.northamericanmotoring.com , a site devoted to owners of this car.currently there are over 16,000 registered users.I would encourage you to visit this site for reference to this problem using the "search" function using "windshields" as a key word.

Sincerely yours, Jonathan Holden

their email address is 'contactSekurit@Saint-Gobain.com'

if any one feels like it I would like to see a TON of emails sent to them and see if this goes anywhere. Peace Jock
[/size]

 

I’m with MINI USA. I’m sorry your service experience was not what you expected. We are here to work with you and your Dealer. If you need our assistance, please phone us at (866) ASK MINI or email us at MINI.Assistance@askMINIUSA.COM and mention Reference # 200508100029 so that we can help you more efficiently.

 

[Simultaneous laughter from hundreds of substandard windshield victims ensues]

 

hahaha what a joke

 

[QUOTE=MINIDivision]I’m with MINI USA. I’m sorry your service experience was not what you expected. We are here to work with you and your Dealer. If you need our assistance, please phone us at (866) ASK MINI or email us at MINI.Assistance@askMINIUSA.COM and mention Reference # 200508100029 so that we can help you more efficiently.[/QUOTE

what's really interesting is that this boilerplate response is actually different from the original response where they said they would be contacting ME soon.I guess someone thought better of the first response,eh? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.By the way, Sekurit never responded to my email either.

edit: here's the post that came via email to my computer:
***************
I'm with MINI USA. I've passed this message on to a MINI National Customer Relations Representative who will be in touch with you soon.
***************

 

I got the same thing, I'm guessing that it was posted before they realized that they don't know who you are, so they don't know who to contact.

Call 'em up, see what they have to say...

 

actually ,since i posted my email to securit earlier in thread which posted my full name , they know EXACTLY who I am.Should be interesting to see if I actually do get "contacted".I'll be sure to let you all know if I do.

 

Add me to the list of broken windshields. I was hit by a large stone on the highway last week, but the rock hit right in my line of sight. Yesterday, my husband got in the car and noticed a crack in the top center behind my rear view mirror. It has made a 90 degree turn and is headed toward my side of the car now. My dealer claims to only have replaced 2 windshields for the infamous stress crack under warranty, so I'm just going with PPG glass at my local glass shop. Thank god for no deductible!

 

Unfortunately CA, unlike some of the states in the union, do not cover windsheild replacements as a deductible free safety item by law. So, if CA owners want to replace it out-of-warranty they have to fork over xxx deductible or out-of-pocket.

There are a few things I'm curious about with MINIDivision's reply.

1) who is that comment reflected to... Me, the originator of the thread? or one of the numerous responses?

2) what really peeves me in regards to being denied by the local Mini dealership is that they didn't even put the car in their computer regarding the windshield crack. It's like they circumvented the check-in process to deny this warranty coverage off the books. This cracks me up since one of their excuses was that they've fixed this in 2005 models and it shouldn't be happening anymore. Well, how the heck are they going to get statistics of 2005 windshield issues if they aren't even entering them into their computer?!?!? Even if it was to be denied, I would want to have that entered into the computer in the event that it's proven later on that Mini still has windshield problems.

If anything I will call just to get this into the computer files that this Mini has had a windshield problem. As for fixing it, nothing Mini can do aside from saying "YOUR DEALER HAS BEEN NOTIFIED THAT THIS WILL BE COVERED UNDER WARRANTY" will convince me that they are going to take responsibility for this safety issue. Field reps have never gotten me ANYWHERE with BMW/Mini, they only exist to find excuses not to cover something and take responsibility. I've already filed my complaint with the NHTSA per the instructions in this thread, I hope others do the same.

:end rant:

p.s. Thank goodness for PPG.

 

I have a 03 MC,not a 05,but I took a rock hit this morning the size of the end of my little finger,going 70MPH,I saw it coming,I ducked.
It hit at about 10 O clock,just outside my straight down the road line of site.
One more chip to keep an eye onI have lots

 

Not sure about the mini's, but i had that same problem occur on my 02 GTI. Twice. I left it in my driveway on night, and in the morning had a single crack running from the center top about 10 inches down the center. Got it replaced, (at my expense), only tho have it happen like 3 months later. The second time from the bottom center up to the middle. I havent replaced it again since i have like 3 months left on the lease and now i have my 05 mcs to drive.


What causes this?!?!?!?

I was thinking that it is from the frame flexing under spirited driving. but while its parked?!?!?