SAFELITE AUTO WINDSHIELDS / DURABILITY AND CRACKS

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Anyone have any experience? I had a safellite brand windshield installed a while back by my insurance company and have had a few (too many) chips and pits appear from rock/pebbles off the road. They have repaired those using the resin/uv light process.
Could be just bad luck but I drive the same places over the last decades and wonder why I pick up these "cracks".

Is there data published anywhere on the impact resistance of different brands?

The insurance company says the car owner can choose where the have the car fixed. Is my out of pocket cost still the same if I put in OEM (Toyota brand) glass at the toyota dealer?? In my state glass is NOT charged against the car owner

what does an out of pocket (no insurance) chip fix cost using the resin/vacuum/uv light method??
 
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I have had 3 windshields replaced by Safelite over the years, including on my current F-150. I've been very happy with both the glass and Safelite's service, and I haven't noticed any better or worse chip resistance or durability between OEM vs. Safelite.
 
No personal experience...but BITOG concensus is stay away from Safelite. They have nothing but cheap Chinese glass.
 
Garbage. Well experienced with 4 replacements in same car. Poor quality with imperfections and odd cracks all covered by safe lite.

Finally went some where else and great results.
 
I have posted here before about finding evidence that their glass is 1/16" thinner than others. I've switched and never had to use them again.
 
Aftermarket glass, like aftermarket body panels, should be illegal. The windshield is a structural part of a unibody vehicle. They DON'T have the same sound deadening properties, they WON'T perform correctly in an accident, and they WILL have imperfections due to sloppy / cheap production. It's not too hard to find wavy spots in an aftermarket windshield.

The only way to get OEM covered by your insurance is to reject two or three aftermarket ones for defects and then demand OEM.

Actually I've also seen one guy get OEM covered because the A/M glass didn't have the same markings on it. Only the Ford ones have the "SoundScreen" marking
smile.gif
 
Last Safelite windshield was garbage. Never again. Wavy glass, and cracked awfully fast. Replacement was a pilkington for that one and I had zero issues with that one.

That being said, if you can get an OEM, and your insurance will cover it, go for it. I did that on my F150. No issues with my insurer either. I'd check first...
 
I have no experience with safelite windshields but I will say that my Subaru with its original windshield has gotten what I consider to be an excessive amount of chips and dings even though it's been driven in the same environment as our other vehicles which don't have the same issue.

So safelite may not be great but OEM isn't a guarantee either.

Still, I'd get Toyota OEM next time if it's an option, to be on the safe side.
 
Originally Posted By: Warstud
No personal experience...but BITOG concensus is stay away from Safelite. They have nothing but cheap Chinese glass.


LOL. The wife's Escape has a Pilkington windshield installed by... Safelie. IIRC it was not made in China. Seems to be as durable as OEM was- it's been in there for years as her OEM for a rock chip that caused a crack in the driver's line of sight.
 
My parents have one on their Sienna - it's thin, cheap and I think contributed to their cracked dash and interior fade since aftermarket glass may not have the same UV filtering as the OEM/OES glass. There's a chip in it, but I'm going to push for a Pilkington, Guardian or NON-Chinese(DOT 904, not DOT 563) PGW windshield.
 
my real hope in posting was to find someone who worked in the industry that knew where the government test impact results were published, so an owner could buy a better or best windshield rather than one that "meets" the standard.
 
I've had a safelite windshield installed for around 6 years now and maybe 160k. The glass has been very durable, I have no complaints. It is not wavy, and I have one or two very small rock chips that I thought for sure would turn into a crack, and they never caused the windshield to crack. I have been very happy with my safelite windshield and would not hesitate to use them again.
 
Originally Posted By: edwardh1
this link makes 904 sound bad
where is 904 made?
http://trenches.agrrmag.com/a-fall-from-grace/

my problems have been with a 904

904 = PGW US/Canada, and it's also on OEM GM/Toyota/Honda/Mercedes/Ford glass too!
563 = XYG in China

I guess it's time to even accept FYG/Fuyao as acceptable glass, they come OEM on Mercedes/BMW/Volvo/GM and Hyundai-Kia. Subaru is now using FYG glass as well. But their aftermarket stuff is probably how the anti-Chinese glass movement started.

And I'm reading the blog - I always knew Safelite was shady and a friend of mine was able to twist Mercury Insurance to get him an OEM Subaru/Central Glass(Central is a small Japanese glass outfit that's the main supplier to Nissan and Subaru and bought out the glass operations and the rights to the Carlite name from Ford) and All Star did the install, it looked like a good job.
 
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Safelite buys glass from multiple sources including OE, so their quality can surely vary. They buy OE from dealers on very new vehicles where there may not be any aftermarket option yet. I'm sure a lot of what they use is just sourced from whatever supplier in China though. Their prices are often above those of a local company using quality glass though.

Personally, I use locally based installers and ask for a name brand of glass. I have used PGW, and it was good (replaced because a wreck broke the seal), but my application is about as simple as it gets. I have a Pilkington in my 2002 Ranger now and am very happy with it. It has a chip from a very hard rock hit on the interstate in April. The chip hasn't grown, even with the heat down here and it being a black truck. My 1994 Ranger has an older PPG windsheild in it...too old to use as a reference for the quality of new windsheilds.
 
Safelite carries OE glass but around here, at least, they're more expensive than other companies.

I'm shopping this week for a new windshield for my Crown Vic due to sand pitting. Three companies quoted me $220-$230 for the Carlite OEM glass. One of those companies even includes lifetime chip repair in the warranty. Safelite wants $265 for Carlite glass.
 
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