Cheap Windshield Replacement?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I need to get the windshield on my car replaced, and I’ve gotten quotes that vary by over $100, from $172 to $307. Any reason not to just go with the lowest bidder? Glass is glass, right?

Or, alternately, anyone want to recommend a glass shop near Santa Rosa, CA?

2

My God. I just got a quote for $362.

That’s more than twice as much!
Why is this market so wacky?

3

Do you have glass coverage on your insurance? Many policies include this now.

You could, like me, have your new windshield for a mere $100 deductable.

4

Which of these quotes include the gasket? There’s an outside chance that an installer can salvage the old one, but even then it will probably leak. For fifty bucks or so (remember, I’m just guessing at the price), it’s cheap insurance.

When I had a windshield replaced a few years back, the glass cost $200 (Libby Owens Ford was the only supplier to stock it, so this price was quoted by everyone) and the gasket cost $50, as stated above. Also remember that the higher bid places *might * (or might not) do a better job of masking off, so your paint won’t be scratched and/or they won’t leave glass on the dash or in the carpet.

5

Around here lots of glass places will waive your deductable fee, so if you have coverage you could, like us, get a new windshield for free!

6

No coverage on the car. It’s out of pocket.

And all the prices included the rubber molding.

7

Go tell the $300+ guys that you have places asking more than a hundred dollars less than their prices, and if they would be so kind as to explain why their service is worth more.

8

I just had the windshield replaced in our van and I was told that there are varying qualities of glass. Some are imported and they are cheaper but not quite as good.

9

I had my windshield replaced after an accident – by the body shop. About a month later, I caught a rock on the highway. (Thank god for full glass coverage.) The guy at the glass place actually came out to the waiting area, while he was working on it, to comment on the crappiness of the gasket work the body shop had done.

It looked fine to me.

So there are some quality differences.

10

I discovered the secret to auto glass replacement a few years back when I regularly parked in a high-crime neighborhood: used glass. I had no idea this organized, thriving and consumer-friendly industry existed until I checked it out. It has saved me a small fortune in replacement glass and other car parts, too.

The auto scrap industry is America’s shining example of win-win recycling. They don’t just chuck a scapped car into the blast furnace and forget it. No, they tear it apart for all the resaleable bits first – including glass.

Find a glass shop that advertises “used” glass and you’ll save a bundle – the going rate for a windshield in NYC is $100 installed. These shops are usually located near the town scrapyards (who funnel them the glass from their junked cars). If the town is too small to have a glass-only shop, try the scapyard itself.

Here in NYC the used car part industry is impressively organized, with computerized inventories. (But sometimes not. You’ll sometimes hear the foreman shout to some poor schlub out in the yard to go check to see if such and such part is available somewhere in the heap.) No need to even leave your home to shop – a few phone calls can usually locate your item and get you a price quote, too.

11

One more thing that really surprised me – these used parts guys are very friendly and approachable. I thought I’d be dealing with brutes who only catered to professional mechanics and serious wrenchers. Not so. They run a typical walk-in retail business. And I’ve never experienced any attempts to “price gouge the newbie.” I wish every business I patronized was as accommodating.

12
      • I had to do this once, I asked the regular repair shop where to go. They sent me to a local come-to-you auto glass place. The auto glass place gave me a quote of like $140 or something (I don’t remember exactly, but it was way lower than I’d expected, I was imagining $350+). The glass was Crinamex, made in Mexico. I asked about dealer glass and they said they could easily order it and install it, but that doing so would cost way more, just for the glass. I went with the regular cheapo Mexican glass.
  • The installation place has an installation guarantee for the lifetime of the vehicle/owner (if it ever leaks, they will reinstall it), and the glass itself has a 5-year manufacturer’s warranty. And if the glass itself turns out to be defective, the installation place will do all the paperwork for you to get you a replacement, and re-install that for free as well–but the guy said that the reason they made that offer was that they’d never seen a windshield that was intalled and later turned out to be defective. My vehicle’s windshield is just glued-in, there’s no gasket to replace when you change windshields.
  • When I related this online on another board, some people said “you got crappy glass, dealer glass from PPG would cost $500 at least” which might be true, but, , , , car dealers end up charging a lot for ALL car parts you buy from them–that’s why there are so many independent auto-parts stores–and they pretty much lead the way in terms of upper-end labor rates as well. All auto glass sold in the US has to be built to federal standards, and car manufacturers publish additional specifications that glass companies have to follow in order for their product to be accepted by US insurance companies as a replacement part anyway. So while there might be arguments for paying 3+ times as much and “buying American”, the end product is not one of them. I watched the guy doing it, and the replacement glass was pretty much identical to the OEM glass he took out, except for the manufacturer markings.
    ~
13

I had to replace a side window on my old Probe (Worst Car Name Ever) when some industrious young entrepeneurs broke the side window. Now, for the love of lampshades, who breaks into a Probe? It’s the car that says “My student loans are overdue.” Anyway, I called the junkyards here in DC (I think I wound up dealing with a place in Maryland) and it cost 70 bucks instead of over 300.
Good luck!

14

I have a pretty funny story about windshield replacement.

When I first moved to Phoenix I was washing my car at one of those self wash lots and this girl came up and started talking to me. I knew something was up right away because the first thing I noticed was her wedding band. Pretty soon she started asking me about my cracked windshield and I told her that I couldn’t afford to pay the $100 deductable to get it fixed.

After trying in vain to talk me into paying it she finally got her boss on the phone and he agreed to split the cost with me: $50 each. They said they used “first generation” glass or something like that, not recycled glass, and it sounded like a good deal so I finally told her maybe.

She got my insurance agent on the phone and then after a few minutes handed it to me and said she just needed the number that my insurance agent was going to give me. I walked away (it was a cell phone) and explained the situation to the insurance agent. She gave me the number but told me NOT to give it to the girl if I didn’t want to go through with the windshield replacement. I gave her her phone back and eventually, at great length, managed to convince her that they did not give me the number.

A few weeks later, at some godawful early time on a Saturday morning, a guy showed up at my place to replace the windshield. I slept through several of his phone calls and him knocking on the door. When I finally got up I explained to him that I didn’t ask for the replacement and I didn’t want it. After some blabbering on both ends and him calling his boss a few times, they ended up offering to do it for free. Zip, nada, zilch.

So I walked outside, hit the unlock button on my keychain, and kicked back while my free windshield got installed for free, right in my own parking lot :cool:.

15

Forgive me Cisco, but I’ve read your post twice and I can’t figure out what the heck you are talking about.

Who is the woman? Why is a total stranger offering to pay for half your broken window? What is the whole rigamarole with the insurance agent and the secret number? Why is a repairman showing up to fix your window, for free, no less?

I’m sorry, but your post is a top-to-bottom mystery to me. Could you please explain what it’s all about? Thanks.

16

The woman was an employee (probably commissioned) of the glass repair business that hung around places like car washes, etc. trying to sell new windshields to people that have cracked ones.

The rest of the story should make sense once you know that. Do you understand?