Great experience getting my windshield replaced

[Klutch9]

Had the windshield replaced today on the Explorer. It’s been heavily cracked since last summer, but I’ve been so busy I didn’t feel like adding something else to my schedule. Finally got around to getting quotes this past Tuesday. Safelite wanted $485 to come to my house and do it. That didn’t seem bad honestly, since I seem to remember my old Sedona’s windshield costing nearly $400 back in 2013 (no camera or calibration needed).

Anyway, I found a local glass place right around the corner from me who quoted $300 to replace the windshield. The Explorer doesn’t have cameras or anything, so it’s a simple job, but still. I went to the place, and they immediately took the vehicle back and were done in an hour. I talked to the manager in the meantime, nice guy. Glass looks great and I couldn’t be happier, especially for the price.

The glass is Fuyao brand. Looks uniform. I guess they are the OE supplier to several brands, including some BMWs.

 

[bdcardinal]

The OE vendor for Ford glass, at least most of the time in this country, is Carlex (formally Carlite).

We use a local glass shop that if you looked at the shop, you would leave. Super nice people, very competent, very reasonably priced. I send tons of people to them because of how affordable they are.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Yes, Fuyao is a major OE supplier

 

[BHopkins]

A guy I go to church with owns a local auto glass shop, and he insists that Fuyao is the best choice for auto glass, and strongly recommended that I avoid windshields from most of the other sources. I was recently asking him about replacing the badly pitted windshield in my E350, and he said that Fuyao was the OE for my MB windshield. That gives me a lot of comfort, since although my windshield is pitted, it has been bulletproof, surviving some terrible rock hits, without a chip or crack.

Hopefully you will be happy with yours.

 

[The Critic]

Fuyao has been very good lately.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Not a bad price, nowadays... I bet it looks great while driving! No cracks, chips, etc.

 

[AZjeff]

I have a glass guy in the neighborhood, it's him and his 2 sons and they do exceptional work. Just had a windshield replaced last week. There are 4 or 5 tiers of windshield glass, just because it's the OEM supplier doesn't mean it's OEM quality. When you find a good glass guy stick with him.

 

[gman2304]

I Had the windshield on my little Ford Focus wagon replaced last summer. I went with a local glass company that has been in business since 1913. The 4th generation owner came into the customer lounge and greeted everyone, chatted a bit, and thanked us for doing business with his company. They did a great job and told me that if the windshield developed a crack within 6 months they would replace it free. I was in and out in 90 minutes and left feeling good about doing business with a local company that cares about its customers!

 

[SShooterZ]

Be happy you avoided Safelite. My experience with them was not good. First windshield ended up leaking water down the interior pillars. Second guy came out, said the first didn't do it right, ordered a new windshield, installed and then the exterior pillars flew off going down the highway. No bueno.

 

[JeffKeryk]

I recently replaced the windshield in our beloved 06 TSX with only 245K... This is actually the 3rd time; it caught a freeway rock twice in the 1st few years we had it. Last year, a small crack grew. Took it back to the same local place; same nice gal working. I forgot cash saves a bit over check/credit...

 

[Donald]

According to an auto body guy the unknown is if they scrape an areas while taking the old windshield out and don't treat the area properly you end up with rust and possibly leaks down the road.

We had Safelite repair a chip on my F250 and I could not tell you where it was, the repair is that good. Had a different Safelite (now in Delaware) repair a chip in the Crosstrek and the repair may have prevented the chip from spreading but very obvious where the repair is.

 

[50yr Street Mech]

Recently, watched a documentary on Fuyao. They purchased an old GM plant in Michigan awhile back. Combination of Chinese and American workers. CEO said the American workers complain too much, work too slow, and are too worried about safety. UAW tried to Unionize the plant. It was voted down by the employees. They make $12 bucks an hour. American employees got fired if they had a problem with a computer program. Toward the end of the documentary, Fuyao was bringing in more robots to do the work, and pink slipped American employees on the spot. Never saw a Chinese employee get canned in that documentary. It's on Netflix, if anybody wants to watch it.

 

[JMJNet]

Safelite replaced my Sienna. The person did a great job. Of course, I was watching since he did it in my driveway.
They equiped him with a lot of relatively high tech tools to remove the old windshield and install the new one.

Before that I have a local shop (before there was Safelite), they did a good job also.

IMO we just have to be mindful to do it when weather is relatively sunny during and a few days after for the glue to cure properly.

 

[nthach]

Fuyao or Pilkington are the only aftermarket glass I’d use. XYG/PGW and Benson… run.

Safelite banned long knives a while ago, they use a jig to remove glass the last few times I had to call them.

 

[nthach]

The OE vendor for Ford glass, at least most of the time in this country, is Carlex (formally Carlite).

I’ve seen Vitro/PGW OEM on Fords as well. Carlex was originally a JV between Ford(Carlite) and Central Glass of Japan. Central is a OE for Nissan and Subaru.

 

[Klutch9]

Safelite replaced my Sienna. The person did a great job. Of course, I was watching since he did it in my driveway.
They equiped him with a lot of relatively high tech tools to remove the old windshield and install the new one.

Before that I have a local shop (before there was Safelite), they did a good job also.

IMO we just have to be mindful to do it when weather is relatively sunny during and a few days after for the glue to cure properly.

Doesn’t need to be sunny or warm to cure.

 

[Huskyguy68]

I remember back in the early 2000's I was working in the auto glass trade.
One glass shop I worked at got caught by our Auto Insurer (This part of Canada we have a Provincial Auto insurance versus private insurance) for waiving the collection of deductibles. So my shop got penalized and could not submit glass claims for one year. Apparently, this was the third time they got caught in a certain time period. First time 3 month ban. Second time 6 month ban.
To make up for profit loss, my company I worked for (was a national chain across the country that rhymes with Weedy Grass) , head office decided to order crates of windshields from China.
Bad idea.
Every single one we installed in customer vehicles came back to remove and reinstall with a better brand. All the Chinese made windshields had visual distortion in them . When customers sat in their driver's seat, they could see some distortion looking out. some were very faint, others very obvious.
Eventually the auto insurance fiasco punishment was over, we went back to how it was before.
Same thing happened years earlier with the auto glass sealant, Urethane.
We were forced to use a new ''better'' urethane for the windshields.
Everybody/every shop was getting leaky comebacks. We were scolded for not doing a ''proper prep job'' and other reasons why so many new windshield installs were coming back leaking.
Eventually it was found out the new urethane glue was either junk/defective and was not bonding no matter what anybody did.
The company quietly got rid of the stock we had and brought back the original urethane we were using.
Incidents of leaking windshields shot back down to just normal employee installation errors.

 

[Finklejag]

Recently, watched a documentary on Fuyao. They purchased an old GM plant in Michigan awhile back. Combination of Chinese and American workers. CEO said the American workers complain too much, work too slow, and are too worried about safety. UAW tried to Unionize the plant. It was voted down by the employees. They make $12 bucks an hour. American employees got fired if they had a problem with a computer program. Toward the end of the documentary, Fuyao was bringing in more robots to do the work, and pink slipped American employees on the spot. Never saw a Chinese employee get canned in that documentary. It's on Netflix, if anybody wants to watch it.

The old GM plant is south of Dayton, OH.

 

[50yr Street Mech]

Oops, my bad. Thought it was Michigan..Anyway, interesting documentary to watch.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Recently, watched a documentary on Fuyao. They purchased an old GM plant in Michigan awhile back. Combination of Chinese and American workers. CEO said the American workers complain too much, work too slow, and are too worried about safety. UAW tried to Unionize the plant. It was voted down by the employees. They make $12 bucks an hour. American employees got fired if they had a problem with a computer program. Toward the end of the documentary, Fuyao was bringing in more robots to do the work, and pink slipped American employees on the spot. Never saw a Chinese employee get canned in that documentary. It's on Netflix, if anybody wants to watch it.

Typical entitled union factory workers. Whiney and slow, like you owe them something. Now I don't like chicoms one bit but it's good to teach some work ethic. Do this and X speed or be fired. No one is forcing you to work. You wanna be lazy, go work at USPS.

I don't believe anyone is making $12hr TBH, maybe if you are from China? And there's probably extra pay back home.