Thursday late afternoon, my phone rings. It's Mike Schmidt asking me what I want to drive this weekend. There are few choices left as I'm pretty low on the totem pole. "....and we have the Volvo XC60." he casually mentions at the end of his breath. I've never driven our XC60. Perfect!
"There's one catch." Mike told me after I enthusiastically claimed the Volvo. "It's in for service. It's at the dealer now and they want $1,500 for a new windshield. We're shopping around and the cheapest we found is $1,200. Since we can't to the other place today you'll have to drive around with a crack all weekend."
"No problem," I thought. "It won't bother me at all."
Wrong!
It started out as a seven inch crack on the driver side A pillar before I got into the XC for the weekend. As I drove it around Friday, it seemed like it was getting bigger, but I couldn't be sure. When I parked it in my driveway Friday night, I used a grease pencil to put a small mark where the end of the crack was.
Saturday morning rolls around, I check the mark on the windshield and it tells me that the crack has spread, but only a little bit. I head out to the storage facility to grab the last of the boxes I need to move into my garage. The fold flat second row seats in our Volvo were absolutely perfect for what I was doing. I was easily able to load it up and after three runs I had all the boxes out of the storage facility. Time to treat myself with a delicious burrito. It was then that I noticed the crack again. The sucker had spread about six inches! It was nearly half-way across.
The crack wasn't uniform, so it caught all kinds of annoying sun spots which were reflected directly into my eyes as if the crack was giving me the finger the entire time I was behind the wheel. Not only that, I found my eyes were constantly drawn to it as I drove. I was getting a little OCD on that thing. All I could think of was Austin Powers yelling "Mole!"
The crack irritated me so much that it tainted my otherwise great driving experience in the XC. It was like watching a movie you really like with a tall guy sitting in front of you, blocking your view from time to time. We're actively shopping for a replacement and will keep you informed on what happens.
Scott Jacobs, Senior Photographer @ 17,051 miles
felonious says:
03:03 PM, 06/ 7/10
Good write-up, Scott. :) Scotty don't!
hybris says:
07:06 PM, 06/ 7/10
At this rate by Friday it will make it to the other side and one half of the window will fall in or at least off.
It would make for a hell of a caption contest.
chicagotex says:
11:59 PM, 06/ 7/10
$1,500 for a new windshield is insane.
jacton says:
06:09 AM, 06/ 8/10
I know this is OT but my boss had a Volvo S80 as a rental car a while back and I was really not all that impressed with it. Volvos seems to be expensive now with no real justification for it. The interior materials were unimpressive, the interior room was not great, and it seemed to lack the panache and upscale feel of the germans. IMO Volvo seems to be lost in the woods and can't figure out what it needs to be.
wcoy14 says:
06:27 AM, 06/ 8/10
Wake up!!!! Sorry you guys are driving me crazy with this windshield, $1500 come on! I spent about 2 minutes on Safelite's website and got a quote of "Web-Only Price: $643.95" where they will come to your business and do it right there! I even checked the box for the most expensive windshield too, "Front Windshield, Green Tinted Glass with Blue Shadeband at top, Rain Sensor." Be like the common man and don't go to the dealership. You always say you are trying to represent what the consumer would do, we wouldn't spend $1,500 on a windshield at the dealer, seriously.
indy_mistert says:
12:30 PM, 06/ 8/10
I'm addicted to shows such as "How It's Made" and "Ultimate Factories"
And it consistently boggles my mind how the windshield is one of the more complicated procedures during assembly - after watching a few of those, I'd weep if I ever had to have my windshield replaced.
I dont think the dealership is likely all that different from the Safelite/etc type of places, but I don't think replacing them is as easy or straightforward as it might seem.
lmbvette says:
06:44 AM, 06/ 9/10
In Florida, windshields are replaced for free if they look like that. I guess that's why are rates are a bit higher.
I think in Michigan it's a $100 deductable.
cr_driver says:
09:23 AM, 06/10/10
Wow, thats is BIG!!