Broken rear window

I have a 1.5 ND2 which is less than two years old and has about 12k miles on the clock. Today I found the rear window shattered. I used the car this morning at 6.30 am for a short trip and had to wipe the windows with a rubber blade first to clear the overnight condensation and noticed nothing amiss. When I returned to the car less than two hours later the majority of the rear window glass was inside the car, in small pieces. I have no reason to suppose that someone hit it - there’s no damage anywhere else - and I’ve been parking here for years while I go swimming and it’s about as safe a place as any I know. Has anyone else had a rear window shatter without its knowingly being struck with something? Am I just unlucky? Any chance of a warranty claim? (doubtful methinks :slight_smile: And repair costs are probably not enough to justify an insurance claim. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

First time I have heard of this happening spontaneously to a rear window on any car.

That is a real pain. My guess is that something has hit it either by accident or deliberately.
It will be interesting to see if you can get just the glass replaced but don’t be surprised if it needs a new hood. I sense an insurance claim, sorry for your pain.
:heart:

Yes, that’s my concern too. My local Mazda dealer has it atm and I’ve just heard back from them: the bill will be c.£2,500. Also, they advise this is almost certainly a deliberate act, they can see where the fabric has been stretched from the force of the impact. Wow, who did I upset this morning? T’was just a routine 2 mile journey to the local health centre which I’ve been making for several years now. Given the quote I contacted my insurers and they said to arrange repairs through Autoglass or National Windscreens and the excess will be £140 but it turns out that’s not an option, neither company can handle it because it’s a soft top. So it looks as though Mazda will get the job but my excess will increase to £340 because they’re not on the approved network :frowning:

I had the rear window of a VW Golf shatter overnight on a v frosty night. No impact or anything. According to the guy who replaced the window it does happen occasionally in such conditions.
In my real life toughened glass Will spontaneously shatter due to inclusions, either due to odd heating patterns, part shade and full sun or other reasons.
That said, on my car and on buildings where we’ve had windows shatter they are either very curved or very strongly held in position (which could induce stress in the glass) neither of which seem relevant to a soft top!

I have complete roof with frame taken off our race cars if you want one

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In 1996 I was working in Alabama, at an oceanographic institution on Dauphin Island. I had a 1991 Honda CRX (loved that car). Went out to the car parked in the lab parking lot to find the driver’s window stoved in. No other car touched. Being a Brit, I naturally assumed an attempted theft. The island police were called. They were at a loss, as the island never had crime like this. The sheriff in his fancy black truck then arrived to also offer apologies. Nothing was taken, so resigned myself to getting a new side window.

Then I heard the mower. The lab was next door to the coastguard station, and the parking lot was basically hardcore. The Coastie was cutting the grass on his ride along mower, ear protection on. I went over to see the base commander to ask if maybe a stone thrown by the mower might have broken my window. He thought maybe, and suggested I put a claim form in. 3 months later, when I was back in the UK, I received a cheque for $380 from the US Coastguard.

You see the Coastgurd station in the background

image

So could be a freak accident.

It’s possible that any buildings/houses round about may have CCTV that might show what happened.

Hi Rodders
That’s good to know and kind of you but I shan’t be doing this myself, I don’t have the facilities or the knowledge these days. This is, I guess, one of the reasons for insurance so I’ll let them handle it. Apparently they (LV=) treat rear windows and front windows the same so it should not affect my no claims bonus. In the meantime I’ve found a CCTV camera which appears to cover the area very well and it’s likely to be a council owned one so, assuming it’s working, all I have to do now is persuade the council to let me view the footage during the time the car was parked and it should be easy to see if this was a deliberate act or not.

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