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If you’ve been unlucky enough to have had a broken window in your car for whatever reason, you’ll know how expensive replacement can be even with windscreen cover included in your insurance premium.
One might reasonably ask why glass for vehicles is so expensive, and the answer is that virtually no glass in a car is actually flat. It used to be, but these days, even rear quarter lights have gentle curves in them. The other reason is that all the windows are either toughened or laminated, or both. Then, throw in things like heated rear screens and Ford’s patented heated front windscreens, and production costs are high. Another reason that has become more common is that windscreens are now often what are called “Bonded” meaning that rather than the old way of fitting them in a rubber seal, they are now glued in. This system is actually classed as structural and part of the vehicle’s strength.
Windscreens are always laminated so that if broken, they don’t explode in a shower of broken glass. (You will of course get some glass in the passenger cabin if it’s broken with enough force). Side windows are usually just toughened glass, and do tend to shatter into small chunks, but this is safer than shards of non-toughened glass.
Windscreen cover is usually included in comprehensive insurance policies, but can be added to third party policies for a small additional fee, usually about £30. In my opinion it’s well worth it as it covers not only your front windscreen, but the other glass in the vehicle too, with the possible exception of the sunroof. You’d need to check individual policies for this if you require it.
You can of course have your windscreen repaired in many situations and it’s often either free or certainly cheaper than replacement. It’s important to have the damage inspected and get any repairs done as soon as possible so that water and dirt don’t get into any crack or chip. Cracks have a habit of spreading, sometimes at an alarming rate, so in days a crack could go from a few millimeters to several centimeters.
I get asked what the law says about driving with a chipped or cracked windscreen. Technically if you drive with a damaged windscreen you are breaking the law because a vehicle has to be roadworthy, however, you’d have to be pretty unlucky to be fined for minor damage unless you are argumentative with the police. There are however different levels of severity of damage depending on where the damage is, and how bad it is. This graphic shows the damage above which your car would fail an MOT, however, this doesn’t mean that the vehicle is safe, and any damage should be repaired.
For commercial vehicles the police will usually be more strict, because they know these are likely to be on the road significantly more than an average private car.
Of course, you may also be the victim of vandalism or theft, and in this case, it’s usually a side window that gets broken. This is unfortunately just a case of getting a replacement fitted.
There are of course some things that you can do to minimise the risk of getting damage done. For the windscreen, keeping your distance from other vehicles means you’re less likely to be on the receiving end of stones thrown up from vehicles ahead. Driving slowly through recently resurfaced areas is another way, however any damage is usually the result of someone coming the other direction at speed.
For vandalism and theft, you can help by not leaving tempting possessions in your car when you leave it. If you have to leave items, then take a couple of minutes to put things out of sight. I always stop a short distance from where I’m going to park and move any tempting items out of sight, so that when I park, I just get out and lock the car. That way if anyone is watching, they won’t see you moving things into the boot. A good example of why this is a great idea came while I was working abroad. A friend arrived in a car park known to have theft problems. to be safe she transferred her bags into the boot and locked the car. When she returned, the car had been broken in to and the bags stolen. However, luckily for her, she always kept her handbag under her seat, and the thieves hadn’t found that. The reason of course is that they had watched her transferring things to the boot, so assumed that everything of value was there. In-fact, they’d just stolen her food shopping.
Vandals are less likely to target vehicles parked in more public, and well lit areas. If you have to park away from home at night, then try and choose a spot under or near street lighting. Not only will your car be safer, but so will you when leaving and coming back to your car.