If you ever need your windshield replaced, be careful...
 

So a week ago today I was on the highway and a small rock flew up and cracked my windshield. I didn't have time to have it replaced last week so I setup an appointment for them to come to my place of employment while I was working.

To make a long story short things were going good, the guy removed my windshield and that's when he realized something bad had happened. He called me over to show me this:

http://www.ahfunaki.com/mazdaspeedvinplate.jpg

Needless to say I was dumbfounded...

Basically what happened was he used one of these newer pulley and wire removal tools and guess what...the wire caught on the metal and sliced right through it and my VIN plate. Awesome.

http://www.glassbot.net/images/Glass...20d%20copy.jpg

Here is a video of how it works, this one is motorized but the one he used was manual:


So now my car can't even have a windshield installed due to the metal along the bottom is too thin to properly seal it right. And of course I'm going to need a new VIN plate which from what I understand is an absolute nightmare to get replaced ( which isn't surprising to me ).

So I have a rental and who knows when I'm going to get my car back. I'm not even sure how they are going to go about fixing it. And to think I thought I was going to drive home with a brand new crystal clear windshield in my car today...

I'm just glad I went through a big company that had zero issues handling their mistakes. The car is being towed to a body shop tomorrow ( this was my decision to do it tomorrow ) They set me up with the rental and everything very very quickly and seem to be handling things very well so far.

So if you ever get yours replaced and they are using a system like this make sure they know exactly what they are doing, because otherwise it could turn into a similar nightmare.

Now it's time to ( attempt ) go smoke the tires on my 2012 Hyundai Tuscon!

Wow how does that happen.

Holy SHIT! Thanks for the heads up. I hope everything goes well and you get your car back soon.

Dang man sorry to hear. Thats good they got things taken care of fast. Now on to some burnout vids with the new rental !!!!

Wow, that sucks. Glad the company is taking care of it like they should.

Ouch, that sucks! Glad they are being a good company and fixing it.

Damn. SO glad Elite did it by hand on mine.

What the fuck! Good thing they are cooperating... but I guess if they weren't it would be a huge deal.

Well mazda has a m tip for us mazda techs that relates to this,Here it is. http://www.fileswap.com/dl/mLqUHx3m8..._cowl.pdf.html

Wow, looks like someone just got out of the training program. I would fucking flip out

That's crazy, right through the vin too! What're the odds… good luck man, get used to that rental though, you'll have it for a while! Shit I wouldn't be surprised if some cheaper cars (not yours obviously) would be totaled just from that.

Before finishing the story I thought you were going to say the rock that hit your windshield ripped that fat ass cut into your dash.

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...PIC%20FACE.jpg

That sucks bro

Good info. The urethane taking a turn around the vin number is definitely a fucking curve ball.

Wow, that sucks and thanks a bunch for the tip because Safelite will be doing this at my work over the next day or two. I will print out that PDF and give it to whoever is doing the replacement. I kinda hate to be like that telling people how to do their job, but I'd rather save myself the headache you are going through. I sure hope that everything gets straightened out for you soon, I can't imagine going from my Speed to a Tuscon.

That's a terrible way to go home after work. I hope they take care of you in the end!

OP, you have reassured me that ignoring the crack is the proper way to handle my cracked windshield.

So, you get to have sex with his wife, eh?

i had mine replaced recently as well with an aftermarket model and it was fast and great install!

I think I'll continue to drive with my crack, 2 weeks and counting...

Wow that is an absolute nightmare

Just a heads up to anyone who might be wondering the status of this situation.

I still don't have my car. It's been almost 3 months. It's going to be even longer...

Trying to get a VIN plate replacement for a car that you have a loan out on is absolutely a terrible thing.

In order to get a replacement VIN plate in the state of Ohio you are supposed to send in some paperwork from the local state patrol along with the ORIGINAL title of the vehicle to the main title office in Columbus. Well the issue with having a car with a loan is, you don't actually have the title to the vehicle. So it took over 2 months of back and fourth before I was finally able to get someone who could get the whole situation figured out.

So now the car is repaired, the VIN plate is waiting at the state patrol barracks to be put on. But here is the other kicker. When I have the new VIN plate put on the car, I have to have the title remade to note that the vehicle has had the VIN replaced.

After finding this out I decided to talk to some dealerships to see how they would look at a car like this ( with a replacement VIN ) if I were to trade it in to their dealership. And basically I had mixed results but some of them said they would consider it as bad as a salvage title ( insane I know ). Finding out that I potentially could get screwed by this new addition to the title of the car, I don't want the car back now.

Now I have to wait until next Wednesday ( the next available time that the boss of the guy that I've been dealing with can meet up ) before I can even find out what they are willing to do for me.

I guess at least I have a friend that works for Enterprise and I was supposed to get an economy rental ( $30 a day is what they've allowed for me ) but I drove a 2012 Charger for a month and now I'm in a 2013 CTS so I guess I can't complain too much. Even though they are both automatic V6's which sucks.

But yea, I'm over this...

fuuuuuuuck....I just thought of this the other day when a rock hit mine.... Can't believe it's still ongoing but I hope it ends soon!!!!

god damn, sorry to hear it has been so epic. and to think i came in here to find out who was resurrecting a dead thread..

Sounds like you are taking the high road on this screw up. I am no legal expert, but I would say you might have had a decent case if you wanted to take the glass repair place to court. I wonder at some point, with the threat of a lawsuit, their insurance company might have totaled out the car, paid you off, done deal. Three months is too long - your patience is impressive.

Hell of an education for me on the importance of VIN tag.

Can't stop....watching...kid on bike, kicking other kid off rail.

I can't possibly see getting paid for the entire car over this issue.

What I can see as a possibility is perhaps being awarded damages for the potentially degraded value of the vehicle. And even that, I would think, would take a lawsuit.

Either way, what a fucking nightmare.

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Damn bro, that fucking sucks. Thank you for the heads up and the update. I hope things turn out better than they have been for the past 3 months for you. You are one patient man, i cannot imagine this happening and dragging balls this long for a glass company fuck up. :261:

Have you spoken to a Lawyer to see what your options are? You probably should.

I cannot believe that you have been out a car three months because the VIN plate snapped off. It really is unbelievable how much of a nightmare this regulatory crap is. The hilarious part is that you have to go through all of this when I'm sure there are hundreds of cars a day that have fake/stolen VINs put on them and no one ever gives them a second look.

Thanks again for sharing your story; it may have saved my windshield as I had it replaced days after this happened to you. I really hope that you get the car and some sort of monetary compensation back soon. I can't imagine being without my speed for such a stupid reason.

Holy fuck shit. Good luck.

I just had a guy resin my rock chip for $40. Life time warranty.


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Chip and crack are different.....but ok?

My bad! Did not see him write crack!


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Wow, that's terrible. I would probably be feeling the same at this point - compensate for value lost or replace the vehicle...

Sucks man. I guess it's common enough since Mazda released this in the M-tips newsletter.
Pic attached. (Yea I see it was posted already but the link is dead, for me anyways)

^Will print, laminate, keep in glove box, thanks.

Talk about an epic design failure. I used to need a windshield replacement once a year in Colorado.

Sent from Cloud 9

holy crap dude, that sucks. i can't believe that the BMV won't take a memo title when they clearly have a copy of an original that states there is a lien. i would have written my local ohio congresscritter by now to see if they can help cut through some of the bullshit.

i'm in columbus so if you need anything done here in person just holler.

Shit.. that sucks. I just got a cracked windshield last weekend from a mystery rock (on the interstate and nobody in front of me) and after reading this I think I'll just deal with the 8" crack on the passenger side for a while.

And BTW, does anybody know how much replacement glass runs on average for our cars?

Edit: upon further inspection I realized this was an issue specific to Genpu's. But still curious about cost for glass.. never had to replace a windshield in my life..

I just had mine done just after Hurricane sandy. only issue I had was trying to get the window. They ended up getting it straight from the dealership. $900, I was fully covered.

Are they at least paying your car payment while you are unable to drive your car?

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Yea, well I don't want to take legal action but if they aren't willing to help me out after their screw up that's what will happen.

And I would be fine with getting money for the degraded value of the car, but no one can really say what the value of the car will be with this note on the title like this.

Yea, I have. And he seemed to think that this is something we could take them to court over if need be. I didn't talk too much about it because I really don't want to have to do that.

I know, it's insane. Luckily I was finally able to talk to someone in Columbus that understood what was going on and was able to make it happen just by me faxing in the memo title. It took 2 months to find that person but it was finally done. And I appreciate the offer!

Nope, just a rental car. Which honestly I'm not upset about because that gives me more of an edge if it does boil down to taking legal action against them.

And on the positive side I guess, my car has had 0 miles put on it in the last 3 months...hahah

And the new VIN plate was finally put on today. This is not what I was expecting. I can't believe that this car is pertinently marred like this now. Why does the state of Ohio feel that this is necessary for a situation like this?

I can't wait to see how it looks with the windshield on. Which will be happening tomorrow.

Oh BTW there is a very good chance I will be taking legal action against Safelite. So far they don't really seem like they are willing to play nice about compensating me for all of this. Hopefully they change their mind...

Could have offered the state this device to speed things up:

http://www.a1stores.co.uk/graphics/p...dres/GL100.jpg

Good luck, if you look serious, hopefully they settle, and settle quickly. If presented with the evidence, would be stupid to let this go to court. Lawyers are $$$.

WOW, of all the things I could think about replacing on a car...the VIN plate...

Bummer dude, guess you have a speed3 for life. wouldn't want to think of losing that much value...

Hahah yea, that would have been nice.

And I find out now that they came down to put the new windshield in today and guess what...THE VIN DOESN'T EVEN LINE UP WITH THE OPENING IN THE WINDSHIELD.

I can't believe any of this anymore...

So now we have to wait until after Christmas to see what the State Highway Patrol is going to do about this. Unless somehow it's the windshield that is wrong...

Insane.

Looks like the VIN tag is actually a little to low.

Looks to me like Safelite just bought a company car.

Yep, ridiculous.

Here's to hoping!

What a damn nightmare! Just curious, what are the repercussions of riding around with the vin plate being sliced like that? I mean if you hadn't done anything to fix it, could the police impound the car, etc?

No hoping at this point - it's theirs... One way or another.

That TB says 2010-2013 MAzda3.
So the gen1s don't have that turn around the VIN with the urethane?

I'm not sure. We sublet windshield jobs.. Im only aware of this issue because there's a TSB on it.

Yea, I believe they could. And I guess there is a sticker too that now has to go on the windshield to note the replacement. This keeps getting more and more ridiculous...

We will just have to wait and see...

And I have the car back!

Now on to the legal action...

Here is what the VIN looks like installed. And a pic of the car I haven't seen in 4 months...

Sweet. Congrats man. Hope they just give you 30 grand.

Hah, I don't know what I would do if they gave me that much...

I really just either want them to let me stock the car out and then buy the car off of me for what I owe plus some for all the time and effort that went into this issue. Or give me a decent amount of money to keep the car, not sure what the sweet point would be with the cash though as of yet...

I'd argue to at least for them to compensate you the diminished value. However that figure will no doubt be debatable. If I were I would perhaps go to carmax and to a fee other dealers and get a trade in a value in writing. Then present this to the fools that did this to your car showing what you are getting and what you could have got.

I can't recall if you have already said this or not but is the title branded at all? If so I can't even take anything like that in on trade because nobody will buy a branded title vehicle from me, not even my wholesalers. You may also want to check carfax for any reports as this may be considered moderate damage which will drop your resale considerably.

If you want to send me the VIN, I can see what I can find for it. q

Yep, the title states that the VIN has been replaced on it now.

That would be awesome, will PM in a minute. Thanks!

I currently am in the process of filing a diminished value claim lawsuit on my 2012 MSP3 for an accident I was involved in in October. Find a lawyer in your area that specializes in diminished value claims, they're not trivial and unless the insurance company is familiar with the law office, and the law office has a history of litigating, you will not get as much. It will not cost you anything to talk to a lawyer nor will the lawyer cost you anything if you retain them -- you will end up paying them about 1/3 of the awarded amount, but if you don't get anything, you don't pay anything (it's the law).

I install auto glass and this is the exact reason why i don't use that stupid tool I've seen this happen a few times, how was the install of the windshield? A lot of people have problems with air leaks when this happens

Man I'm glad I found this post - I'm scheduled for a windshield replacement tomorrow with Safelite.

A little insight into my process, though. I go through Progressive for insurance with a $0 glass deductible (it's not automatically covered as $0 in Virginia). After seeing this thread and doing some other research, I called Progressive back and had them authorize an OEM replacement instead of going with an OEE windshield.

I also specified that the car on my policy is a '12 MS3, not a '12 Mazda 3 as it shows (apparently the MS3 isn't different enough in their systems to warrant a modifier - maybe it's saving me on my premium though!), and they had me verify specific characteristics about my windshield - does it have a black border, does it have a dot fade, does the dot fade exist around the rear view mirror, is it black/grey/green/blue/etc.? This should ensure that the VIN window matches up and that it's the right style windshield (a green tint would look horrible on a black mica MS3).

Holding my breath, but I've done all I can do pre-service to ensure that it has no excuse to go poorly. I'll print out a copy of the bulletin posted earlier and make sure they know not to use whatever garroting piece of shit tool caused the OP's damage. That's a damn shame...

Hand deliver the bulletin to the primary technician that will be doing the windshield replacement.

I can tell you that working in the auto service industry, 90% of what a customer wants to get to the technician never makes it to us.

I had my windshield replaced a couple of weeks ago and handed the bulletin right to the technician. I don't know if he was aware of it or not, but aware of things like that, in general, and knew of a way to avoid making the mistake even while using the cutting tool/wheel thingy. He did it perfectly. I used Safelite, also.

Uh, I use Progressive and my policy DEFINITELY states Speed3...I'm looking at it right now. You should really get that checked out. Unless of course you don't mind getting regular 3 parts if you're ever in an accident and having them call you a liar saying it's a speed3.

so not to sound like a complete noob

but who the fuck cares about the stupid little plate under there? if that was me i would have gone out and bought a label maker that crimps into metal and printed out my vin and stuck it on there.

theres no way in hell anyone could ever tell you replaced it yourself or would anyone even look that close.

Thats the thing. No one cares that much other than the government.


That and people who don't want their cars stolen and parted out, never to be seen again.

I can tell you that Pennsylvania definitely cares. You have to get your VIN verified by a mechanic or a notary before you can register the car. There's no way they would accept a label maker VIN; they're a real PITA. I had to do that when I moved from Texas. PA has the dumbest laws though...

but if you made it look reasonably close, do you think someone would even look that hard to tell it wasent done at the factory?

They can and will notice. They will take any reason not to register your stuff, they really are that ridiculous. It took me 4-5 trips to the notary and $200 to register my $240 homemade Harbor Freight trailer. They actually wanted an employee at the Harbor Freight to notarize the certificate of origin that comes in the box! Like people that make minimum wage at a hardware store have a notary license... :wtf1:

looks like they may or may not have welded the old plate back on, but in the pick it looks like just metal glaze as you can see the space in between the two pieces of metal.

You can acutally be jailed for doing this. Even just the special rivets used on the older vin plates are illegal to have.

As someone has already said, highly illegal.

And the stock VIN sticker is a) a sticker and b) has holographic stuff on it so it can't be easily replaced. So crimping into metal isn't really an option...

Yea, I noticed that. I'm not really worried about it as long as they prepped and painted everything so it cant rust...

good to see the cars back in your hands at a minimum. my parents got screwed on a diminishing value situation where my moms G37 got hit pretty bad and it wasnt totalled but then after the Ins comp paid out to gfet it fixed things just kept going wrong on the car big time so my dad traded it in basically for what was owed and took a loss on the whole deal cuz it drove like shit etc. (not same situation but def lost value). My parents could have easily gotten 10k more on trade in then what they were given at the dealer.

good luck, and give em hell if need be.

It was changed on my policy when I called them about the OEM windshield replacement.




ALSO - just got back from Safelite. I guess I got lucky, because they did an incredible job from what I can tell so far. We inspected the new Mazda OEM windshield and the car before the work was done, and there was no additional damage, scratches, window issues, etc. with the car when I got it back. They even vacuumed my front seats for me and cleaned all of my other windows.

Time will tell if something was screwed up, but if you're in Northern Virginia, the Safelite in Old Town Manassas is alright by me.

I went to the same one in Manassas over the summer, to get my BMW's windshield replaced. I was very skeptical at first but the guys there did a great job and let me watch them during the process.

Yea, I mean just like with any big company you can't judge the whole company because one person screwed up.

Now I will be judging them either good or bad depending on how this whole situation ends up with the legal stuff...

Damn man that blows. Try this one on for size... They pulled my car around to hand over the keys (2013 w/o teck pac) and the the guys were outside looking at all the glass on the car and the sales guy who was great guy walked out and most of the glass had little tear drop etch's in them. (front, all passenger side and rear) So with that they took me back inside and started looking into it. After a cuban lunch with the saleman (Dealership payed for it) they sat me back down and said that it was from the acid etching they do to the windows (the writitng you see on the glass) and that it dripped all over the glass. Here is the best part! They offerd to change it all out for free pay for my gas to go back down to Orlando. This was put into writing at my request. (I live 200 miles away) So 2 weeks later I was back on the road to orlando go new OEM glass put in and they topped the car off before I left. A week later they sent me a check for $35 for gas and 2 weeks after that I got another check for $42 for gas.

I'm new to this forum shit and I don't know if you are allowed to do this or not but fuck it I'm gonna put a pulg in for this dealership!

Cory Fairbanks Mazda in Longwood FL (North Orlando) done me good and honored their word that was put into writing with no BSing around. They all were stand up people and made it happen when and how they wrote it. I am very pleased with my car and very pleased with the service I got!

Damn! And I thought I was pissed cause Safelite didn't vacuum up all the glass when I had my drivers door glass replaced on my Saturn a few years back. Best of luck getting Safelite to make good on either the depreciation or a vehicle replacement if they really wanna save face. Know that your mishap has prob helped out our entire Mazda community in that Safelite will (if they know what's good for them) put a mass company wide bulletin about windshield replacement for our vehicles to avoid the headaches your lawsuit will incur to them. Good luck kid!

@MattStratt;

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