Vehicle Damage

[Jaimsieboy]

A friend of mines recently put his car into a local garage for an MOT and some other work.
When his wife collected his car, she did not notice that there was a crack on the windshield.
However my friend immediately noticed it and went back to the garage but the garage denied cracking the windscreen and said it must have happened en route home.
Any ideas what my friend should do now ?

[Hopkirk]

I doubt it was the garage's fault, but even if it was he can't prove it.

There's nothing he can do.

[Jaimsieboy]

Hi Hopkirk...thanks for your input....J/Boy

[Buenchico]

Even if the crack developed while the car was at the garage, it's not necessarily the garage's fault. A tiny stone chip on the edge of the glass could have occurred ages ago and gone unnoticed but then, with the vibration from the work that the garage was doing (or simply because the car has been standing outside in the sun for ages) developed into a crack.

Nearly all fully-comp insurance policies (and some other policies too) include windscreen insurance. That often means that you can get a new windscreen fitted entirely free of charge (I've had one myself) or occasionally just by paying an excess of perhaps £50. (Claims for windscreen repairs don't affect your no claims discount). So perhaps that's something your friend should be looking into?

[Ryzen]

Your car screen may have had a minor edge chip..... if the car was lifted on one corner for service work the body will twist sufficiently for it to develop into a crack.

[Jaimsieboy]

Thanks Folks...J/Boy

[bookbinder]

I have known a windscreen crack, just because the car was standing in the hot sun for several minutes. I was in a queue for the Windermere ferry. After a while, we all crept forward a few feet. The shadow of a light standard fell across the windscreen of the car behind. The glass immediately cracked, and the theory of the assembled 'experts' was that the sudden cooling of such a narrow area had caused the crack.