Replacement windscreens expensive?

[warch]

I had a stone smash my windscreen on my MINI this morning, rang up a well known glass replenishment company for a price and was quoted 600 bloody quid This is for a normal, unheated screen by the way.

Luckily my insurance covered most of this, but why so expensive? Is it because insurance will pay anyway so they hike the price? Last time I had a screen crack, about five years ago it cost me about £120...

[Codswallop]

The advice on here has always been to check less well known glass specialists, who tend to charge several hundred less beacuse they aren't trying to rip off insurance companies.

[jagnet]

Yes, there does seem to be a huge price discrepancy between small independents and the big national companies beloved of insurance companies. 4x the price doesn't seem unusual.

Odd then, that the insurance companies will give you only a token gesture payment if you choose to use your own supplier. Presumably they must get hefty discounts from said nationals, who then bump up the price for anyone foolish enough to go to them directly.

I guess Gavin and Emma have to be paid somehow for advertising their obsession with windscreen chips.

[Glassman]

Codswallop said:

The advice on here has always been to check less well known glass specialists, who tend to charge several hundred less beacuse they aren't trying to rip off insurance companies.

six + half a dozen

[Fastdruid]

jagnet said:

I guess Gavin and Emma have to be paid somehow for advertising their obsession with windscreen chips.

I'd not use that company purely because of that advertising campaign, I'm sick of it.

Plus my stone chip *still* hasn't cracked the screen some 3 years and >45k after that company said they couldn't fix it (without a substantial risk of breaking the screen) anyway.

[warch]

Yeah I got it repaired via my insurance (£60 excess), apparently it would have cost my insurer about £500 (screen and fitment). Still flipping expensive for a sheet of glass. I loved the woman on the phone at Autoglass who suggested that it was 'specially laminated'. Not common or garden house glass then? I've never had a chip turn into a crack either despite what Autoglass keep saying.

[Fastdruid]

No more special than any other car windscreen. Bit different from your greenhouse glass!

[craigjm]

warch said:

Yeah I got it repaired via my insurance (£60 excess), apparently it would have cost my insurer about £500 (screen and fitment). Still flipping expensive for a sheet of glass. I loved the woman on the phone at Autoglass who suggested that it was 'specially laminated'. Not common or garden house glass then? I've never had a chip turn into a crack either despite what Autoglass keep saying.

Was it replaced with an OEM screen or pattern glass?

[warch]

I don't know, the AA fitted it, can't imagine there's much difference between original equipment and pattern (although I expect someone to put me right about this)

[OdramaSwimLaden]

warch said:

I had a stone smash my windscreen on my MINI this morning, rang up a well known glass replenishment company for a price and was quoted 600 bloody quid This is for a normal, unheated screen by the way.

Luckily my insurance covered most of this, but why so expensive? Is it because insurance will pay anyway so they hike the price? Last time I had a screen crack, about five years ago it cost me about £120...

It sounds a lot.

Which reports have been been calling for more transparency in this market for years.....

[mrmr96]

OdramaSwimLaden said:

warch said:

I had a stone smash my windscreen on my MINI this morning, rang up a well known glass replenishment company for a price and was quoted 600 bloody quid This is for a normal, unheated screen by the way.

Luckily my insurance covered most of this, but why so expensive? Is it because insurance will pay anyway so they hike the price? Last time I had a screen crack, about five years ago it cost me about £120...

It sounds a lot.

Which reports have been been calling for more transparency in this market for years.....

You should check the prices. I think Glass' guide is industry standard.

[Glassman]

warch said:

Last time I had a screen crack, about five years ago it cost me about £120...

Much will depend on the car: complexity of the job and/or demand upon which the glass is produced (which in turn determines the price).

But to be fair, although you may have been happy with £120 five years ago, the distributors have been introducing price increases; two or three a year and at about 4% a go. The biggest and more frequent rises came from disasters, eg, Poland (Pilkington glass).

[Speed addicted]

I got the screen in the X5 replaced recently, I just paid the exess but it would have cost a fairly startling £931 if I'd paid it myself!

[Glassman]

Speed addicted said:

I got the screen in the X5 replaced recently, I just paid the exess but it would have cost a fairly startling £931 if I'd paid it myself!

This might be true.

Or maybe not.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Glassman said:

Speed addicted said:

I got the screen in the X5 replaced recently, I just paid the exess but it would have cost a fairly startling £931 if I'd paid it myself!

This might be true.

Or maybe not.

Sounds about right. Windscreen replacement at the dealership is frighteningly expensive.

[warch]

I like my old land rover. No curved glass anywhere on the vehicle, plus you can change the windscreen glass using a screwdriver, or if you're in a hurry just change the whole frame.