One of the hazards of living around here are stones that fly out of peoples tyres and hit your windscreen. Wouldn't you know, the day after getting my 2009 Prius Touring out of the shop for various updates (including a rattle that they said they fixed, but came back two days later), there was a large crack in the front windscreen that appeared overnignt. I'm sure the crack was caused by a rock that flew up awhile back, but did not show up until the temp changed signifigantly recently. To make a long story short, AAA came to the rescue with a replacement windscreen. The new one has a nice dark tint across the top (which is most welcome) but otherwise looks the same. Seems like Toyota should have made this standard.
freo-1, Very interesting. Can you give us some details on the new windshield; manufacturer, part number, other data printed on it, etc?
that's interesting. It seems that most cars these days don't have the tint strip at the top of the windshield.
I had to get a new windscreen in January and I have the blue tint, too. Mine is a piece of Pilkington glass. (SafeLite installed their own in-house brand first. It was incredibly distorted so they replaced the next day after I complained...that had no blue tint.)
My 06 got a pebble chip on the Throgs Neck Bridge off the back of a dump truck,by the time I got home the chip became a lateral crack from pillar to pillar. I called Geico and they would send a guy to my house in 1 hour after checking stock for FREE. I have not made a claim in 25YRS so it better be FREE. The glass installed has the Blue tint on top. It's Pilkington solar laminated FW 2454. Two guys replaced the glass in 20 min. and I tipped them a $20.They said don't wash the car for two days. I hate the tint because at traffic lights it's harder to see the red and green(really dims them greatly).Not for me but to each his/her own.-Glenn
Took a look and found the following: Pilkington Solar Panel It's quite nice, and I do not agree with another post that it makes it harder to see traffic light colours. I see no issues with it around here.
FYI that tinted glass is oldschool - don't know why car makers removed it. Just went out of style. It is kinda like when they were putting the brake lights on the top of the car, cause they had a faster response time. And now recently most new cars have the breaklight in the middle again. It makes no sense, these design things come and go.
The Prius has no tint strip, but most cars still do. I don't think I would classify it as out of style but I have often wondered why some cars have it and some don't. For instance the Lexus IS has no tint strip, but every other Lexus does.