Windshields To Go: The amazon.com of windshields
As many of you probably already know, Lindsay was involved in a collision in January which totalled her car.
Last weekend, we bought a Ford Taurus at the Orange County Auto Auction, and, in the process, won a Pontiac Grand Am in the auction's raffle. As I've come to expect from auction cars, both cars need some work. In particular, the Taurus has a lens-like bubble in its windshield in the middle of the driver's view, so that things are kind of distorted. The day before yesterday, I wondered if I could find out the replacement cost for a Taurus winshield. After a bit of web searching, I found Windshields To Go, a web-based windshield replacement service. Their website has a pretty good interface where you choose the year, make, and model of your car, and it gives you instant quotes for an installed replacement or for just the windshield (but I'd never replace a windshield on my own). The Taurus full-replacement quote was $220, which seems quite reasonable. This got me thinking about my other car with a windshield problem, the Chevy Venture van.
We bought our 2000 Chevy Venture at the Riverside Auction in 2003, back when they still were doing government-owned vehicle auctions open to the general public. I didn't notice the little rock ding in the upper-right corner of the windshield until we got it home. The next week I was in Santa Rosa, and phoned a local windshield repair place for an estimate. I was pretty shocked when they told me they'd replace it for $1750! The windshield guy said that it was the second-most-expensive windshield he knew of, after the Hummer. So... I thought I'd just live with it. Later that year, I discovered a very nice windshield shop in San Bernardino, and took it in to have the ding vacuumed and epoxied to keep it from spreading. They did that for $48, and said that they'd do the replacement for $750. While that was a big improvement, it still seemed like a whole lot to spend on a windshield. So I didn't replace it. Well, as the years went by, that little ding grew into a crack that went halfway down the passenger's side of the windshield. I'd been putting off getting the windshield replaced, but it looked like replacement would be necessary.
So I decided to go ahead and check Windshields To Go for the Venture, and I was just amazed to get a quote for $368. After discussing it with Doni, we decided to go ahead and order it. When you buy a windshield from them, you tell them where you live and they give you options for an appointment window (yeah, four hour windows, just like cable guys). So I set it up for yesterday AM, and around 11 AM a guy with a Venture windshield in the back of his little pickup truck showed up. I've long been curious about how windshields are replaced, so I watched him replace the windshield. He did a meticulous and complete job which took about an hour, and it looks great. The windshield was manufactured by a third-party Japanese vendor, which might explain the lower price, but it looked and fit just like the original to me.
I think this is a really good business for several reasons. They have a pretty good web interface, did what they said they'd do with no additional hassles, and, since they are national and web-based, should have lower business overhead costs. And I like the idea that people like this windshield tech, a competent Mexican-American with not-really-good English skills, can work through them and still present an effective communication path with customers. After he arrived, he asked me if my insurance was paying for it, and I said no, I paid with a credit card on the web. He seemed surprised and he used his cellphone to call the company's office, which then phoned me and assured me that it was all set and paid for. Not necessary, but a nice touch.
So... if you find yourself in need for buying a replacement windshield not covered by warranty (ie, a "pre-existing condition"), I highly recommend Windshields To Go.
By the way, my suspicion that windshield replacement is a specialized skill requiring specialized tools that probably shouldn't be attempted by shade-tree mechanics was confirmed by watching this fellow. He used at least 5 specialized tools to loosen the windshield from its caulked-in mounting and planed the remaining original caulking down before adding new (specialized) caulking material and placing the windshield. The $80 installation fee looked like a very reasonable price to me. I noticed that the same company sells specialized tools and adhesives, but this one I think I'll leave to the pros.
Last weekend, we bought a Ford Taurus at the Orange County Auto Auction, and, in the process, won a Pontiac Grand Am in the auction's raffle. As I've come to expect from auction cars, both cars need some work. In particular, the Taurus has a lens-like bubble in its windshield in the middle of the driver's view, so that things are kind of distorted. The day before yesterday, I wondered if I could find out the replacement cost for a Taurus winshield. After a bit of web searching, I found Windshields To Go, a web-based windshield replacement service. Their website has a pretty good interface where you choose the year, make, and model of your car, and it gives you instant quotes for an installed replacement or for just the windshield (but I'd never replace a windshield on my own). The Taurus full-replacement quote was $220, which seems quite reasonable. This got me thinking about my other car with a windshield problem, the Chevy Venture van.
We bought our 2000 Chevy Venture at the Riverside Auction in 2003, back when they still were doing government-owned vehicle auctions open to the general public. I didn't notice the little rock ding in the upper-right corner of the windshield until we got it home. The next week I was in Santa Rosa, and phoned a local windshield repair place for an estimate. I was pretty shocked when they told me they'd replace it for $1750! The windshield guy said that it was the second-most-expensive windshield he knew of, after the Hummer. So... I thought I'd just live with it. Later that year, I discovered a very nice windshield shop in San Bernardino, and took it in to have the ding vacuumed and epoxied to keep it from spreading. They did that for $48, and said that they'd do the replacement for $750. While that was a big improvement, it still seemed like a whole lot to spend on a windshield. So I didn't replace it. Well, as the years went by, that little ding grew into a crack that went halfway down the passenger's side of the windshield. I'd been putting off getting the windshield replaced, but it looked like replacement would be necessary.
So I decided to go ahead and check Windshields To Go for the Venture, and I was just amazed to get a quote for $368. After discussing it with Doni, we decided to go ahead and order it. When you buy a windshield from them, you tell them where you live and they give you options for an appointment window (yeah, four hour windows, just like cable guys). So I set it up for yesterday AM, and around 11 AM a guy with a Venture windshield in the back of his little pickup truck showed up. I've long been curious about how windshields are replaced, so I watched him replace the windshield. He did a meticulous and complete job which took about an hour, and it looks great. The windshield was manufactured by a third-party Japanese vendor, which might explain the lower price, but it looked and fit just like the original to me.
I think this is a really good business for several reasons. They have a pretty good web interface, did what they said they'd do with no additional hassles, and, since they are national and web-based, should have lower business overhead costs. And I like the idea that people like this windshield tech, a competent Mexican-American with not-really-good English skills, can work through them and still present an effective communication path with customers. After he arrived, he asked me if my insurance was paying for it, and I said no, I paid with a credit card on the web. He seemed surprised and he used his cellphone to call the company's office, which then phoned me and assured me that it was all set and paid for. Not necessary, but a nice touch.
So... if you find yourself in need for buying a replacement windshield not covered by warranty (ie, a "pre-existing condition"), I highly recommend Windshields To Go.
By the way, my suspicion that windshield replacement is a specialized skill requiring specialized tools that probably shouldn't be attempted by shade-tree mechanics was confirmed by watching this fellow. He used at least 5 specialized tools to loosen the windshield from its caulked-in mounting and planed the remaining original caulking down before adding new (specialized) caulking material and placing the windshield. The $80 installation fee looked like a very reasonable price to me. I noticed that the same company sells specialized tools and adhesives, but this one I think I'll leave to the pros.
posted by Jim at 12:13 PM
8 Comments:
Did you keep the windshield? The tempered glass is fabulous in mosaics! A treasure trove of glass.
It _would_ be a treasure trove, because that's one big-assed windshield.
No, we didn't keep the windshield. But we're probably going to replace another windshield (on the Taurus) soon. If you wanted to commit to taking it, I could ask the windshield guy if I could have it then.
In the meantime, I'll keep an eye out for any more totaled cars at the Phoenix-Central intersection!
Yeah, I'll take it. That would be very cool. I've got one in my barn already, I flagged down some windshield guy and he just gave it to me.
The crackly glass is fabulous on top of patterned paper. I was thinking one of Donita's wrapping paper would be a great base.
Hmmmm,might have to do a mosaid project soon.
Okay, Vivage, I'll let you know if/when we replace the Taurus windshield.
Way cool, thanks Jim!
Vivage, party of four, your windshield is ready!
Sounds good. Excellent stuff about the Windshield.
I see this was originally posted many years ago. How did the windshield hold up over the years? Any issues with leaking, etc.?
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