I remember some others here have one.
When in PHX we noticed a crack in the windshield. no apparent chip.
took it to the dealer who ‘saw’ a tiny chip (that you can see with an electronic microscope). he said that was responsible and therefore the repair isn’t under warranty.
now, I searched the web…heck there is even a site called www.hondaelementscrack.com
about 20 times more complains about the windshield for this car than any other.
so anyone here has a suggestion as to what to do (apart from telling them that they’re a bunch of crooks)?
I’ll start with the obvious, that particular dealership is a bunch of crooks. Now that said they are going to get their money from either you or warranty payments from Honda of America. If you can go back to the dealership where you already have a service relationship, chances are they will be willing to work with you. They certainly don’t have to but they should from a customer service perspective.
Ok, one more option, depending upon your deductible on your insurance this may be cheaper to pay that then pay for the windshield. In lieu of that go to an auto glass repair shop and ask them what the “cash” price would be to replace your windshield. I think you will find it is substantially less than the dealership.
Hmm…I have one, so this interests me. I’m the type that as long as it isn’t interfering with the function of the car, I don’t worry about it. If it became a problem, I’d bring up the website issue complaining about this problem. I’ve seen “silent recalls” initiated by car companies before, where they will fix it for individuals that complain, but, not as a blanket rule. Maybe the best thing would be to befriend a Honda dealer service dude, and see if you can catch the bee with honey, if you know what I mean.
well apparently, plenty are complaining about the windshield breaking for no reason…
the reason seems to be the angle of the windshield (which is clearly poor construction and a fault on their part).
the crack on mine is straight where I look when I drive so rather annoying.
I bought my car at the local honda here in EP and went there yesterday…
funny thing is that the guy went straight into the black spot mentioned all over the web to search for the supposed tiny chip in the windshield…I didn’t even have to tell him…
Thank you, Francois, for posting this. I am looking for a larger utility (non-offroad) vehicle, but reading your post and reading info at the website you gave, I will NEVER buy a Honda Element and my view of Honda has gone down massively.
If I were in your shoes, I would never pay for the repair. A ridiclulously obvious design defect like this should be repaired by and paid for by Honda. Persistence pays off.
And yes, the dealership is a bunch of crooks, looking for chips with a microscope. Ask them about whether their “microscope” can prove causality: chip caused crack, or crack caused chip?? They are idiots.
lol - I’d love to watch Francois walk into a dealership and ask them to prove causality. He’d get better results threatening them with his thesis! "Cover the damage or I’ll explain this to you - and it WILL break your feeble little brain.
The dealership is not necessarily “a bunch of crooks”…they might be, but here’s the thing: American Honda might know about the issue, and in fact may have posted a technical bulletin to its dealers on this issue (as each manufacturer will do about a variety of things that come up for each vehicle); the protocol they have may include having the dealer doing just as this one did to determine cause and whether or not it is indeed a defective windshield or a rock chip. Not knowing the conditions of how this is supposed to work leaves us all a bit in the dark…but hey, all car dealers are crooks, right?
So many vehicles on the road, so much debris being kicked up…can you blame Honda for not just giving anyone carte blanche to replace windshields at will?
Yeah, you are probably right. But the company has already lost the battle big time by not taking responsibility. They will lose huge sales as folks like me learn of the issue, and spread the news.
The service bulletin listed at the link you supplied talks about cracks in either lower corner…is that where yours is?
Mike C
P.S. Spend a day in a busy dealership’s service department…you might have a different view of both the general public and dealership service employees and what they go through…
"About the Honda, clearly SOMETHING is going on. Good PR means helping customers out. They have missed the boat. "
How have they missed the boat? Look, you can’t expect the dealership…or any business…to do anything for free. The dealer didn’t build the car, Honda did. So, let’s say the dealer makes the assumption that he can get Honda to pay for a repair that might fall under the TSB (technical service bulletin)…but Honda decides to kick the claim back to the dealer unpaid, saying that the dealer did not follow the proper steps necessary, or the vehicle did not fall into the vin range affected by the TSB, or whatever…now what? Will he then call the customer a month or so after he has been in the shop to get payment? Not likely…so the dealer ends up eating it.
So up front he has to make the call as to whether or not he will get paid by Honda for performing warranty work. It’s not a cut and dried situation in many cases, folks…so a dealership will sometimes take the path of least resistance and say that something won’t be covered and ask for customer pay up front…especially if your situation mirrors another one where a claim was rejected or denied.
You can press the issue…sometimes a manufacturer’s regional service representative will need to be called in to make the call. If you believe you have a case to do that, make it known to the service manager. If he’s worth his weight, he will advocate for you.
It’s so easy to make blanket generalizations about any profession…there are good solid people in each one, and there are idiots and a**holes as well in each one. Do some background research on the dealership in question—that could be as simple as spending some time in the customer waiting room doing some casual interviewing or trying to track down the CSI levels.
No intent on my part to say all dealership folks are crooks–they are not.
But the dealership is a representative of Honda, the company. I agree it is Honda that is messing up big here, not the dealerships. The dealerships are caught between a rock and a very hard place (those being customers unhappy with a flawed product, and a corporation trying to skirt its responsibilty to 'fess up and fix it).
lower left corner as the technical service bulletin specifies.
the VIN of my car is in the range of the TSB too. I just went there and talked with the person who sold us the car (who is a really nice buy btw…) the managers being on holidays.
he said that with the TSB applying to our vehicle they will have to fix it for sure (but if I hadn’t researched that, I would have got screwed then?)
…will be back on monday, have it fixed and will get a new car…
if a tiny chip can rip apart the windshield of an SUV, it’s good that we aren’t going off road…
I understand your point of view Mike (I guess you work in this industry?)
I have so far, been very pleased with my Honda dealer. Now the thing is I brought my car there, they said the windshield had no problem but they went straight to the lower corner to check for a microscopic chip and then claimed they are not aware of any problems with the windshield…
then they talked about microscopic chips tearing up a windshield. If it does, it’s a because of poor construction…I worked for a while on generating models for similar problems…only for planes going over mach 2…if you tell these guys that a grain of sand will crack the windshield, they’ll laugh.
"I have so far, been very pleased with my Honda dealer. Now the thing is I brought my car there, they said the windshield had no problem but they went straight to the lower corner to check for a microscopic chip and then claimed they are not aware of any problems with the windshield… "
There can be mixed signals from both the manufacturer and the dealership regarding repairs that are not technically under warranty and that fall under the purview of a TSB. Some dealerships encourage both their service advisors and technicians to ensure there are no hassles at all with these issues…but those are dealerships that have an impeccable relationship and reputation with the manufacturer.
Others can be put on so-called “watch lists” by the manufacturer, claiming that an inordinately high number of repairs are being performed and paid under TSB’s, which can in some cases go back and cover vehicles 10 or more years old. Those dealers can be the ones that will make it tough and secretive about these sorts of issues.
Then again, you might have come in contact with an idiot.
"then they talked about microscopic chips tearing up a windshield. If it does, it’s a because of poor construction…I worked for a while on generating models for similar problems…only for planes going over mach 2…if you tell these guys that a grain of sand will crack the windshield, they’ll laugh."
From personal experience, I can agree with that…both of my vehicles currently have rock chips that I’ve not yet repaired as they are not spreading and are not in the direct line of sight from the driver’s perspective. It’s funny how some cracks will spread across the entire windshield in a few minutes, while others can stay the same forever. Physics at work, I suppose!
To show how naive I am, I thought that dealerships were reimbursed for warranty work from the manufacturer/distributor, and therefore would be happy to do warranty work.
That said, Francois, in some states, Florida is one, if your windshield gets cracked your insurance company HAS to cover it with NO DEDUCTIBLE. Check it out.
“To show how naive I am, I thought that dealerships were reimbursed for warranty work from the manufacturer/distributor, and therefore would be happy to do warranty work.”
Yes and no…if the warranty repair is approved by the manufacturer, the dealership gets paid. There are situations where claims are denied by the factory, leaving the dealership holding the bag. It’s a lesson learned the very hard way by newbies in service departments…!