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Tesla glass: corners were cut
- Thread starter vikefan
- Start date
Uncle Paul
Well-Known Member
Some premium auto manufacturers offer thicker or even double pane glass to enhance the sound deadning or their cars to achieve quieter interiors. Some make it standard, and others offer it as part of a premium package.
The thicker/double pane glass adds weight, cost and reductions in fuel economy.
The thicker/double pane glass adds weight, cost and reductions in fuel economy.
ChicagoSox
Member
i had a Honda Element and within 1 week had to replace two windshields. Here in Illinois we have a lot of gravel trucks that
1. Don't have mud flaps
2. Don't cover their loads like the law says
3. State police who don't bother to ticket them for the above issues.
4. crappy roads that cause a lot of the rocks to be there in the first place.
1. Don't have mud flaps
2. Don't cover their loads like the law says
3. State police who don't bother to ticket them for the above issues.
4. crappy roads that cause a lot of the rocks to be there in the first place.
Bill Foster
I'm going home!
vogz
Member
Based on driving many different vehicles over the years for 100s of thousands of miles and the fact that there are only a handful of automotive glass companies out there that make windshields. I've personally found that it's the aerodynamic properties of the front end, overall height of windshield off the ground and the rake angle/size of the windshield that determine how prone to damage a windshield will be.
Vehicles with higher/smaller windshields and less of a wedge front end like SUVs and pickup trucks are far less prone to chips and cracks from rocks/debris.
On the other hand my 911 Turbo and my now almost 5 month old M3P are very susceptible. The 911 doesn't have a large windshield, but the car is very low to the ground and the windshield rake angle is very steep for a sports car. Therefore it's very prone to damage. I'm on my second windshield in 5 years of ownership and this one looks like it's been sandblasted. The vast majority of time it spends on the road is in dry/clear conditions in the summer months. It doesn't venture out at all in the winter.
The Model 3 has a massive windshield for the size of car it is and the windshield has a decently steep rake angle. As has been mentioned before it make for a fantastic view of the road, but at the expense of more susceptibility to chips. I currently have a half moon chip on the lower right side that I picked up on the highway at 80mph in the beginning of March and a couple other small chips that you can only really see from the outside when washing the vehicle.
TLDR version: IMHO it's not the glass, it's the design of the car.
Vehicles with higher/smaller windshields and less of a wedge front end like SUVs and pickup trucks are far less prone to chips and cracks from rocks/debris.
On the other hand my 911 Turbo and my now almost 5 month old M3P are very susceptible. The 911 doesn't have a large windshield, but the car is very low to the ground and the windshield rake angle is very steep for a sports car. Therefore it's very prone to damage. I'm on my second windshield in 5 years of ownership and this one looks like it's been sandblasted. The vast majority of time it spends on the road is in dry/clear conditions in the summer months. It doesn't venture out at all in the winter.
The Model 3 has a massive windshield for the size of car it is and the windshield has a decently steep rake angle. As has been mentioned before it make for a fantastic view of the road, but at the expense of more susceptibility to chips. I currently have a half moon chip on the lower right side that I picked up on the highway at 80mph in the beginning of March and a couple other small chips that you can only really see from the outside when washing the vehicle.
TLDR version: IMHO it's not the glass, it's the design of the car.
Would be interesting to take a survey of how far up from the bottom of the windshield these chips are occurring. If a majority of chips are occurring in the bottom 10", it might be interesting to put a strip of ClearPlex just on that area, where you don't even look through.
XLR82XS
D M C
Agreed. I have chips at:
- the lower center
- middle in passenger field of view
- next to the VIN tag
- roof glass near the edge of the extended A-pillar section
Good news is 2 no-cost replacement windshields per year in Florida. Once it's bad enough it's getting replaced.
Vaillant
Member
My chip was low, too, just above where the dash meets the windshield. Fortunately, it was able to be filled.
XLR82XS
D M C
MagnusMako
Member
XLR82XS
D M C
Oh they are there. Take a BRIGHT light and shine it close to the glass and you'll see the tiny pitting. Driving into direct sunlight provides similar exposure. As stated previously, I had a W211 Benz that didn't have terrible pitting until well after 100K miles.
Yep, I bought a 2001 BMW 330xi which I picked up in Germany, euro delivery, and drove around Europe for 2 weeks, before shipping it back to the US. First week, just passing Versailles, I got an 8" crack, low on the passenger side. Still have it, with over 230k miles, and no more cracks since then.
HankLloydRight
No Roads
OT: BMW just cancelled their Euro Delivery program effective 9/2020. That's something my wife and I planned to do "sometime" in the future. Sad day.
The BMW European Delivery Program Canceled From September 2020
gigawatt1010
Member
Tesla secretly bought Safelite and all the other glass replacement service providers. They purposely make inferior quality glass and angle them to absorb every rock, pebble on the road. This drives business to these new secretly acquired companies and flows back to Elon. I call it ElonGate
Shame, that was a good deal. 7% off MSRP, and you could still negotiate the price at your dealer. All insurance paid for. Visit the BMW museum. Get to drive the autobahn, etc. Back then, I thought it was cool, I could actually figure out which transport ship the car would be put on, so, I dropped the car off at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, just in time for them to take it up to Bremerhaven, I think. 10 days to the East Coast, first cars off the ship are the ones that have been paid for, so they go to the VSC first, and get the windshield replaced, tires are changed from high-performance summers to all-season, etc. Shame the program is ending.
My 2015 model S p85D went through 4 windshields from June to November. The 3rd windshield cracked while the service center was doing a test drive after they had just replaced it. All my cracks were from less than 5 mm impacts I never noticed while I was driving until it later spider webbed out.
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