Hal

Cool, thanks for the warning and advice.

Devil Boy

Insurance costs are relevant to the overall cost of the windshield. My windshield replacement cost me nothing out of pocket. Driving in Arizona you're lucky not to replace one every year or two so the coverage is worth it in my opinion. It's one of those pay now or pay later kind of things.

My truck has a lot of little pits and chips in it. I kinda wish I'd get one good smack by a rock so I could get a new one already.

VLJ

I've replaced two windshields ever. In 16 years of driving, two windshields is hardly cause for concern.

Devil Boy

That's good. Commuting on the 202 out of Queen Creek, I get pelted with debris at least once a week. I feel like Jack Sparrow...

r6elmo

aftermarket glass is like 650 and OEM is 750, the price difference isn't too much. i had mine changed out when i was an idiot during my roll bar installation.

apperception

I had concerns about non-OEM and leaks down the road. I have State Farm with a great agent. I took it to Hennessy Porsche in Atlanta. They gave me a rental car, charged $1233.00 and after a couple of calls, adjuster agreed to reimburse me in full. I hadn't been in a dealership in quite some time. Pretty Fancy, especially the bathroom with the custom toilet with butt washer and dryer. I think you can press the colonoscopy button, but I was afraid.

Happy to have my car back. Loved a brand new C4S that listed for $154,000.00. Nice, but not worth my car and a hundred and twenty grand!

Back in the saddle again,

Larry

lurchphil

I have had pretty good luck with Safelite until they forgot to reattach the windshield washer lines on my 997.2. The washer fluid would empty in a few minutes. Spent half a day at the dealer waiting to find the problem. Next windshield is installed at the dealer.

Devil Boy

Ironically, driving home from work on the 202 (east valley Phoenix/Mesa) yesterday I took a rock hit on my truck near the top of the windshield which caused a 8-10 inch crack to develop right before my eyes while I was driving. I'll contact USAA and have a Safelite mobile guy come do it since it's just a truck and it's free.

Tsilnner

I have Hartford on my 2009 911S and when I called the claims department, the recording said to "Press two if this was only a windshield claim." Yes, that sent me right to Safelite who said I did not qualify for OEM glass. They gave me the usual BS that the Chinese glass was great. They also said that is all they has to install.

I live in California, where they must give you a OEM option, albeit at a higher price, so I called Hartford and just asked for an adjuster, and related what Safelite said and she said "You should have called us directly." She had no answer when I reminded her about the automatic referral from her office to Safelite.

Anyway, I had the dealer put it in, and yes, they hold it overnight to cure.
Cost to me was about $300, but it was, to my mind, well worth it.

Call your insurance company back and ask for an adjuster. Forget Safelite, they just spend a money on TV ads...

Hal

Thanks, Tsilnner. A week later, I seem to be on permanent hold with Safelite. I'll call Claims with USAA tomorrow.

motopix

Curious what you hear from USAA. I don't have a special rider for glass (if that's even possible) and it's not included by default with USAA. I just had a windshield done on my truck with Safelite (went to the Sterling, VA office) and they did a good job.

Devil Boy

If you have a Porsche dealer near you, you could contact them and find out who they use for glass repair and then see if that place is an authorized glass repair shop with USAA. That's how I did it. Porsche North Scottsdale forwarded me to Penske who in turn contacted USAA through a 3-way call to schedule and authorize the claim at the same time. It was very easy. Also, USAA has an automated glass claim form on their website. I just filled out a claim yesterday for my truck and although I went ahead with a local Safelite mobile installer based on my zip code, there was an option to choose a preferred installer.

Hal

Quick update: Got the new OEM glass installed today by Safelite. So far it looks like a good job with no visible gaps and no wind noise. It took almost 2 weeks, but the crack was far right and didn't cause any problems, so the time factor was OK to get what I wanted.

FWIW, they did say that their Chinese brand of glass was no longer available for the 997 and all repairs in the future will be OEM.

YMMV

Thanks again to everyone for the advice.

AZMAUI

I just had my windshield replaced on my 2011 GTS and I worked through Porsche Chandler, who referred me to Specialized Auto Glass, Chandler AZ. I have USAA and normally use Porsche North Scottsdale, but ran into issues with getting authorization with OEM Glass - I was told policy was OEM only within 2 Year of MFG, then aftermarket if available. So I was going to have to pay the difference if I wanted OEM. Specialized was able to get me "Dealer Approved" (i.e. OEM) and did a great job in the installation. Specialized has experience with all high end cars, so I'm using them from now on.

VLJ

So I ended up going to the car wash and having a guy "repair" the chip which means he filled it with epoxy, I can see a little bit of a drill hole that will probably never goes away but he was pretty sure that it will never spread.


I spent $40 so even if it only lasts six months it was a cheap experiment.


Thanks for the responses!