Driving to work this morning at 7AM in my Insight which is less than 4 weeks old - no traffic directly in front and bang a crack appears in my windscreen
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3343499/IMG_1030.JPG
I pulled over straight away and rang Honda Assistance who put me through to a window company who told me that it wasnt safe or legal to drive and I should call back Honda Assistance for a tow. Called Honda back and they weren't prepared to do this until I'd spoken to a 2nd glass company they put me through to. They said because its a multi layer laminate it was safe enough but leave it up to me to judge whether its legal? They did say from my description because it seemed to start from the edge of the screen it may be a warranty issue and to check it out at the dealership - it may be down to a manufacturing defect as the car is so new. As I was in the middle of no where, I took the risk to drive back home and ring my dealership for advice. They needed to see the damage and then would forward the case to Honda UK for judgement it wouldn't be their decision. They are a 120 mile round trip away, so went to the local dealer instead to it have it looked at (I didnt buy it there due to past
issues) they took a look and dug at the edge of the crack with his pen which began right at the black edge of the screen, there was a tiny (maybe the size of a few grains of sand) chip and that with any surface damage whatsoever Honda won't entertain it and there was no point trying. This leaves me having to go through Insurance and its getting fixed tomorrow (apparently no local companies stock this unusual cars screen!)
It just leave me wondering how fragile/safe the screens are, I've never had any windscreen issues with any of my previous 7 cars and have driven through road works having lose chippings thrown up by lorries and gritting lorries throwing road salt at me when following them during the winter and never had a chip or a crack. My new car has seemingly been defeated by something smaller than a bug and will it ever be as creak free once a non-factory fitted screen is in I wonder?
