>>My question for those with cracked windshields: did you have to get the approval of the Regional Manager (not the dealer's Service manager) to OK your windshield replacement? The Regional Manager covers a region so it may be weeks before he shows up. Believe it or not, this is what my service manager told me.

Gary King, The SM at MoP was ALWAYS the one who made the call as to cover under warrentee for all of my 6 windshields.The regional service mgr did come by on one of the installs to watch how Gary did it ,which ,by the way became the gospel according to MINI soon afterwards.Gary told me that the guy who came by was CLUELESS(some guy who had no experience with auto glass and had been working at the port of entry in New Jersey before making the leap to regional service mgr).Sounds like a delay tactic to me.Have i mentioned lately that despite all my woes with glass I still really like to drive this car?

 

I think you're right... BMW/MINI figures that if they keep you waiting for long enough that time will take it's toll, and the cracks will get big enough that folks just finally give up and have them fixed on their own. I think they count a lot on the fact as a group we enjoy our cars, and figure they can have us jump through just about any hoops or wait as long for an answer as they care to.

Well, after keeping me hanging for a couple of weeks about the availability of the perpetually-backordered windshields (still with no answer) and the BS "pen test" used to try and shift the cost for stress crack warranty replacements to the insurance companies (or owners), their tactics finally worked on me. A replacement windshield from Safelite will cost me about $225 installed (less than my insurance deductible), and they'll come out to do the work this afternoon. The new windshield will be better than anything MINI has to offer (how could it be any worse?), and it has a lifetime guarantee against stress cracks.

Dan

 

Since this is an old thread, for the most part, some of what has come before may have been forgotten.

If I pay 20k or 110k for a car from a dealer, the level of service should be the same. Particularly from BMW dealers that pride themselves on their level of service. To use some shady reasoning for denying warranty work is something I would expect from Joe Bargain Cars, not an international car company with a dealer support network and more then enough engineering and research talent to fix a problem that has been identified. Otherwise, why would I buy my next car from your company?

As to the windshield, I have been hit a number of times by flying debris and last week suffered a hit by a large rock from a truck ahead of me. I have a couple of dings in the windshield and have had no problem with cracking. I hope that mine continues to be just fine, but if it breaks before the warranty period is up, you can bet that BMWNA under the guise of MINI will be replacing it.

 

Does my MINI's windshield have a crack in it? Of course it does, and I remember the semi that threw up the rock that chipped it from last November. Has the crack spread? No, and if I perform the epoxy inject it shouldn't (hmm, maybe best to check around the office and have a windshield party in the parking lot some afternoon). Have other vehicles of mine lost windshields? yes, and all due to road debris (except for the car totaled by a drink driver who hit me from behind). If you do enough driving, things will occasionally break or wear out. That is the price of driving an automobile. It even affects Rolls-Royce and Bentley vehicles.

My advise is to not worry about the potential things that can go wrong; for it starts the slippery slope to the "chicken little scenario" what if a meteor a kilometer across comes down on me??!! Get your new car, drive it, fix whatever breaks or wears out, repeat.

The worst thing about my MINI is that now I have to get corrective plastic surgery to wipe the ever present grin off my face.

 

And that's all understandable. Rock hits windshield, windshield gets damaged... not MINI's problem.

I'm talking about a situation... mine and that of MANY others... where there was no rock, there is no rock damage. The windshield has a stress crack... a defect in design and/or materials, that should be covered under warranty. MINI even (selectively) admits this. But in many areas, they play the delay game or just deny warranty coverage outright. And whether you spend $8K for a Kia or six figures for some Euro-iron... we have a right to expect a car maker to fulfill their warranty obligation.

Dan

 

Yes, if it is a stress crack due to a poor install, I would hope that the glass would be covered under warranty. Road hazards though are precisely that, hazards from driving on the road. The two types of cracks should be identifiable, as road debris almost always leaves a chip or something missing from the glass.

 

Two months follow up to my previous post on this topic. When I later contacted the service manager (not his assistant, as I had originally done so) he said to bring in the car so he could look into it. Bottm line, he ran his pen test over the crack and authorized replacement under warranty WITH OEM windshield. He did comment that the windshield is super thin (probably compared with other car w indshields?)

Problem resolved, but it is not THE IMPROVED windshield as some have mentioned. If you're under warranty you get no choice if you want a free replacement.

For those with windshield cracks as a result of rock chips instead of stress cracks, I can only suggest that you not tailgate another vehicle in front of you. In fact, observe the rule of "x" number of feet separation distance or car lengths as per your vehicle code. I don't feel sorry for tail gaters regardless of WHAT brand cars they drive.