Precautionary tale

[Dish64]

Last week my wife's 69 plate Kia Picanto's windscreen needed replacing due to a spreading stone chip crack. A call to her insurers ok'd the replacement and a couple of days later Autoglass duly arrived. I was an interested observer as he replaced the screen and casually asked how much it would be if I had to pay. He almost knocked me down when he replied £800. As I was still open mouth he pointed to my 19 plate N and said that would be £1500!!!.He explained that was due to the screen and recalibration of the camera. He also said that it would have to go to one of their centers for this and mobile fixes would soon become a thing of the past as more and more cars have screen based cameras. He was also surprised at the number of people who want to save a few quid and don't go for glass cover on their insurance only to be hit with a massive bill.
So the moral of this story is check your Insurance to make sure you have appropriate glass cover, saving a few quid upfront could prove very expensive in the long run.

 

[Crocoman]

I had the windscreen replaced via insurance for my A45 the other week. Probably similar systems to the I30N and i paid £139 in total via Autoglass and through insurance (that’s what it’s for) - without insurance it was going to be £1000 ish.

 

[_Emma]

I didn’t even realise that you couldn’t have windscreen cover on your insurance? Expensive hobby to get windscreens replaced

 

[drsonic]

I caught onto this a few years ago when we bought a Subaru Forester, with their Eyesight camera based system. Pretty similar scenario, as the system requires calibration by Subaru. Here in AU windscreen cover is a tick box when you buy insurance, so I would not have a modern car without choosing it, as it's only a small extra cost per year (for now at least)

 

[Jajodu]

A decent diagnostic machine can recalibrate the camera. His price was a bit extortionate

 

[Goran]

For what it's worth, I just had my windscreen replaced by a local small shop in Croatia without any calibration, and all the systems work as before: rain sensor, lane keep assist, and speed limit recognition. Just did a 1100 km drive yesterday back to Germany, 2 days after installation, and the new screen didn't fall off even at 200 kmh on the autobahn .

Glass & installation was 450€, the main struggle was to find the actual model of the windscreen and get it ordered & delivered in time before my trip. They couldn't find the OEM Hyundai glass with the Hyundai logo but it's the same manufacturer and same model - Saint Gobain Sekurit. Apparently the fastback glass is a different part number than the hatch.

The installers don't even disconnect the camera from the car - they remove the electronics box from the screen (leaving the receiving portion of the plastic which is on the screen), and just attach it back on the new screen. The car doesn't know the camera was unplugged.

I seriously doubt any generic windscreen repair/replace shop has any super fancy calibration targets to actually do any calibration of the camera - and tbh I don't know what is there to calibrate really. The official dealer probably plugs it in to the scanning tool and clicks a button and charges you 1 hour of labor.