I'm in Calgary which is infamous for "sanding" its roads in winter (salt doesn't work well in extreme cold temperatures). This means there's a massive amount of rocks being kicked up into the windshields and front-ends of cars.

I've driven in the city for 10 years, and once on my Mazda 3 I had a crack that needed a windshield replacement. I've had my 3IS for a month now and I've got 1 crack that's 1.5 feet long now(!), and another two about an inch each that are bound to spread.

Am I just terribly unlucky or is this windshield weaker than a Mazda's? It costs 5x as much...

 

We don't have to worry too much about sand here, but so far my windshield has held up well. At least as well as my last few cars.

 

My windshield cracked with 5600 on the clock. I had to b!$%h and moan to my insurance company to get Lexus factory glass. The part alone is $2500 bucks. Im now on week 2 awaiting my fix. Just an FYI

 

I've def read somewhere of someone complaining about soft glass on the 3IS...could be the guy above...2IS glass was strong i guess althought i did get a few chips from hitting pebbles at 80mph...havent hit one in my 3IS but hopefully its strong....

 

They let me to factory glass without much complaint. They encouraged me to get a non-OEM part, but I told them the car was 3 weeks old...and they understood.

 

I had a stone chip two weeks ago, a month after having my 3IS Haven't had that happen to me in many years. I got the chip fixed the same day as I didn't want to take any chances of it cracking.

 

How deep was the chip?

 

It didnt pierce through but seems pretty major. The repair place said its an average size and would be no issue to repair. The only thing I dont like is that even with the repair, it is slightly visible... fortunately it is on teh passenger side.

 

Yea...and they basically use a filler to fill that chip...at least the compound adds strength so that it doesnt start cracking...

 

I had my car less than a day and noticed very small rock chips. I'm talking very small, not enough to worry about integrity of the glass itself. However, I'm just upset that a luxury car's windshield can't resist small damage like this.

Anything think there's a chance of recall? lol

 

I just had mine replaced a 5700 miles. I picked the car originally in Omaha and drove it to PHX on that trip alone picked up a ton of little tiny nicks on the windshield. But then later early this month (March) i picked up two 12 inch cracks in the same day while on the fwy do to rocks. The rocks are on thing but the nicks was a new thing to see happen so fast. Been in the PHX area now for about 10 years and eventually the tiny nick damage will happen here due to the all the sand that is around but typically around 6-12 months of driving. So at least from what i experienced so far the windshield does appear softer to me.

As for replacement i didn't have any trouble getting Lexus glass. I went through the dealer to recommend an installer and they told me and the insurance company that was the only option, plus the installer was on my insurance's preferred list and on my plan its a 0$ deductible for glass replacement when you have glass coverage. I think some of that has to do with the state requirements here if your paying for glass coverage and something about they can ding you with higher rates as well if recall for having several glass replacements.

 

I had something similar happen at about 1,200 miles. Tiny rock on the freeway and I got a crack about 6 inches which grew to 3 feet in a day. At that point they could only get OEM glass since the model was so new (but it took about 2 weeks to get the glass from Japan) so no issues with insurance. I have to believe either the assembly process is pre-stressing the glass or it is weaker than most.

 

I've had 3 new cars in the last 4 years -- they all had weak glass i.e. pockmarks, etc. really early in ownership. That is one thing that makes me nuts because here in LA driving west at 4 PM you can see each and every one of them.