Today I have joined the legions of Elemenet owners complaining about their cracked windshields. I am logging on first to say thanks to all who have come before me. Your input on this topic has at least served to bolster my reserve and at most suggested tactics to use while tackeling this issue myself.

This will be a journal of my experiences starting with today when I first contacted my dealer here in Ohio (nameless until resolution). The phone conversation went just as any who have read these pages could predict. "Typically we find that these cracks are the result of a stone chipping the window, which of course is not covered." AND "Run a pen along the crack. If you find a place where the pen gets stuck you have found where the stone hit your windshield." AND "Due to the upright nature of the windshield stones tend to hit near the bottom near the wiper blade."

Still I went to my dealer with all these pages and those from the now 90 NHTSA complaints (not including mine yet). This too went as regular readers would exect except for one thing. Once they realized that I had studied up a little and was not ready to be turned away without a fight they put up a new barrier which i have not noticed on these pages before. They moved the resolution of the problem to their glass house outsource. The service manager noted that they are not glass experts at Honda and she would defer to whatever the "independant" glass house (which they send all their business to) said.

I go to the glass house tomorrow but I can't close this chapter without wondering:

1 - Has my Honda dealer already called them and given them their judgement?

2 - How independant are they when my Honda dealer sends all their business to them?

3 - What incentive is there for an independant glass shop to find this to be a warranty repair (lower labor reimbursement, no profit on the sale of the glass and damage to their relationship with my Honda dealer)?

I hope tomorrow that I have to retract all those nasty thoughts.

More When I Have It.

[quote:3ca5aeb462=" "]
I go to the glass house tomorrow but I can't close this chapter without wondering:

1 - Has my Honda dealer already called them and given them their judgement?

2 - How independant are they when my Honda dealer sends all their business to them?

3 - What incentive is there for an independant glass shop to find this to be a warranty repair (lower labor reimbursement, no profit on the sale of the glass and damage to their relationship with my Honda dealer)?
[/quote:3ca5aeb462]


1) Wouldnt you give your vehicle professional your expert opinion? Honda probably does too, and if they don't, they probably expect the glass guys to call and ask for it.

2) Just a slight better than Honda itself, although keep in mind no dealership has total control over a glass shop (it's more of a professional relationship where there is a mutually beneficial outcome regardless of disposition).

3) I hardly doubt that the glass shop is giving the glass away to Honda. Even at dealer price they still make a good margin on glass. (Haven't you ever seen those $250.00 windshield deductible coupon ads?) Even when they give you the deal, they are still making money - thats why glass companys pay (or used to) telemarketers to call people at random to fix their windshields.

My only concerns here are these:

1) does the glass house get paid the same for parts/labor on both types of repair, warranteed and non-warranteed?

2) does the dealership or honda expect them to toe the line on "it's not covered" so that they continue to get referrals?

-brendan

OP - you make it sound like you are unhappy with the club, not Honda on your first post. Wouldn't Unhappy Element Owner be more accurate?

This is a great group of people, I was kind of shocked to see "Unhappy Club Member".

This is a great group of people, I was kind of shocked to see "Unhappy Club Member".

...but I've noticed they do tend to get a little testy every now and then.

You're right, it does look like a member unhappy with the club, not the vehicle. On the other hand it gets you to pause and read the post!

elementaly challenged:

I ended up having my glass repaired by the shop that "does all the glass work" for my dealer, but this happened coincidentally.

When I found the crack on my windshield, I went to two glass places to get an opinion before I went to the dealership. Both said the same thing; rock hit. (I'll also add that even though we here have this collective opinion that little impacts near the edge making big cracks spells *defect*, both glass repairers I talked to said it was nothing unusual. This may be because they haven't *yet* seen a disproportionate number of Elements, who knows!) So then I went to Honda's service department and they did & said exactly what I expected. Pen test followed by rock hit diagnosis. When they suggested I use the shop that does all their glass work and it turned out to be one that I had already visited that morning, I was a little suspicious! Hmmm, maybe they tell everyone that stress cracks are results of impacts so that they can stay on the dealer's good side and get their business. Because the other place I went to had said the exact same thing I decided to put my suspicions on hold and just get the damn window fixed.

They (the glass repair shop recommended by my dealer) did an *excellent* job. I now feel that my Honda dealership "owes" more to the glass place than the glass place owes to Honda. Windshields get hit and crack all the time, especially where I live. This glass place had a stack of windshields fifteen feet high all waiting to go into damaged cars. The dealership needs a reputable place to send their customers that won't cause some of the horror stories we've read about more than the glass place needs to lie in order to get the dealership's business.

And with all that said, I'd still recommend going to a couple of other glass places for an opinion! I'd also call Honda and complain about this statement: "The service manager noted that they are not glass experts at Honda..." Maybe they're not glass experts but they are certainly experts on Honda Elements. They need to take care of their customers and not leave it to an independent third-party to decide on warranty matters, imo.