Cracked windshield after dealer visit

When I take my car in for recalls, they do a visual inspection of the body and note any dents or chips. I dont know if they all do that, but they should.

I had to replace my windshield from a pebble hitting it. It was only $230 to replace. Make sure that they seal the lower part of the window or you will hear some engine sounds. Installers are lazy and sometimes dont put a proper seal on the bottom because it is hard to reach.

 

my guess is that they hit it with a wrench while removing/installing the tray under the wipers.

 

Did you talk to the service department manager? If yeah, if they're all in the same choir, do not know: let slip you're prepared to file a complaint with corporate Toyota? Any local dealership policing organization you could contact too?

It seems very likely they're culpable, and not too bright to try to dodge it.

 

As others have said, if any glass defect was NOT noted during the drop-off walk around inspection, the dealer did it and should be responsible for replacement.

 

I'd talk it over with the owner of the dealer AND follow up with a letter and if they are unresponsive I'd pop a flare over Toyota's vaunted customer care branch, but in the end it seems likely that you're going to have to fix the windshield on your dime.

The time to pitch a dernit over this would have been when you picked up the car.
It's hard to tell from the pic bit the crack does not look like road FOD, and I'd say that there's a decent chance that one of their mechanics caused this and either didn't know about it or didn't want their boss to know about it.

Vent your spleen at them, and tell them that it will be a cold, rainy day in Hades before you buy another car there and you're going to send nasty-grams to all 1723 of your Facebook friends about this.


Good Luck.

 

If the local and corporate ends don't make good - take them to small claims court. It is far cheaper for them to replace it vs. having to represent in court unless they have a lawyer on retainer who enjoys being in small claims court. Give them a deadline for a reasonable response. From what you saying it was whole when you went in and damaged when you left. Any evidence you have (like a picture) is very useful.

 

When we went in for the brake recall one of the windshield wiper knuckles got scraped. Minor, and I just touched it up with black lacquer, but I did email the service manager, let him know. He talked to the mechanic, and the figured out: when disassembling they'd stacked components in a bad order, and that caused the scrape. At least they acknowledged, and they did offer to get a pro repaint.

This was Open Road Toyota, Port Moody.

 

In my experience, the dealership has paperwork to note any damages on the car prior to them taking possession of it. They will put a mark over the body of the car on their paperwork to reflect any body damage to the car.

This came in handy a few years back when Fred Haas tried to claim that our car came in with a shifted rear bumper. They even showed us on the paperwork that they had marked it. Turns out, the technician had backed it into something and post-marked it on the paperwork, evident because the sheet he had was a carbon copy of the original check in sheet and he had marked the damage in pen. The dealership ended up replacing the entire bumper when we pointed this out to them.

Go demand the check in sheet (it's where they also make note of their "multi-point inspection" results) and if it's not noted there, like someone else said, it was done at the dealership. Feel free to make a fuss in front of the customers that are waiting for service, since I feel like they would be very interested to know that the dearlership is trying to shift damage that they did onto you.

 

I installed a STB on my 2014,, and was REALLY careful removing the wiper motors and the black plastic tray under them. There is 10 bolts that have to come out--- and care needs to be taken as the end of the ratchet will get close to the windshield. This,, in my simple little mind,, is what happened to yours. The tech bumped the WS too hard with the end of the ratchet......yeah,,,, he did it.